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View Full Version : Has anyone see the Beta Testing Google Glasses?



Harold Mansfield
04-06-2012, 05:05 PM
After you stop hating them for their plans of world domination, and the fact that they eerily resemble the Umbrella Corporation from Resident Evil, you have to give it to Google for innovation.
I already wear glasses. I would definitely be interested in something like this. After all, 30 years ago when the Terminator could do it, we all thought it was pretty cool.


...the prototype glasses that Google showed off look like a "pair of wrap-around glasses with a clear display that sits above the eye." With the glasses set on the bridge of your nose via small pads, a clean Google UI is then integrated directly over your vision. Bilton says there are "dozens" of models, including variations that can "sit over a person's normal eyeglasses.

The detailed demo video shows off a first-person view of an augmented day in the life of a New Yorker moving through the East Village, ending with a rooftop sunset video chat. Overlaid on the narrator's vision are weather stats, text messages, map directions, subway alerts, calendar reminders, and — of course — Google+ integration.

Google glasses deeply integrated with voice commands, video chat, location check-ins - The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-glasses-deeply-integrated-with-voice-commands-video-chat-location-check-ins/2012/04/06/gIQAREfgzS_story.html)


http://youtu.be/9c6W4CCU9M4

vangogh
04-13-2012, 12:43 AM
I saw the video last week when it was first posted. They're definitely an interesting product though I would need to try one to determine how practical they are. Can they stay out of the way or would they be an always on distraction. Are they really that much more helpful than wearing a bluetooth headset paired with a cell phone.

Think about the part where the guy's subway stop is closed and the map comes up to show him the nearest stop. Is it really that important to have that in front of your face? Odds are most people could find the nearest subway entrance as it's going to be within a few blocks. If you regular take the subway you probably know where it is already. If you don't does it save much time over pulling your phone out of your pocket? I don't think I could really answer those questions without trying the real product.

Another thought was when the guy entered The Strand and had the glasses show him where the section he was looking for was located. Is that really that hard now without glasses? That part seemed kind of silly as well as the next bit where the glasses were telling him his friend was outside.

Some people were speculating if these glasses would essentially be a bluetooth headset that needed to be paired with a cell phone. That would make sense. Otherwise the glasses probably become too heavy to wear comfortably. There's also the speculation that any real glasses will also come equipped with the usual Google ads. Have you seen this remix of the video complete with advertising.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mRF0rBXIeg

They're definitely interesting and have that cool or wow factor going for them. The first step is can Google pull this off and develop a real and affordable product. The next step is how practical that product will prove to be and whether or not most people will find them useful enough or just want one.

Harold Mansfield
04-13-2012, 08:47 AM
Ha. Yeah, I saw the spoofs and there's probably a lot of truth to them. What you said about integration to your smart phone makes the most sense.
I can see this being an option at the optometrist for your existing glasses. But you are right, it is kind of a novelty, but the future applications may prove to be really interesting.

Mechanical and Tech support applications come to mind. Space Helmets. NASCAR drivers.
A few years back, Oakey Sunglasses had a line of bluetooth glasses with an ear bud on the arm to answer your phone. This is kind of the next generation of that.

By the way, here is the Outer Limits Episode that this reminds me of. If anyone has 44 minutes to kill, it's one of my favorites, and we aren't far from it now:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/67554/outer-limits-stream-of-consciousness

vangogh
04-13-2012, 11:47 AM
I won't be surprised if many people are wearing glasses like these within a few years. I also won't be surprised if no one is. I think more natural would be for people to wear an earpiece and pulling out a screen when and where it's needed. Vision is the dominant sense for most of us and having something in our vision like this all the time might be too distracting. We'll see though. It's hard to know one way or the other without giving the glasses a spin.

I think a better design would be a flip down lens like you see with some sun glasses. Maybe an all the time audio connection with a simple flip down to get the visual when needed. Google will likely need to get the weight down of the glasses. Unless it is a bluetooth connection to a phone it's got to be heavy. Imagine wearing your cell phone on your glasses today.

But in the end they do look cool don't they?

I'll give the Outer Limits Episode a watch this weekend if I have some time.

