Apple and other companies are expected to launch their own smart glasses in the near future, but until that happens, you just have to be patient. Well, that or make your own like Teemu Laurila is doing. This maker has built a Smart Glasses with a simple Raspberry Pi Zero W and the help of some other element such as the Raspberry Pi camera. Although what is really behind these glasses capable of recognizing gestures is a lot of talent.
Raspberry Pi Smart Glasses
The Raspberry Pi Smart Glasses are not an official product by The Raspberry Pi Foundation. Nor are they a proposal that, due to aesthetic finishes, can live up to what we have already seen in the past by Google and its Google Glass or with more recent proposals such as Amazon’s Echo Frame.
Still, these smart glasses created with a Raspberry Pi Zero W by a very talented user named Laurila are amazing. So much so that they become one of those projects that would still be good to carry out, especially in schools and other educational purposes.
As can be seen in the published video (Teukkaniikka YouTube channel), these Smart Glasses are a striking proposal that combines the use of a Raspberry Pi Zero W with its camera module and a PC with an AI that allows everything to be analyzed. what you capture to interpret the hand gestures.
Thus, each gesture can be assigned a predetermined action. For example, in those that can be seen in the video, with the pinch gesture and turning to one side or the other, you can control the maximum and minimum brightness level of a lamp. Or you can simply capture the image so that the AI installed in the PC analyzes it and takes a projection that is superimposed in real time so that it can be seen.
Maker essence at its best
The project carried out by Laurila is, without any doubt in this regard, a very effective demonstration of the power of the Raspberry Pi, of its new camera module, but mainly of the talent of its creator and the essence of the maker.
It is these types of projects that, beyond the aesthetic or not that the solution may turn out to be, demonstrate everything that can be done today with a device like the Raspberry Pi and the appropriate knowledge. Logically, the level of miniaturization and aesthetics that a company with more resources can achieve in all aspects is unmatched, but here it is not about competing in that field but rather demonstrating capabilities.
So, this may motivate you to give a push to a project that you have in mind and have not started yet. Or to see that you can try to go a little further and look for something more challenging, a real challenge like this one from Laurila with which she set out to build her own smart glasses.