Google Glasses With Virtual And Augmented Reality

As per many reports, Google is expected to start selling eyeglasses that will project information, entertainment and, this being a Google product, advertisements onto the lenses. These glasses will have the combined features of virtual reality and augmented reality.

The Google Glasses can use a 4G cell connection to pull in information from Google’s mountain of data and display info about the real world in augmented reality on the lens in front of your eye. As you turn your head you’ll get information about your surroundings and nearby objects from Google Goggles, info on buildings and establishments from Google Maps, even your friends’ nearby check-ins from Latitude. The company has no plans to sell ads into your newly augmented view of the world, but will consider it if the product really catches on.

The glasses are not being designed to be worn constantly — although Google engineers expect some users will wear them a lot — but will be more like smartphones, used when needed, with the lenses serving as a kind of see-through computer monitor.

Google glasses are basically wearable computers, that will use the same Android software that powers Android smartphones and tablets. Like smartphones and tablets, the glasses will be equipped with GPS and motion sensors. They will also contain a camera and audio inputs and outputs.

Several people who have seen the glasses, but who are not allowed to speak publicly about them, said that the location information was a major feature of the glasses. Through the built-in camera on the glasses, Google will be able to stream images to its rack computers and return augmented reality information to the person wearing them. For instance, a person looking at a landmark could see detailed historical information and comments about it left by friends. If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party. They might also be used for virtual reality games that use the real world as the playground.

The expectation is that we will get a really cool demonstration of this technology at Google I/O in June.

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A Very Old Plant From Stone Age Brought Back to Life, From 32,000-Year-Old Seeds

32,000-Year-Old Plant

A Russian team discovered a seed cache of Silene stenophylla, a flowering plant native to Siberia, that had been buried by an Ice Age squirrel near the banks of the Kolyma River. Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the seeds were 32,000 years old.

The mature and immature seeds, which had been entirely encased in ice, were unearthed from 124 feet (38 meters) below the permafrost, surrounded by layers that included mammoth, bison, and woolly rhinoceros bones.

The mature seeds had been damaged—perhaps by the squirrel itself, to prevent them from germinating in the burrow. But some of the immature seeds retained viable plant material.

The team extracted that tissue from the frozen seeds, placed it in vials, and successfully germinated the plants, according to a new study. The plants—identical to each other but with different flower shapes from modern S. stenophylla—grew, flowered, and, after a year, created seeds of their own.

“I can’t see any intrinsic fault in the article,” said botanist Peter Raven, President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden, who was not involved in the study. “Though it’s such an extraordinary report that of course you’d want to repeat it.”

The new study suggests that permafrost could be a “depository for an ancient gene pool,” a place where any number of now extinct species could be found and resurrected, experts say.

“Any insight gained on seeds which have been frozen and how to thaw them and sprout them is very valuable,” she said.

The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Raven added that, if we can uncover the conditions that kept the seeds viable for 32,000 years, then “if you were doing it yourself, you’d be able to preserve [seeds] for longer.”

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Translate your Gmail Messages into your Language

Gmail users will now be able to translate e-mails in foreign languages into the their own, with Google introducing a new feature. 

Google on its official Blog has said a new 'Translate message' header will be soon introduced in Gmail. 

"Over the next few days, everyone who uses Gmail will be getting the convenience of translation added to their email. The next time you receive a message in a language other than your own, just click on Translate message in the header at the top of the message," Jeff Chin, Product Manager, Google Translate, said. 

The idea mooted after Google introduced automatic message translation in Gmail Labs and prompted the labs team to go for a survey in which the teams found the necessity of Gmail message translation. 

"Since message translation was one of the most popular labs, we decided it was time to graduate from Gmail Labs and move into the real world. Over the next few days, everyone who uses Gmail will be getting the convenience of translation added to their email," Chin added. 

The feature also automatic translation feature. Google had recently announced that it is increasing everyone's free storage in Gmail from 7.5 GB to 10 GB.

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