back to article Do you wear specs? Google Glass offers YOU amazing live HD video

Many critics believe Google Glass is a threatening technology which could enable film piracy, erode personal privacy and bring about an era where we spend all our time plugged into the matrix. But all of those valid concerns miss one basic point about the Chocolate Factory's wearable computer: it looks bloody ridiculous. Now …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The specs will come in four ranges called Bold, Curve, Thin and Split

    No, they will come in four ranges called POSER, TWAT, ARSEHOLE, and WANKER

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The specs will come in four ranges called Bold, Curve, Thin and Split

      Do try hard please :)

      Google glass will come in three versions:

      Hat, Hole and Wipe.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The specs will come in four ranges called Bold, Curve, Thin and Split

        Took a while for that one to sink in (its been a long day ...)

        Have an upvote for making me snigger.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The specs will come in four ranges called Bold, Curve, Thin and Split

      Spot on. And above all - SNITCH.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Film piracy? clue to spotting someone wearing glass, look for the guy who is completely still for 1.5 hours.

    I guess we can look forward to the intermission in a pirate film, video of some nerd going to the bathroom.

    1. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

      Sausage break?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "These aren't the hot dogs you're looking for..."

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Nah, much easier ways to to a capture than that... not that I would do it, because I have no problem waiting for films to come out on Blu-Ray.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    De gustibus…

    You might find it bloody ridiculous, but I personally find it a step up from DesiGners sunglasses which make you look like a bee…

    1. Code Monkey

      Re: De gustibus…

      They make you look like a great, shining bell.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: De gustibus…

      "You might find it bloody ridiculous, but I personally find it a step up from DesiGners sunglasses which make you look like a bee…"

      I hate those things, human fly doesn't look appealing! They alone prove more money does not mean more sense. (Other tasteless tat: porche cayenne, anything with "i" in in it, the list goes on and on.....)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Bold, Curve...

    Google's going through BlackBerry's portfolio for names now??

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bold, Curve...

      They tried Apple's trick. iGlass. But it sounded too much like a magnifying glass (eyeglass).

  5. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Followed through to the end

    > a range of prescription glasses and lenses which can be used with Glass.

    So you get your swanky (possibly sans the "s", depending on your view of GG) new specs and wear them while out. Suddenly a plastic piggie in a shopping centre comes up: "Nick-nick. Sorry sir/madam, you can't film in here." At which point you explain, politely, that you aren't filming and that the GG stuff is switched off. PP is adamant that you can't film and that you'll have to remove your specs - GG enabled, or not. At which point you comply and proceed to spend the rest of your shopping trip bumping into things and looking for the local Specsavers.

    Repeat in the cinema - as one our our colonial cousins claimed to have done recently with GG enabled spectacles. Repeat again while driving - this time, the (unplastic) police-person has a nice twist. "Sorry sir/madam, you can't wear those while driving. What's that? You don't have a pair of ordinary glasses? Well then you'll have to leave your veHIKle and walk home. Yes I appreciate it's raining and you live 20 miles away. But roolz is roolz (and I am the law until your appeal comes through). You could always call a taxi .... you might even get some change from £50"

    Short version: is the hassle involved, and the constant feeling that small children are laughing at you, worth the small and mostly imaginary benefits of owning a device that is frequently banned from use and doesn't really have any benefits over a search engine on a smartphone?

    1. Micky 1

      Re: Followed through to the end

      "Sorry sir/madam, you can't wear those while driving. "

      But you can. You can have cameras all around your car filming everything you go past perfectly legally. I've had that confirmed to me by an officer from Dorset Police when I questioned them about how legal it was to have cameras fitted permanently to my (occasionally used on a race track, hence the need to ask the question) car.

      As long as the glasses don't restrict your view then they are perfectly legal to use.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Followed through to the end

        Tis not the filming, its the playback of video while driving, and obstructing your vision.

