Personal Digital Assistant

A leading developer of dashboard mounted car cameras and wearable technology for the visually impaired recently introduced an “augmented attention” device that’s designed to observe the world around you and offer helpful advice. Known as MyMe, it combines the concepts of Google Glass and the Siri digital assistant with advanced sound- and image-recognition processing.

Based on their earlier work designing products for the visually impaired, the new device can read text, recognize faces and identify products on a shelf with the simple point of a finger. But MyMe goes a step further to analyze facial expressions, automatically log what you eat and even create profiles of the people you interact with.

Like Google Glass, MyMe includes a Bluetooth earpiece to communicate with the wearer. However, the camera – designed as a pendant that clips onto your shirt or belt – is less obtrusive than the glasses-mounted design. Privacy concerns have also been addressed by performing all data processing in real time so that no images or sounds are recorded. Instead, MyMe gathers the information and provides a summary for the user, making it not only more efficient but also less invasive to others.

Although the price has not been disclosed, it is expected that MyMe will become available to consumers in the fall of this year.