Google shows off Project Glass augmented reality specs Google has been showing off the expected capabilities of the augmented reality spectacles that it is calling Project Glass. The early concept designs show wire-framed glasses with a display above the right eye which shows off personal schedules and location-based information. Also included is a camera, a microphone for calls …
...I saw this and thought "Why?"
Maybe the same reason I talk to people instead of reading drivel on twitter.
Maybe the same reason I choose not to tell people I've just watched a programme on TV and give it 3.5 out of 5.
Maybe the same reason I'd rather go to a quiet pub, get served in 30 seconds, talk to my mates (and even strangers!) rather than a trendy, overpriced one and be charged a fortune for shit service and piss poor beer.
yup I'm getting old.
If you have an Android phone, open up Google+ and switch to the "Nearby" stream. It's just... depressing. Around here, at least. So many people seem to think it is a good idea to publicly advertise where they are and what they're doing, to complete strangers.
I'm surprised there hasn't been any backlash about the stalking potential, as there has been with other similar services - or perhaps there has been, and I just haven't stumbled across the articles...
>While these kinds of heads-up displays are popular in films and fiction ...
Exactly. This case seems to be similar to video telephones: Just about every sci-fi film set in the future shows them in use all the time, but now that the technology is finally both available and affordable, not many people care to make video calls.
Problem with video calls if they go on for a long time you have to maintain a happy and interested demeanor on camera even if your friend telling you about their latest holiday or fad is boring you to tears, with no vision no one can see you yawn (provided your quiet about it) or see you obviously watching the TV or something else on screen while saying "yeah", "really?" and "great" at appropriate intervals.
Learned this with Skype video chats
It has a GPS. It knows your speed. Just prevent the user from doing anything too distracting while going faster than 10 kps or something.
The main obstacle I see to this tech is that it's really pointless. What it really does is sparing you the effort of fishing the smartphone out of your pocket, but in return you have to wear heavy glasses all the time. Not worth it.
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I'm not so interested in augmented reality (AR), but I am more interested in alternative screen technologies and a computer/browser device that is easier to use in awkward places, e.g. browsing and reading articles on the web whilst lying down sunbathing on holiday, standing up on a long overcrowded train journey, trying to work at home outside in the garden on a sunny day.
Wouldn't this type of screen be a battery saver too, compared to normal larger screens?
As for that video clip, I thought it funny that Google were suggesting that this product was for the same sort of people who think they can learn to play Ukulele in a day!
I was also a bit worried what this guy was doing going near a ledge atop a high building. Was the despair of modern technology getting to him?
another childhood dream goes down the swanny. i used to think i really wanted something like this, the idea's for it's uses go on and on.
but in reality the it'll track you, look at what you're looking at, hear what you're hearing, and sell all the info to the highest bidder.
nothing serves _YOU_ anymore. you are the product. not quite how i imagined a technological utopia of my future.
I actually see these glasses replacing mobile phones entirely someday. You'll only put them on when you need to though, just the same as you only take out your phone when you need to. Well, some of us do that...
With regards to the concerns about driving with these things on, by the time these glasses are adopted I think driving a vehicle yourself will be a thing of the past, or approaching that, in developed nations at least.
To anyone thinking this is a good idea (i'm looking at you bolccg), that' we'll all end up with AR implants or other such in-body tech, i HIGHLY advise you to watch one the Black Mirror series of dramas written by Charlie Brooker, particularly the one called The Entire History of You. If you still feel that same way after watching that then... well i guess there's no hope.
Oh and by the way, if any of you like watching X-Factor, Britain's Got Talent etc, i recommend watching the episode called 15 Million Merits. You'll never look at reality talent shows the same again!
Speaking of implants, this reminded me a lot of the Commonwealth Saga series of books by Peter F. Hamilton . Of course, in those stories people's "virtual vision" wasn't in the form of glasses but instead was wetwired directly into them. But I thought it was a rather good idea actually.
Evidently the concept doesn't appeal to everyone (apparently someone was so against it that they want my wife to divorce me!) but really I see it as inevitable.
Seriously - imagine being a stay behind in a world where people around you have all the world's publicly available information (and much private information) better than at their finger tips. What a huge disadvantage you'd be at to reject it. How could you comptete in the business arena, for example, with someone who "knows" everyone and can pull up every document invisibly? Plus other technology would come to assume it is a starting point of interoperability (sorry, you can't come in on this conference call because none of our desks have phones anymore because we're all chipped...) And then there's the entertainment prospects - truly immersive computer games, movies and what have you (plus songs that will cut out when the announcer on the train tells you you're at your stop!).
