Google Glass may not be available to buy just yet, but it’s already showing that it could have plenty of applications beyond just acting as an extension of your smartphone.

One application currently being explored is the InSight project (via 9to5Google); funded in part by Google and developed by University of South Caroline and Duke University researchers, it uses a smartphone app to develop a clothing-based digital fingerprint to help identify strangers.

This would help when meeting someone for the first time, be it for social or business purposes. By using their smartphone camera to create a profile of themselves, InSight would then piece together a virtual profile of that person based on what they’re wearing; this could then be used by Google Glass to make a positive ID when that person comes within range of its sensors.

As well as being a useful tool in identifying strangers, Google Glass could also have therapeutic potential. Refining the application, it could help with disorders such as prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness. Prosopagnosia may affect up to 2.5 percent of the world’s population to varying degrees, so while rare, a system which corrects it could have an positive impact. InSight, or technology like it, could help by identifying people based on their facial characteristics and keeping a stored database of persons known to the Google Glass wearer, so that they can ‘recognise’ faces thanks to information provided through their heads up display.

via Tech Crunch