Google held its annual Google I/O event on May 11, 2022. This year’s keynote focused on inclusivity, security, and really cool tech! You can watch it on YouTube.
Google Real Tone Initiative
It’s awesome to see so much focus on inclusivity. Google is expanding on its Real Tone technology featured in the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro to more of their products. Using the research from Ellis Monk on race and ethnicity in technology and the Monk Skin Tone Scale, Google plans to improve the search experience on many of its products. Basically, users will be able to search on Google Images and select a skin tone (see skintone.google) to filter by. All of this is aimed at improving ML/AI skin tone evaluation for a more inclusive internet. I wonder if this will be included in YouTube’s filters?
Augmented Reality Search
OH YES! This tickles my brain in the best way. You see… Iron-Man, a Dragon Ball Z scouter, and Terminator, all instilled this deep desire to have a wearable heads-up display (HUD). This isn’t wearable (yet), but this is the start of my tech dream world coming true. They showed off how this would be implemented in Google Lens, highlighting in real-time results from a search for nut-free, highly-rated, dark chocolate. The UI highlighted the chocolate bars that matched the filter at the bottom, displaying their…rating? Is there a database for that? Probably. Google then mentioned how this is like a ‘CTRL+F’ for the world. Yes. I want that. Next, I need this tech in the form of smart glasses that allow the user to see a HUD and ASK IT TO FIND OBJECTS IN VIEW FOR YOU.
Auto-Summary in Google Docs
A less flashy feature by our Google overlords, but one I am eagerly awaiting to use. Google Docs will be able to use ML/AI to analyze your document and write a TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) summary of the document. There have been other attempts at this by some online services, not going to name names, with good intentions but with not so great results…sometimes. I will have to wait and see how it performs! If it does, I will use this regularly at my day job.
Google Pixel 7/7 Pro and watch
Google’s product videos are looking very…Apple. Which is fine, Apple always gets me hyped with those, and these do mostly the same minus the catchy hit Apple pairs with theirs. There isn’t really much to talk about here, they showed the rendering of the products, a little teaser of pretty they will look. Yeah, they look exactly like I would expect them to, a fusion of Apple and Samsung’s products in these categories. They look well designed and ‘premium’ in their use of materials and finishes. I have high hopes for the Pixel Watch because my Samsung Galaxy Active 2 leaves much to be desired compared to the Apple Watch.
