
Google Glass API Documentation - aray
https://developers.google.com/glass/
======
martythemaniak
"Each step in human technological advancement provides improved methods for
the distribution of cat photos. Project Glass is no different."

On a slightly more serious note, I'm glad to see this since I feared that they
might keep the API for later, instead opting to try and make a "product" first
(a la iPhone 1 or Google+).

This API is definitely not what I was envisioning though - I expected another
API add-on to Android, where you can take over and do what you wish with the
display, so perhaps it is a bit like webapps-as-apps on the iPhone 1. I'd be
interested to see what early adopters do with it and if they find this API too
limited.

~~~
karpathy
I was also fairly disappointed, it looks like 5 out of 5 of my ideas for what
I wanted to do with Glass can't be done with this API. But I'm hoping they
wanted to get some basic / easier to implement API out as fast as possible
while still working on more interesting support on a side (native apps, in
particular).

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jimrandomh
This is... pretty seriously disappointing, if it's supposed to be the whole
thing (or close to the whole thing). I'll give them the benefit of the doubt
and assume that they're going to publish the rest later, and _not_
deliberately hobbling it to prevent the public from getting creeped out by the
hardware's capabilities.

~~~
msoad
Keep in mind this is Google Mirror API documentation not Google Glass apps
API.

Google Mirror API is for puting stuff in front of user eye. As far as I know
you can not get information from Google Glass with this API.

~~~
ditojim
you can get location information and interact with any media (text, photo,
video) along with contacts via the api.

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ultimoo
This is so exciting. Just how a completely new user experience paradigm was
uncovered when high quality touch screen devices like iPhone etc. first
launched, this is yet another milestone in how we will continue to interact
with the petabytes of data that we as mankind have digitized.

It's worth pondering how significantly new I/O devices change the game -- the
first tty, the commercial keyboard & mouse, the touch screen, multi-touch
trackpads, and voice activated smartphones.

~~~
nicholasreed
Amazing technology aside, this is a pretty disappointing API release from a
developer standpoint. Basically no access to Glass's amazing hardware, nor any
way to receive user input other than a swipe/tap on the side? I'm really
hoping it gets more comprehensive.

~~~
georgemcbay
The Glass will surely be hacked six ways to Sunday but I doubt the official
API will go much deeper than it already is.

The still-disappointing Plus API pretty much tipped Google's hand when it
comes to how flexible they want to be on providing APIs for future products
and on top of that there are some pretty substantial privacy issues with
giving developers low-level access to the vast amount of personal data Glass
will constantly be collecting. I'm already worried enough about Google having
that data that I'm sitting out Glass for the foreseeable future (despite the
fact that I suspect it will be useful for a lot things), but if random third
parties could access that data at a low-level I'd be even more worried.

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jfim
What would be nice is if Google released an Android app that does the same
thing as Glass (ie. location updates and push notifications), for testing
purposes. It wouldn't be as nifty as having the thing on your head, but pretty
much all the use cases covered by the API would work on that.

~~~
mik3y
They do, sort of: <https://developers.google.com/glass/playground>

It's a jsfiddle-like sandbox that behaves like a Glass (device) frontend.

~~~
jfim
Yeah, I assume that works if you want to test how cards display, though there
does not seem to be any interaction.

Considering the API only allows viewing cards, taking pictures, sending your
current location and taking textual input, there's nothing that prevents them
to have a glass implementation on Android to test things out, other than the
time/resources to develop such an implementation.

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robterrell
I've been a Google Glass skeptic. But I just got back from Mexico, where I was
walking all over waving my phone at various signs so Word Lens could translate
them for me... skeptic no more! Word Lens is a killer app for the platform.
Except now I see that there's no API to access the camera. Seems like a huge
mistake.

~~~
thefreeman
One of their example API uses includes users taking photo's with the built in
camera and sharing them with your service. See "add a cat to that"
<https://developers.google.com/glass/stories>

~~~
GuiA
If the app has to take a photo at the user's behest everytime a word needs to
be translated, it's going to be very clunky very fast.

The whole point of technologies like Glass is that they should be as
unobtrusive as possible and just work by themselves when you need to.

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BoyWizard

      The Google Mirror API allows you to build web-based services, called Glassware, that interact with Google Glass. It provides this functionality over a cloud-based API and does not require running code on Glass.
    

This API is focused on pushing info to Glass, rather than interaction (which I
assume will be later)

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olalonde
Apparently, it is possible to setup your future Google Glass _today_ :
<https://glass.google.com/setup>

~~~
zacharycohn
I mean, you can go through and set up your network... but the setup process
gets blocked when you need your actual device to sync.

~~~
kanzure
> but the setup process gets blocked when you need your actual device to sync

Not entirely, it's obvious that it's just pinging some endpoint for a protocol
buffer. The server will return a protocol buffer with a "continue" message,
but you can just spoof that.

Also: who will get the first glass xss bounty?

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sahlhoff
Is anyone else having issues accessing the API?
[https://code.google.com/p/google-glass-
api/issues/detail?id=...](https://code.google.com/p/google-glass-
api/issues/detail?id=2)

