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I do think they are cool and could be useful, but not to the point of making someone that doesn't wear glasses want to wear them. My main problem is what does

I do think they are cool and could be useful, but not to the point of making someone that doesn't wear glasses want to wear them. My main problem is what does it give me over wearing a smart watch? The only thing I can think of is being slightly more discreet and the "gesture" not being rude to activate when you are in company. That is something I found out quickly when I started wearing an Apple Watch - even if you are just checking a text message it appears you are checking the time and want to leave. Since then I have greatly cut down on notifications going to my watch, and have even fewer that even ping on my phone. To me, having a camera on it is what would make it compelling, but at the same time make it creepy. Say being able show driving directions overlaid on the actual road, versus some floating text. Or you sit down at a desk with just a keyboard and mouse and your "displays" are only shown in your field of view - and you can customize, move and resize them as you wish.

nathan_long 9y ago
> you sit down at a desk with just a keyboard and mouse and your "displays" are only shown in your field of view - and you can customize, move and resize them as you wish This. I don't wear glasses and don't like the idea of walking around with notifications floating around my eyes. But a set of monitors that fill my field of vision and fit in my pocket sounds awesome.
- klibertp 9y ago
  From what I understand (I'd love to be wrong here) we have currently no AR or VR technology which could conceivably be used to work with a lot of text. The resolution is not there and it's possible that it won't ever be. Which is a damn shame, because I'd sell my kidney for the ability to work with two decently sized (virtual) displays from my couch or in the garden...
  - d0lph 9y ago
    I'm intrigued by the 'possibly never will be' part, any references or reading on that?
    - rtkwe 9y ago
      I can answer a little. It's a problem of the conjunction of providing enough resolution that the screen is useful while having a large enough viewing angle. If I want to replicate the screen for my Surface Book, 3kx2k, at normal working distance that screen takes up about 1/5th of my working vision (that being the area my glasses cover which is a majority of my whole field of view and as much as I could expect of a non-contacts AR solution). So to render that screen and be able to place it inside the normal working field of view any AR glasses would need to have a resolution of about 5-6x whatever screen you want to duplicate, and this number gets worse as we talk about replicating TV screens which are further away and thus need even higher resolution to look the same. It's a problem of being able to pack that many pixels onto the tiny screen area of a glasses based AR solution and then being able to process and render that in a mobile form factor. It's a hard problem to solve to say the least.
com2kid 9y ago
> My main problem is what does it give me over wearing a smart watch? Turn by turn directions when riding a bike. Easy to track countdown timers that don't require swiping/navigating through a smartwatch UI. Limited purpose devices are useful because the UI can be optimized to just a handful of use cases. Just like the original Palm Pilots were (IMHO) better for organization than modern smartphones. (The original Palm Pilots also had a more responsive UI and never decided to, at random, take 10 seconds to load my home screen after unlock.) Combine this with Amazon's smart store that knows when you've put an item in your basket, and a shopping list. Have your shopping list appear one item at a time, and automatically progress to the next item as you fill up your basket! No need to flip through the UI on a smartwatch to get to the shopping list, it just appears when you walk into the store.
- rgoe80nt43nhoe 9y ago
  > Turn by turn directions when riding a bike. FWIW, the Apple Watch offers this. It buzzes or audibly signals one way for turning left and another for turning right. I use it when walking around a new city sometimes. I love the idea of the shopping list, though not integration with Amazon or having it automatically progress. It doesn't know where things are in my store (and they change), so that doesn't make sense to me. But having it there and being able to see it without taking out my phone would be nice.
  - com2kid 9y ago
    > FWIW, the Apple Watch offers this. It buzzes or audibly signals one way for turning left and another for turning right. What does it do at 5 way intersections? :-D When I was trying to propose this feature for Microsoft Band , I realized that it worked great in West Coast cities with their nice grid layouts, and also while strolling around Manhattan. Falls apart in a lot of other situations though. :(
Vinnl 9y ago
> even if you are just checking a text message it appears you are checking the time and want to leave. I often wonder whether I'm alone in thinking that checking messages in company is rude too? I'm quite sure that it would be considered rude 10 years ago, but I feel like general opinion has changed on that.
- BenjiWiebe 9y ago
  I think it's rude. Doesn't mean I never do it, but I'd rather not.
anigbrowl 9y ago
As someone who does wear glasses all the time I'd be really into this, it's the one thing that might deter me from paying for LASIK instead. Since I need to get a new pair right now I'm really wishing I could beta test these B)
- xab9 9y ago
  If you do LASIK I'm pretty sure it's reversible, so fear not. https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/05/01 https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/05/01
hrktb 9y ago
> My main problem is what does it give me over wearing a smart watch? Smart watches are not for everyone either. I hate having things weighting down my hands or hitting tables so this would be a device I’d choose over any smartwatch. Also I think it’s nice to have a device that is instantanous to put on and take off. You want to focus on something for 15 seconds ? just take them off. Finished focusing ? they’re back on.

