16 ms·

Google relaunches Glass for businesses

484 points by tsycho 9y ago

randomf1fan 9y ago
I'd be really interested in hearing from someone who uses this on the floor. Is it really all they say it is? The marketing and PR looks good, but do mechanics really love it?
- colechristensen 9y ago
  >"It took a little getting used to. But once I got used to it, it's just been awesome," Erickson says. From a pretty good NPR article from a while back. http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/03/18/514299682/google-glass-didnt-disappear-you-can-find-it-on-the-factory-floor http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/03/18/514...
  - skinnymuch 9y ago
    I was wondering the same thing as the person you answered to. Thanks for the article + audio snippet. I know the tech isn't as new anymore, but still exciting the more it gets used. Can't wait to see what comes about in a couple years for broader usages (i.e. how someone like me could utilize glasses to work better)
  - randomf1fan 9y ago
    Thanks, that was a good read.
marcusaurelius2 9y ago
Cool stuff, I'd like to try how they work!
j_hall_in 9y ago
Looks like they are using the strategy of Microsoft HoloLens here which I think makes sense. There isn't enough wide-spread value add in these augmented reality headsets for general consumer use yet, but businesses will help drive innovation until that time comes.
Zhenya 9y ago
No info on the HW, that's the interesting part. How did they solve battery life issues etc
- MBCook 9y ago
  Even when given to developers the chip was last-gen IIRC. If they took a modern processor with the same power (or possibly more) I'd assume they could lower the power draw by a fair bit. Did glass have cellular? Dropping that could do a lot too. It's a good question.
  - Zhenya 9y ago
    Glass did not have cellular, just BT & WiFi iirc.
- kharms 9y ago
  In an industrial setting they don't really need to solve that problem. Battery low? Swap out the glasses for another pair.
  - spenczar5 9y ago
    I'm not sure that's true. One of the examples has a tech working at the top of a wind turbine. Maybe he's supposed to bring up a backup battery pack?
    - euyyn 9y ago
      Just plug it to the wind turbine's output for a couple seconds :P
  - soundwave106 9y ago
    Yep. There's also external battery packs, which probably not a problem for some jobs. However, there were some other issues I encountered in previous (early) Google Glass development that I wonder if they have been resolved: - Google Glass devices were prone to overheating to the point of shutting down, so it was not possible to do anything terribly computationally intensive. - Support for more corporate oriented wifi protocols (eg LEAP) was marginal; the Glass even had trouble making an initial connection to a hidden SSIDs on a standard WPA2 network. - Barcode scanner support is based on camera image capture; unfortunately small barcodes were difficult to impossible to scan with the Glass as a result (both due to the need to position the code close to the camera, and the nature of the camera that made closeups of small barcodes very blurry).
MBCook 9y ago
A lot of fluff here, but not much substance. I see how having large manuals or paper lists in your field of view could be very useful. Does it work well for employees with classes? I assume they've updated the chip inside to something less power-hungry. Does it get reasonable battery life now? Why do doctors need Glass to record notes in the background? Couldn't any computer run that software?
- djsumdog 9y ago
  > Why do doctors need Glass to record notes in the background? Couldn't any computer run that software? I'm guessing this might have to do with voice recognition tech and the doctor being able to see the notes visually. If it picks up something incorrectly, maybe the doc just turns to the computer and corrects it?
  - jfoster 9y ago
    Still sounds as though a laptop would be better. Perhaps it's now improved, but the Glass screen wasn't nearly as clear to read from as a MacBook Pro screen.
- lgg 9y ago
  It is not about recording the interactions, it is about processing the content. Every time a doctor has to interact with a computer it is time they are not interacting with their patient. Augmedix has teams of medical scribes who watch the video stream from the glass and actively scribe the data and entering it into EHRs (electronic health records), so the doctors are free to spend the time actually talking to their patients. Doctors have used voice recorders for decades, but those are not as effective for several reasons: 1) They need to be transcribed later, and since they are audio recording without the video it often means that doctor has to do it since they are the only one with context. That can add several hours of work a day. By sending it over to a remote scribe the patient gets more of the doctors time, the doctor spends less time on paperwork related to each patient, and the data is available in the EHR sooner. 2) If the doctor has any questions about past results they can just ask the scribe who finds the info and sends them a text message back which is displayed in the HUD. That takes less time than swapping to a laptop. Now one could imagine that in the future a lot of the tasks could be done by AI rather than humans, but if you have looked at medical IT and EHRs you know we are a long way from that. In any event using glass would still be a win: the AI would probably work better getting the live video stream (to improve its ability to accurately chart, etc), and patients tend to be happier when their doctor is interacting with them and not a computer. Disclaimer: My girlfriend works for Augmedix
kharms 9y ago
>>Glass is also helping healthcare professionals. Doctors at Dignity Health have been using Glass with an application our partner Augmedix calls “a remote scribe”. My primary care doctor has a human scribe. The scribe is a recent graduate (BS), planning on going to med school next year. Being physically in the room, watching the doctor work is a great benefit to her. I'm not sure she'd benefit as much from watching a live stream. Additionally, as a patient I wouldn't be comfortable being recorded.
- ape4 9y ago
  Just disrobe while I record you with my cyborg glasses. Now, please describe your embarrassing medical problem. (However, it seems like a great idea for other situations.)
  - bitdeveloper 9y ago
    I wonder if there would be room for a public key / dual encryption for the video produced that both the doctor and the patient would need to sign off on to view the video, or something like that, to add some kind of viewing trail/authentication/authorization. I mean, who's to say any given doctor's office doesn't have a hidden camera/microphone somewhere anyway.
    - pavel_lishin 9y ago
      > I mean, who's to say any given doctor's office doesn't have a hidden camera/microphone somewhere anyway. If you're having paranoid delusions, visiting a doctor's office may be a good start, despite the small possibility of hidden cameras and microphones.
    - chipperyman573 9y ago
      Well, you have a reasonable expectation of privacy in a doctor's office (when the door is closed), so even in single-party recording states this would be illegal. Also, HIPPA wouldn't allow this, so the doctor's office would be fined pretty heavily for every patient recorded.
  - 9y ago
aresant 9y ago
This is so !@%!@ cool. Check out the A/B test of a technician with / without the software referenced in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5gXuZp25f0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5gXuZp25f0 Then here's a video that gives a sense of the software's interface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5HOHNECW20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5HOHNECW20 Very workflow oriented with nice communication and lookup features. This is the kind of small optimization stuff that is going to be revolutionary to driving macro productivity. Amazing!
- theptip 9y ago
  Is there a good reason they don't put that large manual up on a rack by the actual work area?
  - sloppycee 9y ago
    The cynic in me thinks they did that on purpose, the further they put the manual from the task the greater the efficiency gain of their software.
    - takeda 9y ago
      Actually if it was next to him, the traditional way might be faster due to possible problems with voice recognition. I would imagine it would be especially bad in loud places.
      - kbenson 9y ago
        If it was right next to him, it might be faster but they might have found that it was likely to cause people to merge steps, and that lead to an overall lesser quality and accuracy in a system where those are at a premium. It's possible that what looks like an inefficiency was a purposeful bit of process engineering to hack human nature for a better overall end result. With step level verification through photographs, it's possible they might get similar results with this system but without the forced inefficiency.