        But considering they can be sure its on when yoru driving, or that it is doing something illegal, i.e. you could have it displaying your speed and nav, then they really can't stop you wearing it

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          In the real world please!

          "Tis not the filming, its the playback of video while driving, and obstructing your vision.

          But considering they can be sure its on when yoru driving, or that it is doing something illegal, i.e. you could have it displaying your speed and nav, then they really can't stop you wearing it"

          Lets not fool our selves people! You see drivers using mobile phones all the time. Those laws you speak of don't seem to deter people from break said laws!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Followed through to the end

        It's the fact you can watch video, read emails, messages and be distracted by a screen that is the problem.

        You're only allowed radio/stereo and guidance screens in view of the driver. Glass does not enfoce this.

        1. M7S

          @ AC 28 Jan 19:19 - Not necessarily true

          In the UK at least, you are allowed to have screens or monitors on and visible to the driver if they are telling you about the condition or position of the vehicle. Examples include a screen showing information such as (k)mph, rpm, oil and tyre pressure, open doors, "GPS", and video including, but not limited to, reversing cameras. Some manufacturers are now fitting TV instead of rear view mirrors, on all the time, and there are trials of forward facing cameras using spectrum outside the normal range of the human eye to supplement driver's vision on a screen. There's nothing in law to stop you using your laptop or even your old CRT to rig up something like this, although the latter might prove cumbersome.

          If the screens are positioned in such a way as to cause you to take your eye off the road for too long, and therefore becoming dangerous, that is a different issue and tackled with other legislation regarding drivers conduct. Google glass would seem to deal with that nicely so if it is in some way connected to senders in the car, that would place this information in the eyeline of the driver in an appropriate way, similar to the "heads up display" in the windscreens of some high end cars.

          I suspect the legislation is broadly similar in other countries although there will be variations.

  6. Test Man

    "Glassholes"

    Heh.

    1. R 11

      I bet you were a barrel of laughs on the school playground.

  7. flearider

    sorry but I ware glasses ..theres no way I'd ware them ..

    1)they look &£^£$^$^

    2)like a lot of people I hate to see rims so that square blob in my eye to much

    3) I carry a phone for that sort of thing

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "sorry but I ware glasses ..theres no way I'd ware them ..

      1)they look &£^£$^$^

      2)like a lot of people I hate to see rims so that square blob in my eye to much

      3) I carry a phone for that sort of thing"

      Luddite!

  8. DJV Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    We want as many people as possible to wear it

    Yeah, I bet they bloody do!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: We want as many people as possible to wear it

      "We want as many people as possible to wear it

      Yeah, I bet they bloody do!"

      Didn't hear Apple say "We don't want anyone to buy iPhone"!

      Your point?

  9. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    Sadly it doesn't matter for me. It looks like the screen is so small that I wouldn't be able to read it anyway. Which is a shame in some ways, as it would be great to have a camera on a glasses frame that I could use to read stupid signs in stations/airports that the designers just love to hang 20 feet in the air.

    Actually the smartphone is winning on that. You can often get the departure boards on an app - and the nice ones tell you the platform as well.

    In normal day-to-day life they look silly, but no sillier than the kit I already have to use. But there's no reason to care what people think about you, if you find the shiny-shiny useful. You migth get the odd techy who won't talk to you because you're wired for sound. But most normal people probably won't think about it.

    I wonder why they don't project onto a glasses lens itself, rather than using that screen? It would be no good for people who need vision corrected before they can read - but I'd have thought it would be cheaper, and less obvious for everyone else.

    1. Ragarath

      Sadly it doesn't matter for me. It looks like the screen is so small that I wouldn't be able to read it anyway.

      Remember the cows. This one is a small cow but this one is very far away.

      1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

        Ragarath,

        Google say that their screen is the equivalent of a 25" HD screen from 8' away.

        I can't read the subtitles on my 50" screen from that far away. I told you my eyesight was bad...

