I was returning home from Connaught Place yesterday evening and was looking out the window of my car using my new mini android phone setup. As described in a previous post, the lens is a little above my left eye and this slightly higher perspective gave me some interesting information.

instead of only looking into cars I was able to see a little above the traffic and gauge the kinds of buildings I was crossing. I have a general idea of how complex shop fronts are and what they look like. at a traffic light, I was able to see three pillars that were inside the portico of a building.

A more interesting revelation was when I was able to tell the width of the road. As in I was able to tell that we had driven onto a narrow road as opposed to the main road. This was because everything appeared nearer. Objects were larger in the view and had a harder sound. Admittedly, the soundscape was extremely complex and I’m not in a position to measure distances but it is still good to know whether I’m going on a main road or on a side road. Yes, I use GPS but sometimes, GPS only gives me street names. The vOICe compliments this information nicely because inner roads and lanes are narrower than main roads..

The face recognition feature is handy. For example, if I detect two faces close together when I look out the car window, it usually means that I am looking at two people riding on a motorbike. This translates into better situational awareness and allows me to enhance my own security. I am in a better position to detect if people are getting too close to my car and to sound the alarm in case the driver has not noticed..