  - 9y ago
theptip 9y ago
This seems to me the obvious use-case for AR technology, but Hololens looks further along than Glass; I'd be interested to see where they have got with any comparable Hololens projects.
- sbarre 9y ago
  Hololens, in its current state, is much bulkier and more expensive to deploy... It's probably also way more expensive to design & build the experience and content for Hololens' interface.. Glass just needs video, text and a 2D navigation interface (I'm being reductive here but you get my point).. You could of course do that kind of interface for Hololens too, but then why not just use Glass?
- thebooktocome 9y ago
  Having worked with a hololens, it is horrible to integrate with.
- fenwick67 9y ago
  Hololens is really for AR, Glass is more for "HUD" type applications. Glass doesn't have a way to track the real world or align it with your view the way Hololens does. Glass is basically just a tiny phone on your glasses.
shiftpgdn 9y ago
My cynical view of this is that it's the final death knell for industrial work. Why hire someone with experience or talent when you just need a warm body to follow the ikea instructions and turn screws? It reminds me of the dystopian short story "Manna"[1] where all workers wear a Google Glass like device and an AI controls them. [1] http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
deleted 9y ago
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djsumdog 9y ago
This is cool and all, and I'm glad the concept didn't totally die, but will consumers ever see this type of wearable tech again? Some people shelled out over $1k when Google initially offered glass prototypes, only to be left with unmaintained devices. I honestly though Glass would have done better if it had no recording capabilities built-in. It would have substantially reduced the creepiness factor. It's sad that no one has come in and tried to tackle the heads-up wearable market. Sony has some glasses that looked terrible, and I guess the battery life issues are still too big for many manufacturers to overcome?
- giobox 9y ago
  > I honestly though(t) Glass would have done better if it had no recording capabilities built-in. It would have substantially reduced the creepiness factor. Outside of the tech community this is a distinction I imagine few would make - most people upon seeing a camera are going to not unreasonably assume it can record. I still see large numbers of people taping over their laptop webcams even when they are turned off. I think the simpler explanation is that strapping a camera to your face is simply inappropriate or off-putting in some social settings for many people.
  - pm90 9y ago
    > I think the simpler explanation is that strapping a camera to your face is simply inappropriate or off-putting in some social settings, at least with today's typical social norms. Didn't help that the only people who did/could/would buy the first glass prototypes were nerds who apparently started using them in bars and clubs. That solidified its image as "creepy". Contrast it with Spectacles, a product designed to record as much as possible. But since it was marketed/targeted towards "cool" people, it never got the creepy trait.
    - giobox 9y ago
      The typical use case for Spectacles, at least as I see it, is a little different though. Spectacles is much more like a Go Pro, in that I will be out doing some kind of activity I want to share with friends. People also typically don't wear sunglasses indoors, my expectation of privacy is very different outdoors vs indoors. The approach with Google Glass was very different, where Google were arguably prototyping a device intended to be worn all the time, including indoors and in scenarios were people typically would not normally expect to be photographed or filmed.
deleted 9y ago
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morley 9y ago
Has anyone here worked on a Glass app? How is the UI programmed? Does it require a special programming paradigm like VR, or are these instruction manual HUDs basically just PDF viewers?
- jimrandomh 9y ago
  I tried developing back when it was Glass XE. It's Android, except closed source and with a custom app replacing the home screen. It was the worst development experience I've ever had, by a large margin.
- lnanek2 9y ago
  Initially you could just write Android apps. Every OS release broke the standard features more and more, however, and you were pretty much forced into their special programming paradigms, yes. For example, originally swiping emulated the d-pad buttons, but that was removed. For a long time you could pair Bluetooth keyboards, mice, and trackpads, but then they broke that for a long time. It may have been added back recently. Modern era there is a "Mirror API" that's a very limited web based API for serving "cards" to the device and there's a a native SDK with a few hooks for registering for pre-selected voice commands and showing activities with various amounts of liveliness or graphics capability vs. static cards. So if you are just publishing cards with standard menu actions you can write server side only in Python and several other languages and just communicate with Google's servers. If you want a more native experience you write in Java using an SDK originally based on Android.
  - glenneroo 9y ago
    Someone else posted this somewhere in here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14608894 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14608894 Basically they pushed an update out a couple weeks ago (after almost 3 years of nothing) which added Bluetooth device support.
- IshKebab 9y ago
  I haven't written an app but I've used Glass. It's not AR. It's much more like an Android Wear watch just help up in your field of view.
projectramo 9y ago
I know Glass, or something like it, will be great. But I don't know which combination of features + killer app will unlock the thing. HN has probably mentioned this before but is there a reason Google makes announcements on Medium and not on Blogger? I would do the same thing if I had a choice, but Google could just make the formatting on Blogger better.
- ben_jones 9y ago
  Automatically send the last 24hr of visual to fast-track airport security?
  - projectramo 9y ago
    This sends a clear message to all would-be assailants: wait at least a day after your planning is complete.
    - saimiam 9y ago
      The history of you.
      - projectramo 9y ago
        We can already obsess about memories using social media, but this would take it to level 3.
        saimiam 9y ago
        Oh man, if you haven't seen that black mirror episode, you should stop any other binge watching and watch it. It's amazing.
        projectramo 9y ago
        I have seen it! That's why I made a reference to obsessing about our memories. I am a huge black mirror fan.
payne92 9y ago
It's easy to armchair quarterback this stuff after the fact, but this is where Glass should have started. The price point, social stigma/issues, and use cases all screamed "business applications!". Consumer tech may be where the glamour and scale are, but it's not always the best market entry point.
- lallysingh 9y ago
  And the glamor. If you started on the manufacturing side, it wouldn't have any caché when walking down the street. But if you started with a bunch of models on a runway wearing these, you would. They tried going lux consumer and failed. But if they went the manufacturing route first, they would've burned any chance of the other.
  - oliv__ 9y ago
    I don't agree. They could've used the manufacturing side to enhance the tech, get the components to a cheaper price point, maybe even slim down the whole thing and then when they felt ready to enter the consumer market, spin it off as something new under another consumer-only brand.
    - Hailie343 9y ago
      like Dawn replied I'm shocked that someone able to profit $8730 in a few weeks on the > internet . you can try this out>>>>>>>>>>>http://www.joinmate2.Com http://www.joinmate2.Com
    - abraae 9y ago
      Or they could have let someone else take all of the "glasshole" flak, then arrived after that with a trusted, safe, Google product that addressed the concerns. As they say, you can spot the pioneers because they're the ones with the arrows sticking out of their backs.
  - rjsw 9y ago
    ITYM cachet, not caché.
sharemywin 9y ago
Aw...how cute they look like little borg lite.
omot 9y ago
I don't know what it is about it, but the design is so cringey. Even on a professional, it just looks... bad.
- marsRoverDev 9y ago
