If you’ve ever pretended you were a director, framing shots with your fingers, the next version of Google Glass might be able to make your directorial dreams become reality—sort of. A future Google wearable may let users take photos using just their fingers.
In a patent awarded to the company today, Google outlined a way to use the camera on a head-mounted wearable—like Google Glass—to sense where the user’s fingers are positioned and take a photo if they’re shaped a certain way. The wearable’s camera would always be looking for fingers to pop up in its view, and when it senses them, will snap a photo.
The patent suggests the camera could take a landscape photo if the user positions her fingers in the familiar shape of a director’s finger framing. (Unfortunately, the patent doesn’t detail whether a user could record video with their fingers, meaning the world may still never get to see your directorial genius.)
The patent suggests users can orient their hands in different shapes to take different photos. If a user holds two hands straight up, the camera would know to take a portrait photo, and if the user makes a ring with their finger, the camera will take a circular photo—perfect for updating your Google+ profile photo.
Google was not immediately available to comment on its plans for the patent, and whether the idea would end up in the next version of Glass. The last generation required the user to either click a button on the side of the headset to take a photo, or call out, “OK Glass, take a picture.” This new idea isn’t any less awkward to do in public, as you walk around flapping your hands to take photos, but it would cut out a lot of time spent cropping photos when you get home.
Quentin Tarantino would presumably love this, were he ever to wear a Glass.