Develop for Google Glass with Xamarin.Android

Chris Hardy

At a recent Google developer event, they unveiled a sneak peek for the long awaited Glass Developer Kit (GDK), which enables Android developers to build native applications using the Android SDK. For Xamarin.Android developers that have access to the Google Glass SDK, the new APIs (and a sample app) from this sneak peek are only a Xamarin Component Store visit away.

Running Xamarin on Google Glass

Up until this sneak peek, the only API available for Google Glass developers was the Mirror API – a set of web based applications that could send out messages to the device to display on a user’s timeline. This API is rather limited: It requires the Google Glass to be connected to the internet and does not allow for any deep integration with the device. With the release of the GDK, a plethora of new applications can now be written. Better yet, you can take advantage of all of this with C# and Xamarin.Android. The secret to this is that Google Glass is behind the scenes just running Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Google have done a great job of putting together documentation for this sneak peek (although it’s not even a developer preview, so be prepared for things to change/move in the future). You can find their full developer guide on their website: https://developers.google.com/glass/develop/gdk/index

ChrisNTR wearing Google Glass

Note: You will need to be part of the Google Glass Explorer Program to run this application as a Google Glass application, you can use this form to sign up.

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