The Power of Two Little Words: "ok glass"

Immediately upon receiving Glass it is critical that you understand the true meaning of "Ok Glass." If you do not own Glass or have not tried Glass this concept is foreign to you, so let me explain.

Ok, when you turn on glass or wake it up by tapping the tight arm or tilting your head to the "Wake Up Angle" (we will get into that later) this is the screen you are presented with:

 

 

Since this is the opening screen, a Glass user  will become very familiar with this image very quickly. As you can see it displays the time (which is handy since looking up is faster then bringing up a watch to view) as well as the phrase "ok glass." This solitary instruction opens up the user to a whole world of abililties never before accessible in such a natural way.

 

"ok glass"

Say it loud, say it soft, say it with an accent, Google will hear you. The voice recognition on this device is phenomenal, as it should be considering this is your primary means of controlling the device. Once you say, scream, whisper, or mutter "ok glass" this screen is displayed:

 

ok glass Menu
At first glance this menu looks typical, simple, and maybe even a little restrictive, I know because I shared this underwhelming feeling the first time I turned on Glass. I recall my thoughts to be something like: "What the heck, I can only search. take pictures, text call, and record videos? I want more!" But there was more to this little screen, so so much more:

• Glassware adds to the functions on this menu. Think of Glassware like your apps, in fact, at first I was confused as to why they weren't called apps, but now its clear. When you download Glassware, like YouTube or Google Play, there is not an icon for the function, rather, the functionalities are added to the already present Glass menus and functions. Example: By downloading YouTube the "Upload to YouTube" menu is built into the Glass video recorder. For Google Play, the menu option "listen to" is added to the above menu, and the music icon is added to the main menu (discussed later). So what looked like a short menu when I started has grown substantially as I have added Glassware making it more useful and much more impressive.
• Go ahead, look around, see what your missing. At first you may ask yourself why this easily accessible menu only has five options, the answer is simple, it doesn't. Look up and down by tilting your head slightly and you can scroll up and down this list which will display more and more commands as you get more comfortable with Glassware. If you are looking  to impress friends, get them to this menu and tell them to look around, then watch their jaw drop.
• After you get comfortable, this menu is no longer necessary. If you know your commands, don't feel like you have to use this menu, it is merely a reference tool, it does not need ot be up for you to start telling Glass what to do, so don't talk choppy. The commands seem conversational because they are, because that is what a natural internal dialogue is like, so get comfortable and chat. Today I was driving (using Glass GPS) and I wanted to give a friend the heads up that I was on the way so I simply said: "Ok glass, send a message to John Doe, I'll be their in five minutes" Once that was said Google put together the message, displayed it for a quick second to let me opt out if necessary, then sent it. No distraction, no phone, no buttons, just a quick command. This is the meaning of accessibility

Layer 1.
The "ok glass" screen is a part of what I refer to as Layer 1. I call it this because if I scroll right  (using the right temple touch pad) I get to my Glass Timeline, if I scroll left I get to GPS and settings. To get into each application without using voice control (because lets be real, you don't want to look crazy constantly talking to yourself) simply scroll down to get into Layer 2.

Don't be shy, tell Glass what to do, its always listening.