Indian-origin researcher develops app to navigate smartphone UI on Google Glass

A team led by an Indian-origin researcher has developed a smartphone app that projects a magnified smartphone screen to provide better visibility to low-vision users. The team from Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School designed the app that improves upon the built-in zoom feature of smartphones by projecting the display to Google Glass, which users can navigate using head movements to view a corresponding portion of the magnified screen. “Given the current heightened interest in smart glasses such as Microsoft’s Hololens and Epson’s Moverio, it is conceivable to think of a smart glass working independently without requiring a paired mobile device in near future,” said first study author Shrinivas Pundlik. “When people with low visual acuity zoom in on their smartphones, they see only a small portion of the screen, and it’s difficult for them to navigate around – they do not know whether the current position is in the centre of the screen or in the corner of the screen,” noted senior author Gang Luo.