There has been a lot of hype lately about the Google Glass project. Yes, it’s very, very, very cool and I’m (possibly a little too) excited about the technology. However, me being who I am like to stretch it a little to the circles that I’m familiar with and got to thinking about how Police Departments and Law Enforcement in general could benefit from this emerging technology.
Essentially the idea is that the Google Glass is a fancy kind of a Heads Up Display.
If you don’t know about Google Glass already – check out this video:
The possibilities for use in Law Enforcement are huge!
Imagine a Police Officer (hopefully not looking too weird while wearing the device) having alerts and pertinent information popping up on the screen, right in from of his or her eyes.
Look at a vehicle license plate and say “Run this” to have the device, connected to the National Network check the License Plate database records.
Look at someone and say “identify this person” to check facial recognition software against national databases.
Say ”record this” to have an incident video recorded from the Officer’s point of view.
Say “take a photo of this” for an evidence or scene photograph.
Simply say “send this to the station” to have a video or photo sent to the Police Station from your location. Of course the file would be geo-tagged too.
Video Conference with other officers to see what they’re seeing, as they’re seeing it to know what they’re doing and what they’re looking at.
This would be ideal for tactical situations where everyone should be apprised of the entire situation as it’s happening.
Share this conference with a central command too to see what’s going on.
Naturally hands free has it’s benefits. Voice comments and augmented reality can make performing tasks that much more efficient.
Text messages on the display would make for better increased reliability in communication and less radio traffic (it’s always good to verify the spelling of a name or word by seeing it rather than saying it).
Pictures could be send directly to the officer.
I’m not suggesting some kind of Robocop – just enhanced communication.
Do you have any other suggestions? Comments?
Related articles
- Fearing Google Glasses (infocult.typepad.com)
- Will Google’s Augmented Reality Glasses Facilitate an All-Seeing Surveillance State? (reason.com)
- What Google’s Project Glass Looks Like In Reeeeeal Life (buzzfeed.com)