Harold Mansfield
04-13-2012, 11:51 AM
There is a slight precedence for field of vision information with newer cars that have the heads up display. Like Cadillac's do. Not quite the same, but close.
But I assumed that there was some kind of bluetooth. I didn't think that the glasses carried all of the hardware, just merely acted as a receiver.

It may not be a big consumer hit. But I can certainly see industrial uses.
Can you imagine being able to walk across a factory floor and having a field of vision display of the status of every piece of machinery, and it's production output?
That would be cool.
Or for an electician to be able to detect anomalies and their location in a house or building before he even went inside?

It's another invention that started on Star Trek (Jordi's visor in Next Generation)
Some others:

Star Trek Communicator - Motorola Flip phone with Push to Talk
Touch Screen Consoles - Touch Screen Consoles
Star Trek Tablets - Modern Day Tablets (actually the Kindle is a dead ringer)
LCARS (Library Computer Access/Retrieval System) - Siri
Lieutenant Uhura's Ear Piece - Bluetooth
Scanning the planet's surface, Transporter lock - GPS
Tricorder - Medical PDA's, Bar Code Readers, Hand Held Scanners, QR Codes,
Big Plasma Screens - Big Plasma Screens
Phasers - Lasers

There are probably others.

vangogh
04-16-2012, 11:16 AM
Oh there would definitely be uses and I'm sure there will come a time when glasses like these are common. Whether we'll all be walking around all the time wearing them is another story, but even that could be a possibility. Some much will come down to what it's like to use an actual product. Your factory example is a good one. Easy to see the value there.

There was an article I read sometime in the last few weeks talking about screens and how in the coming years we're going to see screens everywhere. I wish I could remember where I found the article so I could point you to it. The basic idea is that our interfaces in the future are going to be us interacting with different screens everywhere.

Chalk another one up for Star Trek. Even beyond Star Trek though so much technology arises out of science fiction. The authors come up with the cool ideas and then people think about how to make those ideas a reality. I've got another Star Trek one that's still quite a ways off. I can see how 3D printing technology is pushing us toward replicators and even transports. Long way off, but the general ideas are there.

Harold Mansfield
04-16-2012, 12:40 PM
What you said about interacting with screens everywhere. There was a mainstream Sci Fi movie like that. Where everywhere you went, malls, stores, and just walking down the street...the screens would advertise to your preferences and even call you by name. If you take just what we have now, Google and Facebook's knowledge of your preferences, search habits, buying habits and brands that you follow..and add in Amazon's database just to round it out, I could totally see this being possible right now, based on the proximity of your mobile device to the receiver that powers the screen.

Edited:
It was Minority Report!


http://youtu.be/oBaiKsYUdvg

KristineS
04-16-2012, 01:02 PM
The glasses are cool, but I think, just as an everyday thing, they'd be too much of a distraction. I can see where they would have work life applications, knowing output of machinery for instance, as Harold pointed out, but I'm not sure I see the usefulness as much in every day life. Vangogh made the point, one with which I agree, that vision is the dominant sense for most of us. I'd think it would be very disorienting to have something in your line of vision like that.

Harold Mansfield
04-16-2012, 01:09 PM
Our military has been doing it for years. Blackhawk, and Fighter Jets pilots, for instance, have had that weapons targeting display over their eye for a while now. And they are flying.
But of course they are trained to use them.

vangogh
04-17-2012, 01:25 AM
I never did see Minority Report, but I've seen more than enough reference to it. I think the article I referred to above mentioned the movie too. That's the future Google an Facebook would like to drive us to. Whether or not the rest of us want it is another thing. We'll probably get there and people will develop the same ad blindness they have now and companies will look for more ways to create relevant ads that we all ignore.


Our military has been doing it for years

Yes, but I think there's a difference. A fighter pilot is highly trained to use the device and if they don't learn how it's their life on the line. It's not like they buy a display at Walmart and hop into a plane. The average person buying these glasses isn't going to have any training and lets face it most wouldn't do well even if they did. Look how people are now driving with smart phones. I've seen research suggest it's not even that we're looking away from the road, but that we become engaged with the device and so our concentration is no longer on driving.