Evidently all the above will freak some people out and I mentioned the risks of bugs and security when I put up my first post. But consider this - 30 years ago if you'd suggested networking up all our private networks (including some of the most sensitive systems in the world), lots of people would've said that, aside from the technical issues, the security risks would make you insane to do it. But it's done and it's everywhere and the internet has been revolutionary. People may be concerned about different bits of differnt things about it but it's not going anywhere but forward now.
You could say the same thing about GPS (why would you want your car to track where you are?!), mobile phones (your boss will have the expectation he can get in touch with you anywhere?!!), television (nobody will read!!) and whatever.
The issues with "chipped" or "wetwired" systems or whatever you want to call them are real but, to put myself on the record, I really can't see that this will stop it (and in 50 years, easy, I reckon everyone will have them).
Just my 2 cents (hopefully nobody will drag out and slay my offspring for this...)
They are already.
Personally I think they could be a useful, hands-free alternative and/or companion to smartphones and sat-navs which, like these, you can always switch off or leave at home if you like.
Yes, I'm obviously a naive fool, blah, blah, blah.
Welcome our new AR overlords. I've been looking forward to a big player trying to productize AR for a while. If Google can solve some of the technical issues with the technology and get a product out to the consumers for the cheap with good quality, other companies will have to follow suit, and the AR revolution will begin. Smart phones will become relegated towards off interface computing and auxiliary input.
Having been staring at CRT and LCD for many years, my eyes are already knackered. Whats going to be the eye strain on focusing between the HUD and the real World? What about us glasses wearers? Will the glass be available to your prescription? Bi focal?
This looks like a fun technology (fun, not necessarily useful). I think they'll only be any good for people with decent eyesight though.
Kinda bindun ... see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EyeTap
Lawyers will love it - little Jimmy has bad eyesight - ah must be the glasses! Class action lawsuit!
Police will love it - access to video for a criminal investigation - like having millions of roving surveillance cameras.
Seems to be sitting on some possibly dodgy patents - a lot of the VR companies explored this in the 80s and 90s and could never find a market, but I bet there are some prior patents being dusted off.
As a privacy professional I'll love em too if they ever become real - keep creating the work google!
When we imagined this kind of technology with a fond excitement at the prospect we imagined a piece of hardware, that serves us, that brings data to us to make our daily lives easier. In reality we merely become vessels, drones of the corporate giants that use our own experiences to put into their latest algorithms to gain more power and money from businesses that wish to part us from the wealth we steadily accumulate in ever diminishing amounts.
Until someone can prove that the data is either destroyed or does not end up in a privately / corporate controlled database and that the hardware cannot be tracked, well Google can stick their glasses up the hole your "do no evil" slogan came out. The fact that Google is coming out with these kind of innovative products does not show that they are an innovative company but merely that they are holding too many cards.
You don't need the cloud or batteries or bluetooth... It just needs to tap into your cerebellum! You're carrying around the most advanced supercomputer in the world (yes, even the stupid people) and the human body produces over 110whr of power... just leech a little of that juice and a small implant behind the ear to access higher brain functions (I'm absolutely positive Apple fanbois would be more than happy to do this if these are compatible with the Iphone5) and voila!
Oh, and this will work really well when connected via bluetooth v3 to my samsung flying car (no need for steering wheels or instruments... just look where you want to go and give it some "Siri-like" commands) I would totally trust it for that! Wow, I'm so excited, this is going to be as amazing as my wristwatch TV is! Oh, and the appstore could sell things like nightvision apps or oh, think about this one... x-ray specs!!! wooohooo! Now I'm really getting fired up! Oh Google goggles, you will do it all for me! The future is so bright... I gotta wear virtual shades! (no worries, there's an app for that too!)
far too many times where the notifications popped up in the center of the frame. That's never going to be acceptable - you're fooling your brain into thinking these things are real objects. Even if the illusion only fools you momentarily, it's going to make you flinch! AR boxes should be transparent and off to the side of what they're describing (such as say a speech bubble next to a person), and non-location based stuff like tweets and text messages should be way down at the bottom of the frame. A lot of the UI elements here would be REALLY distracting. A well-timed phone call or message might block your vision just long enough for you to walk into a light pole or something.
Overall, I love the idea, but this demo is 9 kinds of wrong.
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