---
title: 'Within arm''s reach: New SDK from OnTheGo Platforms promises to make gesture recognition accessible to Google Glass apps'
date: '2014-04-02T14:09:14-07:00'
type: post
word_count: 609
char_count: 4058
tokens: 792
categories:
  - Oregon
  - Portland
  - Startups
tags:
  - ari
  - gesture
  - 'google glass'
  - 'onthego platforms'
  - sdk
---

# Within arm's reach: New SDK from OnTheGo Platforms promises to make gesture recognition accessible to Google Glass apps

If you’ve ever mucked around with Google Glass, Siri—heck, any voice-command driven interface—you realize that communicating with our intelligent object friends can sometimes be a lesson in futility. But now, the next time these moments of fist-shaking Glass frustration occur, you may find that you can actually put those gestures to good use. Thanks to [Ari, the new Augmented Reality Interface SDK](http://www.otgplatforms.com/blog/2014/04/new-interface-for-smart-glasses-goes-live/ "New interface for Smart Glasses goes Live") from Portland’s [OnTheGo Platforms](http://www.otgplatforms.com/ "OnTheGo Platforms").

> Voice and touch control work well on smartphones, but Smart Glasses require a new, intuitive interface. OTG’s Ari™ SDK uses a single outward facing camera to track a user’s hand motions and gestures, enabling the user to interact naturally with the content being displayed in front of them. Ari™ empowers developers to move beyond the limitations of voice control and a small touchpad on the side of the glasses.

> Ari™ is built on top of the Android OS. Currently, all of the Smart Glasses entering the market run the Android OS and have one built-in camera; therefore, OTG can remain device agnostic and distribute Ari™ across all of the major smart glass devices for the foreseeable future (Google Glass, Vuzix, Recon, Epson, Samsung). The result? A universal Smart Glasses user experience regardless of hardware.

How’s it work? Take a look.





Pretty cool, hunh? Others think so too.

### Portland Business Journal: [A nice gesture: Portland’s OnTheGo Platforms launches smartglasses software](http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/2014/04/a-nice-gesture-portlands-onthego-platforms.html "A nice gesture: Portland's OnTheGo Platforms launches smartglasses software")

> Since its inception, the company has been working closely with smartglasses manufacturer Vuzix.… Vuzix CEO Paul Travers described Ari as “a leading solution in the space.”

### TechCocktail Portland: [OnTheGo Platforms Wants a Universal Smart Glass User Experience](http://tech.co/onthego-platforms-beta-launches-sdk-for-smart-glasses-2014-04 "OnTheGo Platforms Wants a Universal Smart Glass User Experience")

> The OTG team recognized that while voice and touch controls work well on smartphones, smart glasses technology needs a different take with a different interface. Part of the inspiration behind Ari, then, is to give developers the extra excitement they need to create amazing apps for the smart glasses realm.

> Developers, enterprises, and smart glass OEMs can integrate Ari directly into their app, product, or hardware. Thus, Ari uses a single, outward-facing camera to track the user’s hand motions and gestures, thereby enabling them to interact naturally with their displayed content.

### CNET: [At last! Hand gestures can control Google Glass](http://www.cnet.com/news/at-last-now-you-can-make-hand-gestures-at-your-google-glass/ "At last! Hand gestures can control Google Glass")

> The beauty of the this idea, according to its makers, is that any hand gesture can be tied to any action the developer might choose.

> Which led me to the question: “ANY gesture?” I asked On The Go CEO Ryan Fink whether he might envisage, one day, Glass-wearers offering a middle digit to log on to Facebook. Or perhaps a gang sign to take a photo.

> He saw where I might be going with this and offered a very measured, but tantalizing response: “We do have the ability to create any gesture, but we’re only releasing a small gesture set at this time. There will be more gestures added in the near future.”

For more information on the release, read the company’s [blog post on Ari](http://www.otgplatforms.com/blog/2014/04/new-interface-for-smart-glasses-goes-live/ "New interface for Smart Glasses goes Live"). For more information on the company, visit [OnTheGo Platforms](http://www.otgplatforms.com/ "OnTheGo Platforms").