  In a world where people are forced to wear hi-vis and safety goggles, I don't think people on a shop floor are going to particularly care about looking good if it makes their job easier.
  - LeifCarrotson 9y ago
    Don't forget those formal white (OK, heavy canvas or leather) gloves to complete your outfit, nor the essential steel-toe boots! They're at the peak of high-fashion footwear. You can look even better if you're only on the shop floor part-time and get to don colorful Oshatoes over your dress shoes: https://www.oshatoes.com/collections/toe-protection/products/visitor-steel-toe-classic-pvc https://www.oshatoes.com/collections/toe-protection/products...
- imgabe 9y ago
  Would you cringe about wearing safety goggles, a climbing harness, or a hazmat suit? It's supposed to be a tool, not a fashion statement.
  - omot 9y ago
    I don't know if google glasses is comparable to safety goggles / climbing harness or a hazmat suit. I think it's more comparable to my laptop. There are a lot of companies that provides macs to all their employees, because employees think they're more stylish than their windows counterpart.
- notatoad 9y ago
  "looks bad" is subjective. If it's useful, people will wear it, and after people start wearing it and you get used to how it looks, it'll stop looking bad. You know what else looks bad? Hard Hats.
gfodor 9y ago
I've never understood why they insist on having the device be visually asymmetric. Just put a piece of plastic on the other side that is non-functional, and the "cyborg effect" basically goes away. The human brain hates asymmetric faces. Such a stupid oversight, may have been enough to save the consumer effort if they did this from the get-go.
- xxs 9y ago
  Leave that 'piece o'plastic' stuff, the extra room can be utilized as extra battery.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Helps balance things too, you'll be less weight-constrained with symmetric design.
  - notatoad 9y ago
    that'll increase the weight though.
    - function_seven 9y ago
      I think it’s better to have balanced weight, even if it means more. While it might be annoying to have more weight on the bridge of your nose and over your ears, it’s even more annoying to have an off-center moment of force. It’s like carrying one 12-pack of beer rather than two.
  - Nyubis 9y ago
    That's how the Snapchat Spectacles work: one side contains the camera, bluetooth and other electronics, the other side contains the battery.
- Helmet 9y ago
  I think having a piece of nonfunctional plastic on the other side would be silly and, by definition, useless. I think they look pretty sleek, especially in an industrial setting - also, asymmetry doesn't always look bad. I'm reminded of BMW motorcycles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9SIS4izLqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9SIS4izLqE and: http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2009/march/mar2709-history-of-bmws-wonky-headlights/ http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2009/march/mar2709-histor...
tqi 9y ago
For the manufacturing example, why is this better than having a simple 7-10 inch tablet? For the doctor example, why is this better than a simple body cam, or even a camera that is wall or desk mounted?
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  > For the manufacturing example, why is this better than having a simple 7-10 inch tablet? Hands-free operation. Honestly, I'd love to use it all the time, instead of my smartphone. There are so many cases in which you want to have the screen in your FOV, but your hands free, not just at work... > For the doctor example, why is this better than a simple body cam, or even a camera that is wall or desk mounted? It probably isn't, unless the doctor can also utilize a display for something. Otherwise it's just an expensive (and quite likely crappy, compared to other available options) camera.
  - tqi 9y ago
    Wouldn't you still need to use your hands to control the text? To be clear, I'm not saying there isn't a problem to be solved, I am questioning that "small screen that you can look through" is the right form factor for any of these problems.
  - projektfu 9y ago
    It's nice to have a camera that follows your perspective, because you might need two hands to be able to see what you want. For example, if you're parting someone's hair or looking into their mouth with a tongue depressor.
    - mgamache 9y ago
      hard to overstate the importance of POV for some applications (including remote medicine).
0xfab1 9y ago
That makes me want a pair that's installed with an app that shows relevant stackoverflow answers as I code.
- e12e 9y ago
  But why would you want to wear something like this, for that? I can see how an editor/IDE plugin might be useful (a la racer for rust etc) - that would update a section of the screen with tips - but I don't think I'd like to have this on a completely different device. Now, with a full vr headset, it might make sense to be able to place such things outside of the normal field of vision (where your text/code editing resides) - but so far I don' think working full time in VR with text is a great idea, with the current generation of headsets.
  - sigstoat 9y ago
    > But why would you want to wear something like this, for that? can't have other folks knowing you're looking things up on SO. it'd ruin your mystique.
oliwarner 9y ago
Some of this stuff is so obviously cool but remember the cost of efficiency. 30% time saved means one person does more in their day. This has a personal toll because working less intensively gave you time to think and physically rest. You're at it non-stop now. And that also means you need 30% fewer employees to manage the same workload. That's going to be the trade-off here. How many people will have to go just to offset the hardware and software costs? I don't know what I'm arguing here... I'm finding it hard to avoid quoting Ian Malcolm in the context but I think we have to remember there are definite downsides to treating people like underutilised machinery.
- jessriedel 9y ago
  This sort of thinking would be more useful if it was specific to Glass. As is, it's just a general worry with most ways to make humans more productive.
- NicoJuicy 9y ago
  Being able to work more had never really changed a thing in the grand scheme of all things ( Ford,.. ). Everything automated like a human is a real challenge, in my perspective
- aeontech 9y ago
  > working less intensively gave you time to think and physically rest I don't buy this argument, honestly. By extension, you're saying we should go back to manual book-keeping instead of computers to do accounting, because it would employ more accountants, and let them work at a more relaxed pace. Looking up documentation, for example, is not an intellectually demanding task. Instead of going back and forth between printed reference, being distracted, forgetting what you read and having to re-check it, this helps reduce the feedback loop and that makes work more intellectually engaging and interesting because the worker can focus on things that actually require thought, rather than menial tasks. People will still take breaks and slack off, it's human nature, and they should be able to, if you demand continued unbroken attention, you will end up with people who make a lot more mistakes, I expect (citation needed). I am much more worried about automated performance metrics and gamification of work, those do offer levers for the employers to push the employees beyond sane limits.
mafuyu 9y ago
Sounds like they've found a great enterprise usecase, and I hope they can keep improving the device to bring it to consumers once again. I was able to snag a Glass for a good price when they killed support (before selling it off again after a couple months). I enjoyed using it, and being on a college campus at the time reduced some of the social awkwardness. I could push notifications to my face with IFTTT and the voice recognition worked reasonably well. Ironically, I found the most useful feature to be the camera. It's liberating to be able to wink and get a snapshot of whatever is in your field of view, whether it's some info you want to remember or a small moment you want to share. I'm on vacation now and find myself fumbling with my phone to take snaps of interesting things I want to share way too often.
- kbenson 9y ago
  > I'm on vacation now and find myself fumbling with my phone to take snaps of interesting things I want to share way too often. I just got back from vacation, and I agree. The whole process of taking pictures with my phone feels so cumbersome and annoying, especially for short lived scenes. It's locked and in my pocket for security and safety because I don't like to walk around holding my phone when I'm trying to enjoy the moment. It feels like I could either have the phone be an appendage and then have fairly easy picture capability, or actually be present in the moment but then it's substandard for taking impromptu pictures. I wouldn't have as much of a problem with a dedicated device, as I wouldn't necessarily be as worried about breaking or giving someone access to the device that contains details about every aspect of my life. Alternately, something designed to be an appendage but in an unobtrusive way (to the user, at least) might be just as good or better, as you suggest.
