It makes sense to want to integrate Augmented Reality on glasses, but a video camera on the bill of an otherwise ordinary hat? Now, that sounds kind of goofy, but that doesn’t stop Internet search giant, Google, from going ahead and hat it patented. And guess what? They actually got it (the patent) and why the hell not? Because, who in the world would patent a hat with a video camera stuck to the bill? I don’t know. Maybe, Google? According to a report, Google managed to secure the patent on Tuesday (February 28, 2017) for a removable hat-mounted camera (officially “Wearable camera systems”). What the camera can do needs no further elaboration.
Of course, it will have a built-in microphone and also connected to an app on your mobile device so that you can share captures images and recorded video to social media sites. I mean, those are expected of cameras of today, isn’t it? But what we didn’t expect was bone conduction technology, which the patient stated that it will be use to direct audio directly to the wearer’s skull. So, without actually scouring through the entire paper, I am guessing this thing will let you enjoy music and also, serve the function of a Bluetooth headset for communication and pulling information via Google Assistant? Maybe. At this point, there’s really not much info to go around.
Though questions are in the air. Questions like what Google hope to achieve with this? Will there be a dedicated app similar to that of Snapchat to go with this quirky hat? Oh, wait. We just read that Google has some vision of the application of this video camera hat. Here’s the bits:
“The emergency routing system routes a video feed from a camera of the wearable camera system and the geographic location to the emergency handling system (406). In some implementation, the wearable camera system sends the video feed to the emergency routing system which then forwards the feed to the emergency handling system; in some other implementations, the wearable camera system sends the video feed to the emergency handling system and not the emergency routing system. The system can optionally automatically send a notification to a law enforcement or security organization associated with the geographic location.”
Ah… I see where this thing is getting at, but mostly, I think, to stake claim on this idea first since no one has done so yet. Like, why not secure it and prevent anyone from suddenly have the light bulb moment where this video camera hat pops up? Nah. I am just speculating. Anyways, it is anybody’s guess if this will even be worked on at all. Big companies just love patents, don’t they? No matter how ridiculous that idea maybe. They (the patents) are like trophies to tech companies.
P.S. We forgot to stress that the camera is removable. Oh, wait. We did? Never mind.
USPTO via Business Insider.
