Gaming through the looking ‘Glass’

There is no doubt the world is experiencing seismic changes in technology with scenes straight out of the fantasy world of movies such as the Hollywood blockbusters of James Bond and Mission Impossible secret agent Ethan Hunt who fight their nemesis’s with a full plethora of high tech wizardry in the time immoral battle of good versus evil.

Fiction and fantasy are fast blurring to become reality and for those of you still not convinced, who would have thought that 3D printing would become a reality and indeed touted as the next ‘industrial revolution’.

So coming nearer to home, let’s take a look a ‘Gaming through the looking Glass’ or to be more precise the curious but futuristic sunglasses that look as if they were worn by Geordi La Forge’s character in Star Trek: The Next Generation (he was the chap that couldn’t see) – enter Google Glass.

 

If you haven’t heard much about it yet, Google Glass is a wearable computer technology in the form of glasses and that according to research group Forrester is hyped to be bigger than the iPhone. Furthermore according to Forrester, they estimate 21.6 million Americans would buy Google Glass if it were available which is around 12% of the population which is a huge number by any stretch of the imagination. 

So what is Google Glass, well currently we have Google Glass Explorer, a version for developers’ which costs around $1,500 with consumer versions anticipated by the end of the year no doubt in time for Christmas. Google Glass conceptually as we become a more mobile out-of-home society is to free up data tasks from our current working and free time environments of desktop computers, devices like smartphones and tablets where you look down at the small screen, to use display technology via a small prism screen right in front of your field of vision.

Google Glass features therefore can act as a touchpad, camera, and display, microphone within the spectacle frames so that you can display data in your field of vision, take pictures, film and record, search for directions and communicate with other devices while on the move.

Similar to how the App ecosystem has developed for Android and IOS, Google bought voice data specialists DNNresearch that will allow Google Glass to offer the ability to translate the words being spoken to you at the casino, airport in a foreign country into your own language on the prism display. Third parties are also already developing some interesting apps for Google Glass with one that allows you to identify and pinpoint your friends in a crowded environment such as the casino gaming floor, and another that allows you to dictate an email.

Of course as Google looks to weave itself further into the fabric of our digital and data rich lives, major competitors such as

Apple and Microsoft are rumoured to be working on their own version. Japan’s Sony Corporation has gone so far as to patent a Glass like version to Vuzix, Oakley and Baidu the largest Chinese search engine are others said to be considering Google Glass rival products.

Indeed at the recent June Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwanese Oculon Optoelectronics announced it is developing a device similar to Google Glass that will have a better display, longer battery life and a lower price tag. Oculon’s Smart Glasses are said to feature a 720p HD display, a dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, a 2,100 mAh battery and a 5-megapixel camera along with bone conduction speakers, a microphone, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and optional cellular connectivity. Oculon also stated the device will support speech recognition and gesture controls at launch.

Okay so what’s all the fuss about, using our example of good versus evil, not that we are implying casinos are, gamblers have been locked in an age old battle to get the edge over the ‘house’ and walk out of the casino with trouser pockets bursting with money as against the other way around. Therefore it could be said that with all the sophisticated surveillance technology at a casino establishment, that users of Google Glass are merely leveling that playing field – wrong.

Outrageous, science-fiction, absolutely not, many US land based casinos view Google Glass as a real threat, not a potential threat to their multi-billion dollar industry with the likes of several Las Vegas casinos already banning the device and recently the Delaware State Lottery announcing a wholesale ban at its three casinos including similar wearable tech devices.

Any form of recording equipment in a casino is frowned upon for obvious reasons and with the likelihood of further states and indeed other international gaming jurisdictions likely to follow suit in banning wearable tech, it looks like the potential for this version of an all knowing virtual gaming assistant in poker parlay terms is a ‘bad beat’.

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Mark McGuinness

Digital iGaming Director, Mainstream Marketing & Communications Ltd