  - jerrylives 9y ago
    I believe the device you seek is called...a camera
    - kbenson 9y ago
      Yes, but I was being generic to be inclusive of both a camera and Glass. Not to mention, camera has became almost as fuzzy a definition as phone, considering all the features they pack into some of them these days...
ensiferum 9y ago
I'm sure standard software TOS apply. I.e. Software vendor is not responsible for any errors omissions or mistakes it presents to the mechanic.
megamindbrian 9y ago
This is such bullshit. I applied for their private beta and never got a response.
stutterSpeaker 9y ago
I hated it when they abandoned it, because I was so excited about the tech for so long. I think maybe the public just wasn't ready for it then. They probably still aren't now, but this could be an excellent way for them to get more comfortable with it.
e12e 9y ago
I'd be more exited if it looked like Google had addressed some of Steve Mann's critiques from the initial announcement, but as far as I can tell, the critique is still not addressed: http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/steve-mann-my-augmediated-life http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/steve-mann-my-au... (For discussion on Glass design, look for the paragraph starting: "I have mixed feelings") FWIW it appears Mann is working with a company on a different system for mediated reality: https://www.metavision.com/ https://www.metavision.com/
- joshuamorton 9y ago
  Those appear to critique glass as an AR system, which it doesn't appear to be marketed as.
jessriedel 9y ago
> The mechanics moved carefully, putting down tools and climbing up and down ladders to consult paper instructions in between steps... Fast forward to today, and GE’s mechanics now use Glass running software from our partner Upskill, which shows them instructions with videos, animations and images right in their line of sight so they don’t have to stop work to check their binders or computer to know what to do next. The article makes it sound like Google glass is the first to do anything like this, and it was all paper manuals before that. In fact, aircraft manufacturers have been using smart glasses for years to augment workers. http://www.engineering.com/AdvancedManufacturing/ArticleID/14634/Airbus-Uses-Smart-Glasses-to-Improve-Manufacturing-Efficiency.aspx http://www.engineering.com/AdvancedManufacturing/ArticleID/1... Maybe Glass is a significant improvement, but it's not unprecedented.
- THE_PUN_STOPS 9y ago
  Smart glasses in aviation manufacturing was actually a key plot point in Michael Chrichton's 1997 novel Airframe. [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airframe_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airframe_(novel)
beebmam 9y ago
I actually am really sad Glass didn't take off. When it was available, I was unemployed. I'd love to get my hands on a new version of it, if google were ever to release a new version for the public.
tlb 9y ago
It seems disingenuous to pitch it as an improvement over a ring binder of documents. The question is whether it's an improvement over an iPad on a stand beside your work.
matunixe 9y ago
Fuck you Google. Get off my life.
- sctb 9y ago
  Please don't post like this on Hacker News. https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
LyalinDotCom 9y ago
Kudos to Google for continuing to invest into this product, it really has long-term potential and we need all the big players in this space to drive competition forward.
phyller 9y ago
Nice. This is what the original launch should have been like. Help doctors use this to provide better care and no one is going to be calling anyone a "glasshole"
- intjesus 9y ago
  Exactly what I thought
zxcvvcxz 9y ago
Super excited, that top image is literally me in the garage sometimes, albeit with safety goggles. Can these provide eye protection from bits of flying metal while one is drilling? Will keep digging through the page.
dragonwriter 9y ago
Headline is neither source headline not technically accurate; while X started life as Google X before the Alphabet reorg, it's a separate subsidiary of Alphabet from Google. This story is about X, not Google.
irrational 9y ago
I'd love to have something like this to show me step by step how to do repairs on my car or an appliance. Recently I was fixing the turn signal lever in my car by referring to youtube videos. It would be awesome if I could just download to the device a file for whatever thing I need to fix and it just walks me through the steps.
singularity2001 9y ago
x.company interesting domain name! one letter 'domain' six letter TLD
- egfx 9y ago
  interestingly x.com is owned by Elon Musk. He tweeted about it four days ago.. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/885776126148083712 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/885776126148083712
ajmurmann 9y ago
This feels like it's getting us one step closer to the vision of the early stage control by AI that is described in Manna: http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm Obviously the AI part isn't there but we now have a fabulous interface to have complex tasked aided/guided by AI. This in combination with what's already going on in Amazon warehouses and we are pretty close to the description of how fast food restaurants are run in the story.
amelius 9y ago
A few questions: - Can only businesses buy Glass? - What is the pricing model? Is this sold as a product, or is it paid for as a subscription service? - Will there be a "play store" equivalent for software for Glass?
- mgamache 9y ago
  it will be through VARs (there is no play store).
mshiran 9y ago
very cool!
mshiran 9y ago
very cool!
BatFastard 9y ago
SAD, its black and white! I recall Mondo2000 challenging every color scheme ever created. Lime greens and oranges!
tastyfreeze 9y ago
I have always thought that the perfect application for wearable head mounted displays would be mechanical repair. I would love to be able to pull up the maintenance manual for my vehicle and have the glasses overlay part names, fastener sizes, and torque settings for whatever part I was looking at. This is a step in that direction.
NamTaf 9y ago
This is precisely the application I first imagined when I saw it. Being able to pull up exploded views of an assembly, having reference information for something you've got both hands inside, etc. is invaluable. I can't count the number of times I've had to extract both my arms from inside a machine (in doing so losing the information of where precisely i'm holding stuff and the bearings that provides you), wipe off all the grease, dust, grime, etc., thumb through a pile of papers that still get dirty and then mentally translate a 2D drawing to what I'm working on, only to then lose my place and have to work it all out again. Having something voice controlled and right there in front of my eyes would be invaluable. Industry really is the perfect environment for this. Safety issues notwithstanding (which you can work through), it's really the best application of this technology and you can quickly quantify a RoI from its implementation.
pessimizer 9y ago
This was completely predictable, and what everyone suggested as Glass failed for consumers; the fact that they're doing this now doesn't necessarily represent any success or particular efficaciousness discovered during the pilot programs. The fact that it took this long to roll out and announce publicly is a bad sign, though. They may have just run out of time, and were forced from above to make their best try at it.
dfee 9y ago
I was an early member of Pristine (the Google Glass company that Upskill recently acquired) where I began as a developer, and then landed our first paid deal at the end of 2014. We used to buy the glasses for $1500 a piece and had a probably 50 pairs of them lying around by early 2015. The engineering team was great - while I was there it felt like we were flying blind wrt Google’s official support. From a business perspective, I’m not sure product market fit was really ever achieved, though after I left the company expanded its horizons beyond healthcare / telemedicine. Good luck to Upskill :)
bhnmmhmd 9y ago
It's probably not related to this article per se, but isn't it weird that "x.com" is owned by Elon Musk while the actual company - which is a branch of Alphabet - has to use "x.company"?

