When Google glasses came out, it did not take off. However, a team of researchers from Stanford University are now using the hardware, donated by Google, for their Autism Glass Project which aims to help its wearers better read others’ expressions in real time to stimulate better social interaction. This project is targetted towards children with autism who find it harder to read emotions which makes interaction difficult.

The glasses have a built-in camera to take in a person’s face and the glasses’ facial recognition software helps translate that. It functions like a form of practice where the children are asked to look at someone using the glasses to identify their emotion. The system awards them points when they get it right. There is a round of tests where the glasses also provide other audio and visual cues like sound effects or emoticons. The goal is for the wearer to start being able to identify emotions on their own. Their progress is tracked to a smartphone app where family members and researchers can view results.

The children were also asked to use the glasses in a social context at home where the glasses records what they see in a day. There are color coded bars seen that aligns to what emotions were recorded; purpose of this being that it helps the children remember the emotions they were shown and the context of the emotion. The glasses also read the amount and level of eye contact.

Pros

• It helps the wearers get more comfortable with viewing emotions and trying to decipher them
• It helps the autistic children learn to better articulate feelings

Cons

• It may not accurately translate all emotions for the wearer
• There might be certain emotions that the wearers might not comprehend because of the difference in context, since the glasses are currently more clinically used in controlled settings