        1. Ragarath

          I can't read the subtitles on my 50" screen from that far away. I told you my eyesight was bad...

          Ah, OK then sorry. Cow needs to be right in front of you then, or extremely big.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They are dealing with lenses that require a correction...

      It seems that once you buy a Google Glass on a frame you will be able to take it to your local optometrist to get the frame fitted with your prescriptive lenses.

  10. Reality_Ccheque

    Glass and the prescription lenses don't seem to be properly integrated. It looks like you are wearing two entirely separate items at the same time. They could have done a far better job.

    Glass itself looks quite stylish. simply attaching some minimalist lenses to the cross-piece might have worked better aesthetically.

    1. BongoJoe

      Glass itself looks quite stylish. simply attaching some minimalist lenses to the cross-piece might have worked better aesthetically.

      Oooh... Cyclops!

  11. apjanes

    But why...

    I'm not sure why Google didn't do them as proper glasses in the first place. Surely they could then integrate the screen right into the lense, hide the processor behind the ear and make people look less like idiots when wearing them!

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: But why...

      I presume it must be because of people who need glasses. If you can't see to read the screen without glasses, then you can't integrate the screen into the lens. It has to be the other side of it.

  12. Dick Emery

    Complete shite

    I have an issue where I can't see close things with my glasses on and can only see distant things. I can get bifocals but I didn't want to have to keep tilting my head up and down between blurry and non-blurry vision. The top of the glasses would be the distant vision so where this sits it at the top would not work for me. Also why can't these just be attached to regular glasses? Why the fuck do I have to buy a new pair of glasses? It's can't be hard to make a version that just clips to the side of regular glasses after all.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "it looks bloody ridiculous"

    You mean like people zigzaging on the street head down eyes and ears locked on the phone they're clutching to? Yep! Bloody ridiculous! You one of those? Oh! I'm sorry.

  14. Dr_N

    Not sure this isn't good product marketing...

    ...Position towards people who already have to use eyewear anyway.

    Good pair of specs and lenses can cost 500 quid anyway.

    Maybe 3D TV would have been a bigger hit if they'd gone down this route.

    (Or not.)

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm sure the Motion Picture Association will force the embedding of some sort of unique code into recorded video so the glassholes who record the vid can be ID'd.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      There will be some sort of flashing pattern that triggers the Glass to send a message to the MPAA to tell them you're recording a movie.

  16. Eddy Ito

    SunGlass?

    Tell me about the lenses. As a boat person, mine are polarized and I frequently have to tilt my head or the screen to see led displays because the polarization angle is often mismatched and the display is too dark to read easily. I assume the reason for the custom sunglasses is because they want to match up the polarization angle so that images in the Glass are clear but does this change the ability to filter reflected light from the water's surface, if they are indeed polarized of course. Not that I'd buy them mind you but I do know boaters who don't mind dropping super expensive glasses into the deep.

  17. Rol

    You've spent all your money on Google Glasses

    and now you can't afford the beer glasses!

    I guess there'll be an app for that.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Dear Reg...

    In this day and age of DRM takedowns, and after reading about the Quentin Tarantino and Gawker fiasco, I'd probably suggest not posting to a (possibly) copyright infrindging video on Youtube.

    If that is a legit poster/user/youtube channel though, move along calmly. It's just strange you have not posted the official Youtube/Google link...

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Enough already.

    Whilst it may be easy enough to fool Daily Mail readers with this pleb-talk, techy people here are not so easy to fool.

    The camera in Google Glass is only one part of the story (and no different from owning a smartphone with a camera). The real story of Google Glass, and the bit that offers REAL innovative ideas is the HUD.

    Remember when we all dreamed of having head up displays that showed cool stuff, well it's happening, don't let the braindead plebs distract you with all the camera talk....

    You can bet Microsoft is pulling the strings somewhere along the line, upto the eve they have something similar to sell, at which point, their spin armies will receive the order to suddenly call it cool...