484 points by tsycho 9y ago

I'd be really interested in hearing from someone who uses this on the floor. Is it really all they say it is? The marketing and PR looks good, but do mechanics really love it?

colechristensen 9y ago
>"It took a little getting used to. But once I got used to it, it's just been awesome," Erickson says. From a pretty good NPR article from a while back. http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/03/18/514299682/google-glass-didnt-disappear-you-can-find-it-on-the-factory-floor http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/03/18/514...
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  I was wondering the same thing as the person you answered to. Thanks for the article + audio snippet. I know the tech isn't as new anymore, but still exciting the more it gets used. Can't wait to see what comes about in a couple years for broader usages (i.e. how someone like me could utilize glasses to work better)
- randomf1fan 9y ago
  Thanks, that was a good read.

marcusaurelius2 9y ago

Cool stuff, I'd like to try how they work!

j_hall_in 9y ago

Looks like they are using the strategy of Microsoft HoloLens here which I think makes sense. There isn't enough wide-spread value add in these augmented reality headsets for general consumer use yet, but businesses will help drive innovation until that time comes.

Zhenya 9y ago

No info on the HW, that's the interesting part. How did they solve battery life issues etc

MBCook 9y ago
Even when given to developers the chip was last-gen IIRC. If they took a modern processor with the same power (or possibly more) I'd assume they could lower the power draw by a fair bit. Did glass have cellular? Dropping that could do a lot too. It's a good question.
- Zhenya 9y ago
  Glass did not have cellular, just BT & WiFi iirc.
kharms 9y ago
In an industrial setting they don't really need to solve that problem. Battery low? Swap out the glasses for another pair.
- spenczar5 9y ago
  I'm not sure that's true. One of the examples has a tech working at the top of a wind turbine. Maybe he's supposed to bring up a backup battery pack?
  - euyyn 9y ago
    Just plug it to the wind turbine's output for a couple seconds :P
- soundwave106 9y ago
  Yep. There's also external battery packs, which probably not a problem for some jobs. However, there were some other issues I encountered in previous (early) Google Glass development that I wonder if they have been resolved: - Google Glass devices were prone to overheating to the point of shutting down, so it was not possible to do anything terribly computationally intensive. - Support for more corporate oriented wifi protocols (eg LEAP) was marginal; the Glass even had trouble making an initial connection to a hidden SSIDs on a standard WPA2 network. - Barcode scanner support is based on camera image capture; unfortunately small barcodes were difficult to impossible to scan with the Glass as a result (both due to the need to position the code close to the camera, and the nature of the camera that made closeups of small barcodes very blurry).

MBCook 9y ago

A lot of fluff here, but not much substance. I see how having large manuals or paper lists in your field of view could be very useful. Does it work well for employees with classes? I assume they've updated the chip inside to something less power-hungry. Does it get reasonable battery life now? Why do doctors need Glass to record notes in the background? Couldn't any computer run that software?

djsumdog 9y ago
> Why do doctors need Glass to record notes in the background? Couldn't any computer run that software? I'm guessing this might have to do with voice recognition tech and the doctor being able to see the notes visually. If it picks up something incorrectly, maybe the doc just turns to the computer and corrects it?
- jfoster 9y ago
  Still sounds as though a laptop would be better. Perhaps it's now improved, but the Glass screen wasn't nearly as clear to read from as a MacBook Pro screen.
lgg 9y ago
It is not about recording the interactions, it is about processing the content. Every time a doctor has to interact with a computer it is time they are not interacting with their patient. Augmedix has teams of medical scribes who watch the video stream from the glass and actively scribe the data and entering it into EHRs (electronic health records), so the doctors are free to spend the time actually talking to their patients. Doctors have used voice recorders for decades, but those are not as effective for several reasons: 1) They need to be transcribed later, and since they are audio recording without the video it often means that doctor has to do it since they are the only one with context. That can add several hours of work a day. By sending it over to a remote scribe the patient gets more of the doctors time, the doctor spends less time on paperwork related to each patient, and the data is available in the EHR sooner. 2) If the doctor has any questions about past results they can just ask the scribe who finds the info and sends them a text message back which is displayed in the HUD. That takes less time than swapping to a laptop. Now one could imagine that in the future a lot of the tasks could be done by AI rather than humans, but if you have looked at medical IT and EHRs you know we are a long way from that. In any event using glass would still be a win: the AI would probably work better getting the live video stream (to improve its ability to accurately chart, etc), and patients tend to be happier when their doctor is interacting with them and not a computer. Disclaimer: My girlfriend works for Augmedix

kharms 9y ago

>>Glass is also helping healthcare professionals. Doctors at Dignity Health have been using Glass with an application our partner Augmedix calls “a remote scribe”. My primary care doctor has a human scribe. The scribe is a recent graduate (BS), planning on going to med school next year. Being physically in the room, watching the doctor work is a great benefit to her. I'm not sure she'd benefit as much from watching a live stream. Additionally, as a patient I wouldn't be comfortable being recorded.

ape4 9y ago
Just disrobe while I record you with my cyborg glasses. Now, please describe your embarrassing medical problem. (However, it seems like a great idea for other situations.)
- bitdeveloper 9y ago
  I wonder if there would be room for a public key / dual encryption for the video produced that both the doctor and the patient would need to sign off on to view the video, or something like that, to add some kind of viewing trail/authentication/authorization. I mean, who's to say any given doctor's office doesn't have a hidden camera/microphone somewhere anyway.
  - pavel_lishin 9y ago
    > I mean, who's to say any given doctor's office doesn't have a hidden camera/microphone somewhere anyway. If you're having paranoid delusions, visiting a doctor's office may be a good start, despite the small possibility of hidden cameras and microphones.
  - chipperyman573 9y ago
    Well, you have a reasonable expectation of privacy in a doctor's office (when the door is closed), so even in single-party recording states this would be illegal. Also, HIPPA wouldn't allow this, so the doctor's office would be fined pretty heavily for every patient recorded.
- 9y ago

aresant 9y ago

This is so !@%!@ cool. Check out the A/B test of a technician with / without the software referenced in the article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5gXuZp25f0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5gXuZp25f0 Then here's a video that gives a sense of the software's interface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5HOHNECW20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5HOHNECW20 Very workflow oriented with nice communication and lookup features. This is the kind of small optimization stuff that is going to be revolutionary to driving macro productivity. Amazing!

theptip 9y ago
Is there a good reason they don't put that large manual up on a rack by the actual work area?
- sloppycee 9y ago
  The cynic in me thinks they did that on purpose, the further they put the manual from the task the greater the efficiency gain of their software.
  - takeda 9y ago
    Actually if it was next to him, the traditional way might be faster due to possible problems with voice recognition. I would imagine it would be especially bad in loud places.
    - kbenson 9y ago
      If it was right next to him, it might be faster but they might have found that it was likely to cause people to merge steps, and that lead to an overall lesser quality and accuracy in a system where those are at a premium. It's possible that what looks like an inefficiency was a purposeful bit of process engineering to hack human nature for a better overall end result. With step level verification through photographs, it's possible they might get similar results with this system but without the forced inefficiency.
- 9y ago

theptip 9y ago

This seems to me the obvious use-case for AR technology, but Hololens looks further along than Glass; I'd be interested to see where they have got with any comparable Hololens projects.

