Google Glass has become one of the most sought after apps after Google launched them last year with a limited edition to trial customers at a cost of about $1,500. The glasses include a small screen, speaker and touch surface and offer an enhanced user experience.
In recent months an incubator has been formed in a penthouse on Tel Aviv's Ben Yehuda Street, which brings together developers, designers and programmers working together to create Israeli-made apps for Google Glass.
"It's like a garage except that it's on the roof," says Alexander Gambarian, the founder of the incubator who is a lawyer by profession. "The idea was born a year ago. I saw the competition that Google was running for participation in the trial team for the Glass."
The app that Gambarian thought up is the possibility of looking around a street and seeing in the glasses a building or a certain section of the street and see film clips that have been shot in the area.
Gambarian has eight developers in his incubator and offers a three month pre-immigration program for specialists from Russia. The incubator has no investors and is funded from Gambarian's own money.
He said, "Everything is financed personally by me and I pay the salaries here."
The incubator's business model is to be ahead of the market. Gambarian said, "When Google Glass comes on the market we want to be there with apps and experience. The aim is to build a center in Israel that competes with those in the US."
The incubator is currently working on the Lawyer app which provides legal solutions in situation like road accidents. He said, "When you come to a lawyer you've already made many mistakes, for example, things you might have said to the police. We want to avoid this. Our app gives tips on what to do in these cases. This is the first app that we have adapted from the smartphone to the glasses. We already have a pilot and will be launching it on the market in a couple of weeks."
Other apps that developers at the incubator are working on are for translating movies in the cinema, and for identifying skin problems.
The incubator's first app was presented by Gambarian at the space exhibition at Tel Aviv Port last month enabling Google Glass wearers to scan barcodes in the way that smartphones currently do.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 2, 2014
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