Google Glass? Feh. Behold Dyson's 2001 pocket 'puter techno specs with own 'Siri' Blighty’s best-known modern inventor James Dyson is famous for his vacuum cleaners, fans and hand-dryers, but apparently he could have branched out into smartglasses and fuel cells years ago. Guy models the prototype Dyson Halo (N066) HOW FREAKIN' COOL AM I? Over 10 years ago, the Brit’s eponymous firm started working on …
i'm trying to think of popular consumer products that are 'new' in the sense that no-one has ever done something similar before -- almost every device i think of already existed in some form or another before it became popular with the masses.
When we see something become popular its usually a case of 'the right idea at the right time' - The most obvious example of this being most of Apple's more recent products - none of which were unique, they were just (arguably) better done and had that something extra that made them appealing to the broader audience and survived the push into popularity.
Also true for software, for example Angry Birds wasn't the first of its kind by any means, its just another clone.
So, that someone thought up of a google-glass-like product does not surprise me at all, after all VR headsets have been around for a long time, maybe Google is just the first to make something that will be accepted by consumers?
Sega were working on a VR headset for the Mega Drive a few years ago, but stopped because they feared the user would walk around too much and hurt themselves or be run over by a bus.
It's good to see that the Occulus Rift has overcome these issues.
Perhaps they haven't? Maybe they're assuming nobody would be monumentally stupid enough to wander around while wearing something over their eyes... Then again that's a dangerous assumption to make, so I'm sure they're consulting their lawyers on making sure the disclaimers are watertight!
Actually, we had slightly different results after being immersed in a VR session. Back in the real world, people would then walk into doors because they expected them to slide open automatically and having to remember to move your legs if you wanted to go anywhere instead of pointing. This usually resulted in a lot of wobbling around and tripping over your own feet after 20 minutes standing still. Not to mention neck ache. Lots of fun though.
It's not like Sega was inexperienced in the 3D realm. Their Master System (aka Mark III) had shutter glasses as an expensive add-on that IIRC only really worked with two games. I don't think they feared stupid players but rather people unwilling to shell out.
almost every device i think of already existed in some form or another before it became popular with the masses.
The original Sony Walkman? (Yes, miniature tape recorders pre-existed, but not for playing music to consumers as they went about their lives).
The E-cigarette?
>The original Sony Walkman? (Yes, miniature tape recorders pre-existed, but not for playing music to consumers as they went about their lives).
Sony's head honcho at the time had to make quite a few trans-Pacific business flights, so asked his minions to modify a journalist's audio recorder for music playback.
It's an evolutionary, not a revolutionary transition, though crossing a threshold level of miniturisation can open up new use-cases (carriage clock becomes fob-watch becomes wristwatch... becomes compact cheap and accurate Casio F-91W)
>The E-cigarette?
Has it origins in vaporisers used to extract essential oils from flowers for perfume making... later adopted by marijuana smokers who wanted to minimise the chemicals they inhaled. Another influence would be the sheesha or hookah, a way of enjoying tobacco that is popular in the Middle East, where the smoke is cooled and stripped of larger particles by bubbling it through water.
The compact 'e-cigarette' depends upon energy-dense Li-ion battery technology, though one can image a butane-powered version.
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