sbarre 9y ago
Hololens, in its current state, is much bulkier and more expensive to deploy... It's probably also way more expensive to design & build the experience and content for Hololens' interface.. Glass just needs video, text and a 2D navigation interface (I'm being reductive here but you get my point).. You could of course do that kind of interface for Hololens too, but then why not just use Glass?
thebooktocome 9y ago
Having worked with a hololens, it is horrible to integrate with.
fenwick67 9y ago
Hololens is really for AR, Glass is more for "HUD" type applications. Glass doesn't have a way to track the real world or align it with your view the way Hololens does. Glass is basically just a tiny phone on your glasses.

shiftpgdn 9y ago

My cynical view of this is that it's the final death knell for industrial work. Why hire someone with experience or talent when you just need a warm body to follow the ikea instructions and turn screws? It reminds me of the dystopian short story "Manna"[1] where all workers wear a Google Glass like device and an AI controls them. [1] http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

djsumdog 9y ago

This is cool and all, and I'm glad the concept didn't totally die, but will consumers ever see this type of wearable tech again? Some people shelled out over $1k when Google initially offered glass prototypes, only to be left with unmaintained devices. I honestly though Glass would have done better if it had no recording capabilities built-in. It would have substantially reduced the creepiness factor. It's sad that no one has come in and tried to tackle the heads-up wearable market. Sony has some glasses that looked terrible, and I guess the battery life issues are still too big for many manufacturers to overcome?

giobox 9y ago
> I honestly though(t) Glass would have done better if it had no recording capabilities built-in. It would have substantially reduced the creepiness factor. Outside of the tech community this is a distinction I imagine few would make - most people upon seeing a camera are going to not unreasonably assume it can record. I still see large numbers of people taping over their laptop webcams even when they are turned off. I think the simpler explanation is that strapping a camera to your face is simply inappropriate or off-putting in some social settings for many people.
- pm90 9y ago
  > I think the simpler explanation is that strapping a camera to your face is simply inappropriate or off-putting in some social settings, at least with today's typical social norms. Didn't help that the only people who did/could/would buy the first glass prototypes were nerds who apparently started using them in bars and clubs. That solidified its image as "creepy". Contrast it with Spectacles, a product designed to record as much as possible. But since it was marketed/targeted towards "cool" people, it never got the creepy trait.
  - giobox 9y ago
    The typical use case for Spectacles, at least as I see it, is a little different though. Spectacles is much more like a Go Pro, in that I will be out doing some kind of activity I want to share with friends. People also typically don't wear sunglasses indoors, my expectation of privacy is very different outdoors vs indoors. The approach with Google Glass was very different, where Google were arguably prototyping a device intended to be worn all the time, including indoors and in scenarios were people typically would not normally expect to be photographed or filmed.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

morley 9y ago

Has anyone here worked on a Glass app? How is the UI programmed? Does it require a special programming paradigm like VR, or are these instruction manual HUDs basically just PDF viewers?

jimrandomh 9y ago
I tried developing back when it was Glass XE. It's Android, except closed source and with a custom app replacing the home screen. It was the worst development experience I've ever had, by a large margin.
lnanek2 9y ago
Initially you could just write Android apps. Every OS release broke the standard features more and more, however, and you were pretty much forced into their special programming paradigms, yes. For example, originally swiping emulated the d-pad buttons, but that was removed. For a long time you could pair Bluetooth keyboards, mice, and trackpads, but then they broke that for a long time. It may have been added back recently. Modern era there is a "Mirror API" that's a very limited web based API for serving "cards" to the device and there's a a native SDK with a few hooks for registering for pre-selected voice commands and showing activities with various amounts of liveliness or graphics capability vs. static cards. So if you are just publishing cards with standard menu actions you can write server side only in Python and several other languages and just communicate with Google's servers. If you want a more native experience you write in Java using an SDK originally based on Android.
- glenneroo 9y ago
  Someone else posted this somewhere in here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14608894 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14608894 Basically they pushed an update out a couple weeks ago (after almost 3 years of nothing) which added Bluetooth device support.
IshKebab 9y ago
I haven't written an app but I've used Glass. It's not AR. It's much more like an Android Wear watch just help up in your field of view.

projectramo 9y ago

I know Glass, or something like it, will be great. But I don't know which combination of features + killer app will unlock the thing. HN has probably mentioned this before but is there a reason Google makes announcements on Medium and not on Blogger? I would do the same thing if I had a choice, but Google could just make the formatting on Blogger better.

ben_jones 9y ago
Automatically send the last 24hr of visual to fast-track airport security?
- projectramo 9y ago
  This sends a clear message to all would-be assailants: wait at least a day after your planning is complete.
  - saimiam 9y ago
    The history of you.
    - projectramo 9y ago
      We can already obsess about memories using social media, but this would take it to level 3.
      - saimiam 9y ago
        Oh man, if you haven't seen that black mirror episode, you should stop any other binge watching and watch it. It's amazing.
        projectramo 9y ago
        I have seen it! That's why I made a reference to obsessing about our memories. I am a huge black mirror fan.

payne92 9y ago

It's easy to armchair quarterback this stuff after the fact, but this is where Glass should have started. The price point, social stigma/issues, and use cases all screamed "business applications!". Consumer tech may be where the glamour and scale are, but it's not always the best market entry point.

lallysingh 9y ago
And the glamor. If you started on the manufacturing side, it wouldn't have any caché when walking down the street. But if you started with a bunch of models on a runway wearing these, you would. They tried going lux consumer and failed. But if they went the manufacturing route first, they would've burned any chance of the other.
- oliv__ 9y ago
  I don't agree. They could've used the manufacturing side to enhance the tech, get the components to a cheaper price point, maybe even slim down the whole thing and then when they felt ready to enter the consumer market, spin it off as something new under another consumer-only brand.
  - Hailie343 9y ago
    like Dawn replied I'm shocked that someone able to profit $8730 in a few weeks on the > internet . you can try this out>>>>>>>>>>>http://www.joinmate2.Com http://www.joinmate2.Com
  - abraae 9y ago
    Or they could have let someone else take all of the "glasshole" flak, then arrived after that with a trusted, safe, Google product that addressed the concerns. As they say, you can spot the pioneers because they're the ones with the arrows sticking out of their backs.
- rjsw 9y ago
  ITYM cachet, not caché.

sharemywin 9y ago

Aw...how cute they look like little borg lite.

omot 9y ago

I don't know what it is about it, but the design is so cringey. Even on a professional, it just looks... bad.