nathan_long 9y ago

> you sit down at a desk with just a keyboard and mouse and your "displays" are only shown in your field of view - and you can customize, move and resize them as you wish This. I don't wear glasses and don't like the idea of walking around with notifications floating around my eyes. But a set of monitors that fill my field of vision and fit in my pocket sounds awesome.

klibertp 9y ago
From what I understand (I'd love to be wrong here) we have currently no AR or VR technology which could conceivably be used to work with a lot of text. The resolution is not there and it's possible that it won't ever be. Which is a damn shame, because I'd sell my kidney for the ability to work with two decently sized (virtual) displays from my couch or in the garden...
- d0lph 9y ago
  I'm intrigued by the 'possibly never will be' part, any references or reading on that?
  - rtkwe 9y ago
    I can answer a little. It's a problem of the conjunction of providing enough resolution that the screen is useful while having a large enough viewing angle. If I want to replicate the screen for my Surface Book, 3kx2k, at normal working distance that screen takes up about 1/5th of my working vision (that being the area my glasses cover which is a majority of my whole field of view and as much as I could expect of a non-contacts AR solution). So to render that screen and be able to place it inside the normal working field of view any AR glasses would need to have a resolution of about 5-6x whatever screen you want to duplicate, and this number gets worse as we talk about replicating TV screens which are further away and thus need even higher resolution to look the same. It's a problem of being able to pack that many pixels onto the tiny screen area of a glasses based AR solution and then being able to process and render that in a mobile form factor. It's a hard problem to solve to say the least.

com2kid 9y ago

> My main problem is what does it give me over wearing a smart watch? Turn by turn directions when riding a bike. Easy to track countdown timers that don't require swiping/navigating through a smartwatch UI. Limited purpose devices are useful because the UI can be optimized to just a handful of use cases. Just like the original Palm Pilots were (IMHO) better for organization than modern smartphones. (The original Palm Pilots also had a more responsive UI and never decided to, at random, take 10 seconds to load my home screen after unlock.) Combine this with Amazon's smart store that knows when you've put an item in your basket, and a shopping list. Have your shopping list appear one item at a time, and automatically progress to the next item as you fill up your basket! No need to flip through the UI on a smartwatch to get to the shopping list, it just appears when you walk into the store.

rgoe80nt43nhoe 9y ago
> Turn by turn directions when riding a bike. FWIW, the Apple Watch offers this. It buzzes or audibly signals one way for turning left and another for turning right. I use it when walking around a new city sometimes. I love the idea of the shopping list, though not integration with Amazon or having it automatically progress. It doesn't know where things are in my store (and they change), so that doesn't make sense to me. But having it there and being able to see it without taking out my phone would be nice.
- com2kid 9y ago
  > FWIW, the Apple Watch offers this. It buzzes or audibly signals one way for turning left and another for turning right. What does it do at 5 way intersections? :-D When I was trying to propose this feature for Microsoft Band , I realized that it worked great in West Coast cities with their nice grid layouts, and also while strolling around Manhattan. Falls apart in a lot of other situations though. :(

Vinnl 9y ago

> even if you are just checking a text message it appears you are checking the time and want to leave. I often wonder whether I'm alone in thinking that checking messages in company is rude too? I'm quite sure that it would be considered rude 10 years ago, but I feel like general opinion has changed on that.

BenjiWiebe 9y ago
I think it's rude. Doesn't mean I never do it, but I'd rather not.

anigbrowl 9y ago

As someone who does wear glasses all the time I'd be really into this, it's the one thing that might deter me from paying for LASIK instead. Since I need to get a new pair right now I'm really wishing I could beta test these B)

xab9 9y ago
If you do LASIK I'm pretty sure it's reversible, so fear not. https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/05/01 https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/05/01

hrktb 9y ago

> My main problem is what does it give me over wearing a smart watch? Smart watches are not for everyone either. I hate having things weighting down my hands or hitting tables so this would be a device I’d choose over any smartwatch. Also I think it’s nice to have a device that is instantanous to put on and take off. You want to focus on something for 15 seconds ? just take them off. Finished focusing ? they’re back on.