Golden-i Headset Might Bring Video Game-Like Functionality To Emergency Response Workers
Kopin and Ikanos Consulting are setting out to bring the joys of HUDs, objective markers, and map overlays to professional life. The Golden-i headset, a bit-more-than conspicuous adornment that flips a view screen over the user’s desired eye, delivers real-time augmented reality information to its users, tailor-made for the industry it’s deployed in.
Imagine a police officer that can see through walls, identify suspects with facial recognition in real time, and track targets via thermal imaging not unlike Alex Murphy. Marvel as a firefighter pulls up the schematics of a burning building and instantly know the most likely places survivors may need to be rescued, plotting out the best methods in and out of the smoke-filled hallways. Gasp as a paramedic pulls up your medical records, discusses treatment options in real time with a doctor waiting at the emergency room, and streams video of your convulsing body in an attempt to treat your deadly shellfish allergy. All of these are possible with Ikanos Consulting’s custom software suits, Police Pro, Fighterfighter Pro, and Paramedic Pro respectively. The dream of having a team of cyborg heroes cruising the mean streets delivering justice and protecting the meek are one step away from becoming true.
But what about yourself? You have a boring desk job at a consulting firm and the most exhilarating part of your day is fetching coffee and bagels for your boss and your condescending colleagues. Gi-OS can deliver a hands-free computing solution so that you can stay productive and on task while you shuffle snacks back to the cubical pit. At the very least you can pretend to be half man and half machine as you drone out a long boring meeting with YouTube videos of cats.
Golden-i seems to be on the up and up. It’s certainly the first in the next step in personal computing, and a direction we’ve dreamed about taking for decades. The headset does look a bit goofy, and it appears a bit cumbersome for constant use without getting a lot of funny looks. But, if it can deliver what it promises, it’ll be the next step in unchaining us from the desk and moving our computing along with us throughout our daily lives, no matter how exhilarating or mundane.
