Google Wants To Give You The Ability To See With Your Fingers
Google is not content with having it’s users see only with their eyes, so they’ve invented a way to see using your hands. In their patent (No. 8,009,2011) entitled SEEING WITH YOUR HAND, Google describes a glove equipped with sensors on the fingertips. The sensors, or “detectors” are capable of recording images of the environment and sending those images to the display of a user.
Google describes a glove that includes a detector on the index finger. The detector is configured to record and transmit a series of images. The patent describes using simple cameras as detectors, but also more exotic 2D and 3D rendering technologies. While the language of the patent is deliberately nonlimiting, it seems that Google intends to pair their glove with a heads-up display of some kind (“or any other type of display now known or later developed.”) In addition to simple image capture, the patent describes use of the technology as part of a control interface.
The Google glove is like having eyes on the tips of your fingers.
Greenbaum Patent Blog 