~~~
jfim
Yeah, having the same issue. Initially, I thought it was US only, but even
with a VPN and fake US account it doesn't work.

~~~
objclxt
As per the update to that issue, the API is currently only available to
developers with physical access to Glass. It is a shame they didn't make this
clearer on the developer documentation page itself...

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dbruce
Look hopefully they'll improve on this a lot, but lets be honest, this API is
pathetic. If there are significant technical (power, weight, etc) reasons why
this is all that can be done, then they probably aren't ready for prime time.
I'm trying to stay positive and imagine the future for this product is bright,
but wow wow wow this is bad.

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dm8
So screen resolution is 640 x 360px. Looks like lot of interesting
applications can be build with that real estate! Weather, Maps etc. are some
to come to my mind right away.

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arkitaip
I can't find any info on how to write a Glass app that actually interacts with
the camera or does geolocation. Am I missing something?

~~~
olalonde
You can get a user's geolocation
(<https://developers.google.com/glass/location>). Couldn't find anything about
the camera.

However, the API doesn't seem to offer any way to run code on the actual
device aka "apps".

~~~
alanctgardner2
It looks like the Mirror API allows you to register callbacks, like Android
Intents, to handle events like 'position changed' or 'new photo'. They're
really locking down user interaction on the device itself, probably due to
processor power, and to keep the experience consistent. Not that I agree with
them, but they definitely look afraid of getting a bad name if some devs
produce crap - hence the very limited scope.

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nissimk
The specs on the display are pretty bad. In the API examples, the one with the
most text is the shopping list with 5 lines of short text. I want to look at
longer text on a HUD device. Is this a limitation in the ability to create HUD
hardware with higher resolution. Also, can someone with experience in this
area explain the pros / cons in the "how it appears" spec? I'm talking about
the spec where they say "looks like a X size display X distance away" Here's 2
HUD specs:

Glass: 640X360 25" HD display from 8 ft Vuzix M100: 400X240 4" mobile screen
at 14"

If I place a ~4" mobile device 14" from the top right of my field of vision, I
think I could live with that amount of obscured vision, but is it feasible to
create that with 720p resolution? Why would you want a 25" display 8ft away?
That seems like it would just be good for placing display ads and not really
for most useful things aside from quick notifications.

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driverdan
Client libs for Java, Python, Go, PHP, .NET, Ruby, Dart but no JavaScript?

~~~
dualogy
Go? This is awesome to hear. Unlike Android, Glass will be an instant win for
us Gophers. ( Well, once they have crossed 1m+ devices-sold so that the
potential audience for hackery becomes _actually interesting_ )

~~~
fabriceleal
This could be a chance for Go to become more mainstream, if there wasn't so
many languages supported, but I guess is not Google's agenda to disseminate
their own lang.

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asdfprou
Is anyone else having trouble enabling the Mirror API in their developer
console? It doesn't show up in mine after creating a new project for it.

~~~
kushagrawal
I'm having the same issue

~~~
dannyr
I believe those who have Glass are the only ones who can get an API key.

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mtinkerhess
I had been wondering about this spec:

    
    
      Send full screen images and video at a 16x9 aspect ratio.
      Target a 640x360 pixel resolution.

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coopdog
I'm hoping there's an easy 'be quiet' option. They're 100% right that apps
shouldn't be spammy, but we additionally need a standardised option to mute or
uninstall apps with a couple of swipes. It's the most walled garden ever, but
for something like this with so much potential for spammer abuse, I think we
need it. At least they'll be hackable.

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olalonde
I wonder if they also plan to allow native apps eventually.

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nekgrim
So... no augmented reality with this API. Sad.

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guiomie
Does this mean they are going to start shipping for the glassexplorer program
?

~~~
turing
Yes. They will be shipped in batches, as they come off the production line.

[http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/15/first-google-glass-
devices-...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/15/first-google-glass-devices-are-
coming-off-the-production-line-now-will-ship-in-batches/)

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samstave
I am sure glass has GPS, does it have accelerometers as well?

~~~
chippy
and compass for direction would be useful

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omni
Can anyone get the demo to work? I'm getting a 500. <https://glass-java-
starter-demo.appspot.com/>

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schiang
hm... only support for java and python. I hope they release a version for Go
since it is Google's language.

~~~
agentS
[https://developers.google.com/glass/downloads/#client_librar...](https://developers.google.com/glass/downloads/#client_libraries)

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humanspecies
I used to think it was ethically questionable to add cameras and trackers to
wild animals just so we could investigate their habits. Now human animals are
doing this to themselves voluntarily.