marsRoverDev 9y ago
In a world where people are forced to wear hi-vis and safety goggles, I don't think people on a shop floor are going to particularly care about looking good if it makes their job easier.
- LeifCarrotson 9y ago
  Don't forget those formal white (OK, heavy canvas or leather) gloves to complete your outfit, nor the essential steel-toe boots! They're at the peak of high-fashion footwear. You can look even better if you're only on the shop floor part-time and get to don colorful Oshatoes over your dress shoes: https://www.oshatoes.com/collections/toe-protection/products/visitor-steel-toe-classic-pvc https://www.oshatoes.com/collections/toe-protection/products...
imgabe 9y ago
Would you cringe about wearing safety goggles, a climbing harness, or a hazmat suit? It's supposed to be a tool, not a fashion statement.
- omot 9y ago
  I don't know if google glasses is comparable to safety goggles / climbing harness or a hazmat suit. I think it's more comparable to my laptop. There are a lot of companies that provides macs to all their employees, because employees think they're more stylish than their windows counterpart.
notatoad 9y ago
"looks bad" is subjective. If it's useful, people will wear it, and after people start wearing it and you get used to how it looks, it'll stop looking bad. You know what else looks bad? Hard Hats.

gfodor 9y ago

I've never understood why they insist on having the device be visually asymmetric. Just put a piece of plastic on the other side that is non-functional, and the "cyborg effect" basically goes away. The human brain hates asymmetric faces. Such a stupid oversight, may have been enough to save the consumer effort if they did this from the get-go.

xxs 9y ago
Leave that 'piece o'plastic' stuff, the extra room can be utilized as extra battery.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Helps balance things too, you'll be less weight-constrained with symmetric design.
- notatoad 9y ago
  that'll increase the weight though.
  - function_seven 9y ago
    I think it’s better to have balanced weight, even if it means more. While it might be annoying to have more weight on the bridge of your nose and over your ears, it’s even more annoying to have an off-center moment of force. It’s like carrying one 12-pack of beer rather than two.
- Nyubis 9y ago
  That's how the Snapchat Spectacles work: one side contains the camera, bluetooth and other electronics, the other side contains the battery.
Helmet 9y ago
I think having a piece of nonfunctional plastic on the other side would be silly and, by definition, useless. I think they look pretty sleek, especially in an industrial setting - also, asymmetry doesn't always look bad. I'm reminded of BMW motorcycles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9SIS4izLqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9SIS4izLqE and: http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2009/march/mar2709-history-of-bmws-wonky-headlights/ http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2009/march/mar2709-histor...

tqi 9y ago

For the manufacturing example, why is this better than having a simple 7-10 inch tablet? For the doctor example, why is this better than a simple body cam, or even a camera that is wall or desk mounted?

TeMPOraL 9y ago
> For the manufacturing example, why is this better than having a simple 7-10 inch tablet? Hands-free operation. Honestly, I'd love to use it all the time, instead of my smartphone. There are so many cases in which you want to have the screen in your FOV, but your hands free, not just at work... > For the doctor example, why is this better than a simple body cam, or even a camera that is wall or desk mounted? It probably isn't, unless the doctor can also utilize a display for something. Otherwise it's just an expensive (and quite likely crappy, compared to other available options) camera.
- tqi 9y ago
  Wouldn't you still need to use your hands to control the text? To be clear, I'm not saying there isn't a problem to be solved, I am questioning that "small screen that you can look through" is the right form factor for any of these problems.
- projektfu 9y ago
  It's nice to have a camera that follows your perspective, because you might need two hands to be able to see what you want. For example, if you're parting someone's hair or looking into their mouth with a tongue depressor.
  - mgamache 9y ago
    hard to overstate the importance of POV for some applications (including remote medicine).

0xfab1 9y ago

That makes me want a pair that's installed with an app that shows relevant stackoverflow answers as I code.

e12e 9y ago
But why would you want to wear something like this, for that? I can see how an editor/IDE plugin might be useful (a la racer for rust etc) - that would update a section of the screen with tips - but I don't think I'd like to have this on a completely different device. Now, with a full vr headset, it might make sense to be able to place such things outside of the normal field of vision (where your text/code editing resides) - but so far I don' think working full time in VR with text is a great idea, with the current generation of headsets.
- sigstoat 9y ago
  > But why would you want to wear something like this, for that? can't have other folks knowing you're looking things up on SO. it'd ruin your mystique.

oliwarner 9y ago

Some of this stuff is so obviously cool but remember the cost of efficiency. 30% time saved means one person does more in their day. This has a personal toll because working less intensively gave you time to think and physically rest. You're at it non-stop now. And that also means you need 30% fewer employees to manage the same workload. That's going to be the trade-off here. How many people will have to go just to offset the hardware and software costs? I don't know what I'm arguing here... I'm finding it hard to avoid quoting Ian Malcolm in the context but I think we have to remember there are definite downsides to treating people like underutilised machinery.

jessriedel 9y ago
This sort of thinking would be more useful if it was specific to Glass. As is, it's just a general worry with most ways to make humans more productive.
NicoJuicy 9y ago
Being able to work more had never really changed a thing in the grand scheme of all things ( Ford,.. ). Everything automated like a human is a real challenge, in my perspective
aeontech 9y ago
> working less intensively gave you time to think and physically rest I don't buy this argument, honestly. By extension, you're saying we should go back to manual book-keeping instead of computers to do accounting, because it would employ more accountants, and let them work at a more relaxed pace. Looking up documentation, for example, is not an intellectually demanding task. Instead of going back and forth between printed reference, being distracted, forgetting what you read and having to re-check it, this helps reduce the feedback loop and that makes work more intellectually engaging and interesting because the worker can focus on things that actually require thought, rather than menial tasks. People will still take breaks and slack off, it's human nature, and they should be able to, if you demand continued unbroken attention, you will end up with people who make a lot more mistakes, I expect (citation needed). I am much more worried about automated performance metrics and gamification of work, those do offer levers for the employers to push the employees beyond sane limits.

mafuyu 9y ago

Sounds like they've found a great enterprise usecase, and I hope they can keep improving the device to bring it to consumers once again. I was able to snag a Glass for a good price when they killed support (before selling it off again after a couple months). I enjoyed using it, and being on a college campus at the time reduced some of the social awkwardness. I could push notifications to my face with IFTTT and the voice recognition worked reasonably well. Ironically, I found the most useful feature to be the camera. It's liberating to be able to wink and get a snapshot of whatever is in your field of view, whether it's some info you want to remember or a small moment you want to share. I'm on vacation now and find myself fumbling with my phone to take snaps of interesting things I want to share way too often.