    1. Gray Ham Bronze badge

      Won't somebody please think of the children ...

      "don't let the braindead plebs distract you with all the camera talk...."

      I suspect a lot of the "camera talk" may also have to do with security and privacy issues about people being able to film hands-free without anyone else being aware.

      In my workplace, there are quite strict (legislated) secrecy provisions, so it probably wouldn't be acceptable to have someone wandering around with a device that could film screens and/or documents without anyone knowing. And I'm sure we wouldn't be unique in having these concerns.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Won't somebody please think of the children ...

        "I suspect a lot of the "camera talk" may also have to do with security and privacy issues about people being able to film hands-free without anyone else being aware."

        What privacy? What, in public?

        You obviously don't care that you are being recorded all the time in public places? Is it because you don't see the camera on someones head?

        The reality is everyone is pictured, all the time, covert and overt. The only difference is you see the camera in your eye line. Would you be recording everything you do/see should you be a glass wearer? I wouldn't, you people are not interesting enough to me. It is paranoia leading you to believe that another member of the public is taking pictures of you?

        Glass has the potential to change our world. If you see a speed camera, you slow down, you change your behaviors. Seeing cameras in your line of sight will change your behaviors too.

        No one likes to think they are being watched, but you are! All the time, in public places. The only privacy you have is off-line behind closed doors.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Enough already.

      "Remember when we all dreamed of having head up displays that showed cool stuff, "

      Eeerrr no, actually I can't.

    3. Tithras

      Re: Enough already.

      The difference between using a camera and glass is that a camera is obvious when in use, i.e. you lift up your phone and take a pic while pointing the phone at someone. If you wear prescription glass then you will be wearing them in a lot of inappropriate locations, from my POV, i.e. when I am taking a waz in a cubical and you walk in with your glass on.

      How do I know you didn't forget to turn of the camera / video function??? I have to take your word for it? get real lol.

      A HUD I can understand, and see a lot of useful things for, i.e. car, directions, information, but the camera is what lets it down imo remove that and you have a product which doesn't impact privacy.

  20. TheFatMan

    Zoom

    Can I zoom in likeSteve Austin?

    If I can then I'm in

  21. Herby

    But I want my Foster Grants!

    You know, I've got to be stylish. Will they work as aviator glasses like in Top Gun??

    Fashion, Fashion!! Got to look "good".

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: But I want my Foster Grants!

      "Will they work as aviator glasses like in Top Gun??

      Fashion, Fashion!! Got to look "good"."

      Just so you know:

      Aviator glasses didn't even look cool in the 80's on their first outage into the great unwashed.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Google copying Microsoft

    Yes, they also can make videos that make you want to vomit.

  23. M7S

    Remember how silly some people looked when the first bluetooth headsets came out for mobiles?

    Patience people, patience.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Remember how silly some people looked when the first bluetooth headsets came out for mobiles?

      +1 Sir. Or how silly people looked with early mobile phones. How about how silly people looked driving a horseless carriage, or when they attached miniature clocks to their wrists. Or how stupid people looked when they first wore shoes or walked upright. Tech obviously gets smaller and cleverer all the time. People are going to wear it as well as carry it. It's inevitable.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    doom predicted

    If someone walked around all day holding their smartphone outstretched in front of them as if they are videoing, I suspect there would be plenty of people who would object and there would be plenty of places glassholes would be banned from.

    Initially GG will go largely unhindered until the youtube videos start appearing of people's privacy being severely compromised. After one or two notable events there will be a large backlash against GG and many nations will introduce legislation curbing their use. Popular consensus will hold glassholes with contempt and many people will lose any inhibitions about reacting indignantly towards the wearers. Glass will become 'niche' and only used by some in private.

    If there was any way I could make money from this prediction, I would invest my own cash now, if I had any.

  25. Eradicate all BB entrants

    Such modern styles for ....

    ..... the hipster generation. Who seem to like clothes from the 80's and NHS prescription glasses.

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