This is what people are like now. Imagine an always on device that's constantly in their vision


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx2L9g0reNo

Harold Mansfield
04-17-2012, 02:13 AM
I totally agree with that. We already have enough devices that people don't know how to use responsibly. I can't count how many times ( when I was a Limo driver) I saw people on the strip, driving with one hand and holding a video camera with the other and LOOKING THROUGH THE VIEW FINDER.

To put it plainly , there are far too many idiots in our society to think that something like this won't cause some idiot to drive right off the edge of the Hoover Damn.

vangogh
04-17-2012, 11:42 AM
I think some of those people have driven through Boulder as well. :)

It'll be really interesting to see if and what Google actually releases as a product. I know I'd like to try a pair and see what they're like. I'm not sure any of us can know how distracting they might be without trying them. My gut tells me they will be and we'll see plenty of people tripping into mall fountains and more bad drivers, but who knows. Maybe it'll just be the same level of that we see today. Some of those tripping and bad driver behavior has more to do with the person than the device. That woman who fell into the fountain very well might have fallen into the same fountain without texting.

KristineS
04-17-2012, 12:21 PM
I'd like to try a pair just to see how distracting they can be. I would, and do, worry about the fact that so many things take our attention away from what's going on around us and what we're doing though. These glasses would be just another thing. Plus there's something to be said for just being where you are and enjoying your surroundings. If your attention is always elsewhere, that could be very stressful.

It will be interesting to see what uses are found for these glasses.

Harold Mansfield
04-18-2012, 05:02 PM
Looks like Oakley has been trying to launch something simular and have been working on it since 1997:

Oakley Inc. is developing technology that can project information directly onto lenses, putting the sunglass maker into potential competition with Google

The technology would let Oakley, a division of Italy’s Luxottica Group SpA make hardware that’s comparable with Google’s Project Glass, an experimental effort to build smartphone features into eyewear, Oakley Chief Executive Officer Colin Baden said in an interview.


Oakley Tests Technology That Would Rival Google (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-17/oakley-tests-technology-that-would-rival-google-s-project-glass.html)

hahogirl
04-19-2012, 02:58 AM
I think the glasses are interesting and it defiantly resembles some of the old sci-fi movies. Technology is developing right now…However I can’t stop thinking about Wall-E and the people in the movie. ‘Walking’ next to each other but talking through the computers, not seeing eachother etc. It’s kind of disturbing.

vangogh
04-20-2012, 12:50 AM
It'll be interesting once they're a commercial product and we see if and how they're used in practice. I can imagine these being a great device we all want and I can equally imagine these being a device that don't really offer anything useful at all. It's so hard to know without being able to try a pair.

Watchdog
04-28-2012, 11:51 AM
I've seen the article about them on a tech forum but myself... never in a million years would I use them :)

But then again I now own a smart phone :)

vangogh
04-30-2012, 11:48 AM
Never say never. I can already see you sporting the new Google glasses as you strut through town. :)

I have a hard time seeing myself use them as they currently look in the video, but who knows. Once you get past the immediate sci-fi coolness and the people who will buy them on that coolness alone, I think most people will need to see a real product and put them on before deciding if they're worth buying.

Bill Akleh
05-21-2012, 02:22 PM
To be honest it does seem pretty cool but it also would be quite confusing. I've seen glasses already for those who cannot use their hands to assist them with typing except that it realistically is very hard to navigate things with your eyes. I bet for the first month or so you'll be trying to open your e-mail only to instead be sending text messages or something like that :)

vangogh
05-21-2012, 11:42 PM
I can see that happening too. This is a product that I think we all need to actually use before we really know whether or not they'd be useful. The look cool in that sic-fi sort of way and you can see potential for them being useful. At the same time they may not so easy to use and they may not even be as useful as we think.

miliponce
07-16-2012, 05:42 AM
It does look very cool but I'm scared people are going to get addicted to these in the way kids are stuck on their smartphones. I can imagine a world where everyone's wearing these glasses in 10 years. Hmmmm

vangogh
07-16-2012, 11:41 AM
They definitely look cool. I still wonder how practical they'll be. For example would glasses like these really work better than wearing a watch with the same display? The main advantage to these glasses over your phone is that you don't have to keep taking the phone out of your pocket to check it. A watch with a display would do the same, without all the potential downsides of having the display always in your line of sight.