kbenson 9y ago
> I'm on vacation now and find myself fumbling with my phone to take snaps of interesting things I want to share way too often. I just got back from vacation, and I agree. The whole process of taking pictures with my phone feels so cumbersome and annoying, especially for short lived scenes. It's locked and in my pocket for security and safety because I don't like to walk around holding my phone when I'm trying to enjoy the moment. It feels like I could either have the phone be an appendage and then have fairly easy picture capability, or actually be present in the moment but then it's substandard for taking impromptu pictures. I wouldn't have as much of a problem with a dedicated device, as I wouldn't necessarily be as worried about breaking or giving someone access to the device that contains details about every aspect of my life. Alternately, something designed to be an appendage but in an unobtrusive way (to the user, at least) might be just as good or better, as you suggest.
- jerrylives 9y ago
  I believe the device you seek is called...a camera
  - kbenson 9y ago
    Yes, but I was being generic to be inclusive of both a camera and Glass. Not to mention, camera has became almost as fuzzy a definition as phone, considering all the features they pack into some of them these days...

ensiferum 9y ago

I'm sure standard software TOS apply. I.e. Software vendor is not responsible for any errors omissions or mistakes it presents to the mechanic.

megamindbrian 9y ago

This is such bullshit. I applied for their private beta and never got a response.

stutterSpeaker 9y ago

I hated it when they abandoned it, because I was so excited about the tech for so long. I think maybe the public just wasn't ready for it then. They probably still aren't now, but this could be an excellent way for them to get more comfortable with it.

e12e 9y ago

I'd be more exited if it looked like Google had addressed some of Steve Mann's critiques from the initial announcement, but as far as I can tell, the critique is still not addressed: http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/steve-mann-my-augmediated-life http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/steve-mann-my-au... (For discussion on Glass design, look for the paragraph starting: "I have mixed feelings") FWIW it appears Mann is working with a company on a different system for mediated reality: https://www.metavision.com/ https://www.metavision.com/

joshuamorton 9y ago
Those appear to critique glass as an AR system, which it doesn't appear to be marketed as.

jessriedel 9y ago

> The mechanics moved carefully, putting down tools and climbing up and down ladders to consult paper instructions in between steps... Fast forward to today, and GE’s mechanics now use Glass running software from our partner Upskill, which shows them instructions with videos, animations and images right in their line of sight so they don’t have to stop work to check their binders or computer to know what to do next. The article makes it sound like Google glass is the first to do anything like this, and it was all paper manuals before that. In fact, aircraft manufacturers have been using smart glasses for years to augment workers. http://www.engineering.com/AdvancedManufacturing/ArticleID/14634/Airbus-Uses-Smart-Glasses-to-Improve-Manufacturing-Efficiency.aspx http://www.engineering.com/AdvancedManufacturing/ArticleID/1... Maybe Glass is a significant improvement, but it's not unprecedented.

THE_PUN_STOPS 9y ago
Smart glasses in aviation manufacturing was actually a key plot point in Michael Chrichton's 1997 novel Airframe. [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airframe_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airframe_(novel)

beebmam 9y ago

I actually am really sad Glass didn't take off. When it was available, I was unemployed. I'd love to get my hands on a new version of it, if google were ever to release a new version for the public.

tlb 9y ago

It seems disingenuous to pitch it as an improvement over a ring binder of documents. The question is whether it's an improvement over an iPad on a stand beside your work.

matunixe 9y ago

Fuck you Google. Get off my life.

sctb 9y ago
Please don't post like this on Hacker News. https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

LyalinDotCom 9y ago

Kudos to Google for continuing to invest into this product, it really has long-term potential and we need all the big players in this space to drive competition forward.

phyller 9y ago

Nice. This is what the original launch should have been like. Help doctors use this to provide better care and no one is going to be calling anyone a "glasshole"

intjesus 9y ago
Exactly what I thought

zxcvvcxz 9y ago

Super excited, that top image is literally me in the garage sometimes, albeit with safety goggles. Can these provide eye protection from bits of flying metal while one is drilling? Will keep digging through the page.

dragonwriter 9y ago

Headline is neither source headline not technically accurate; while X started life as Google X before the Alphabet reorg, it's a separate subsidiary of Alphabet from Google. This story is about X, not Google.

irrational 9y ago

I'd love to have something like this to show me step by step how to do repairs on my car or an appliance. Recently I was fixing the turn signal lever in my car by referring to youtube videos. It would be awesome if I could just download to the device a file for whatever thing I need to fix and it just walks me through the steps.

singularity2001 9y ago

x.company interesting domain name! one letter 'domain' six letter TLD

egfx 9y ago
interestingly x.com is owned by Elon Musk. He tweeted about it four days ago.. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/885776126148083712 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/885776126148083712

ajmurmann 9y ago

This feels like it's getting us one step closer to the vision of the early stage control by AI that is described in Manna: http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm Obviously the AI part isn't there but we now have a fabulous interface to have complex tasked aided/guided by AI. This in combination with what's already going on in Amazon warehouses and we are pretty close to the description of how fast food restaurants are run in the story.

amelius 9y ago

A few questions: - Can only businesses buy Glass? - What is the pricing model? Is this sold as a product, or is it paid for as a subscription service? - Will there be a "play store" equivalent for software for Glass?

mgamache 9y ago
it will be through VARs (there is no play store).

mshiran 9y ago

very cool!

mshiran 9y ago

very cool!

BatFastard 9y ago

SAD, its black and white! I recall Mondo2000 challenging every color scheme ever created. Lime greens and oranges!

tastyfreeze 9y ago

I have always thought that the perfect application for wearable head mounted displays would be mechanical repair. I would love to be able to pull up the maintenance manual for my vehicle and have the glasses overlay part names, fastener sizes, and torque settings for whatever part I was looking at. This is a step in that direction.

NamTaf 9y ago

This is precisely the application I first imagined when I saw it. Being able to pull up exploded views of an assembly, having reference information for something you've got both hands inside, etc. is invaluable. I can't count the number of times I've had to extract both my arms from inside a machine (in doing so losing the information of where precisely i'm holding stuff and the bearings that provides you), wipe off all the grease, dust, grime, etc., thumb through a pile of papers that still get dirty and then mentally translate a 2D drawing to what I'm working on, only to then lose my place and have to work it all out again. Having something voice controlled and right there in front of my eyes would be invaluable. Industry really is the perfect environment for this. Safety issues notwithstanding (which you can work through), it's really the best application of this technology and you can quickly quantify a RoI from its implementation.

pessimizer 9y ago

This was completely predictable, and what everyone suggested as Glass failed for consumers; the fact that they're doing this now doesn't necessarily represent any success or particular efficaciousness discovered during the pilot programs. The fact that it took this long to roll out and announce publicly is a bad sign, though. They may have just run out of time, and were forced from above to make their best try at it.

dfee 9y ago

I was an early member of Pristine (the Google Glass company that Upskill recently acquired) where I began as a developer, and then landed our first paid deal at the end of 2014. We used to buy the glasses for $1500 a piece and had a probably 50 pairs of them lying around by early 2015. The engineering team was great - while I was there it felt like we were flying blind wrt Google’s official support. From a business perspective, I’m not sure product market fit was really ever achieved, though after I left the company expanded its horizons beyond healthcare / telemedicine. Good luck to Upskill :)

bhnmmhmd 9y ago

It's probably not related to this article per se, but isn't it weird that "x.com" is owned by Elon Musk while the actual company - which is a branch of Alphabet - has to use "x.company"?