Serendipitous Glass

As I've said before, there are at least 3 fundamentally unique characteristics of Glass. 1) hands-free 2) omni-present (always there) and immediately accessible 3) heads up display.

There are absolutely enormous opportunities by combining serendipitous computing with Glass given characteristics 2 and 3 above. A few high level examples:

1) You're driving down the feeder of the highway. McDonalds is about a quarter mile ahead on the right. McDonalds offers 10% off if you pull in within the next 20 seconds. This takes the psychology of "limited time offer" to the extreme. Capitalism and competition at its finest.

2) You're at work. You're on the verge of being late to leave to the airport for a flight. A car accident happens on the fastest route to the airport. Glass notifies you so you can get up and go immediately, and routes you to avoid the accident if possible.

In healthcare, the serendipity options aren't quite as amazing. In the 2 above examples, the the reason Glass is so much better than the status quo (MultiTouch glass in your pocket) is because of Glass's accessibility and value of timing and context. In the vast majority of care settings, the cost of reaching in your pocket for a serendipitous notification isn't very high. In these use cases, Glass is better than the status quo, but only marginally.

EHRs and other point of care systems should be notifying the clinician immediately as soon as the information is put into the system, not at a later time. Having said that, Glass does present some unique opportunities for one-way messaging. Glass supports bone conduction technology. You can hear through Glass, and no one-else can. This presents enormous opportunities for one-way messaging and confidential communication in healthcare.