7 ms·
"Consumers have shown time and again that they are reluctant to adopt products that look funny (ahem, Google Glass)." I think this is misreading Google Glass.
by ALittleLight 6y ago
"Consumers have shown time and again that they are reluctant to adopt products that look funny (ahem, Google Glass)."
I think this is misreading Google Glass. People didn't like or want to use Google Glass because there was no "killer app" for them. There was no useful app for Glass at all so far as I am aware. Had Google Glass enabled something new and useful people would have worn it regardless of how different it looked, and because people found use in wearing it we would get used to it.
Headphones are an example of this. Headphones would probably look goofy if you weren't used to seeing them. People wear headphones anyway because headphones deliver something useful to the wearer - private audio.
If I had to wear a silly hat, but in exchange could carry around a meaningful brain-computer interface, I absolutely would, and, assuming "meaningful" in a broad sense, I'm certain huge numbers of people would as well.
Right now people are struggling to make the tech work at all. Worrying about the form factor with which it will be delivered is premature - it can't really do anything yet. Once it's useful it will need a good form factor, but the use will drive adoption, not the other way around.
- pharke 6y agoExactly, glasses are an even better example. They give you superior vision compared to what you would have naturally so almost everyone who needs them puts up with wearing them and they have even become a fashion trend in themselves by being so omnipresent. If I could have a pair of glasses for my brain that correct for any natural deficiencies then I'd wear the heck out of them, appearances be damned.
- dwighttk 6y agoThe nice thing about glasses is they never run out of batteries
- pharke 6y agoI don't have to refuel a bicycle but I still prefer driving.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- ALittleLight 6y agoGlasses are a better example. I'm embarrassed I didn't think of them as I read the OP through the lenses of my own glasses.
- toxik 6y agoA good indicator of just how normalized they are.
- Hydraulix989 6y agoI'm sure the Apple Brain Implant will look "cool" and be highly sought after just like their other seemingly-odd gadgets did at the time of their inception (what is this "iPhone" thing?).
- tryrebuilding 6y agoThe iPhone looked cool, or at least not odd, from the start. AirPods would be a good example though IMO, that dangling "wire that stops after an inch"/earring-looking-thing is still strange to me but has become normal.
- psychomugs 6y agoI neither use nor am a fan of AirPods but I appreciate the stem design. It clearly defines the orientation and maintains the classic Apple earbud silhouette, providing contrast that emphasizes the lack of wires coming out of it.
- taneq 6y ago> [...] still strange to me but has become normal. Social proof will do that. Doesn't matter how weird something looks, if the appearance becomes associated with wealth in the public consciousness, people will start thinking it looks cool and coming up with reasons why.
- onion2k 6y agoApple won't release a product like Neuralink themselves until the tech is very mature. If anything went wrong with one and left someone in a brain damaged state it would harm their brand too much. Neural interfaces will come from new companies for a very long time to come.
- skissane 6y ago> I think this is misreading Google Glass. People didn't like or want to use Google Glass because there was no "killer app" for them I think the other reason why people didn't want to adopt Google Glass, is the stories about other people objecting to people wearing them–primarily because of privacy concerns, that the devices were capable of recording video, and that while a phone camera can record video too, it is somewhat more obvious if someone is doing it with a phone camera than with Google Glass. If a product is going to be a social hassle, if other people and businesses are going to object to your use of it, a lot of people will decide the negative social consequences aren't worth it. Something like Google Glass specifically targeted to people with disabilities would be more acceptable, because someone using it can always say that it is for their disability, at which point most people would be more forgiving, plus if any business tries to ban it they run the legal and PR risk of being accused of disability discrimination.
- bawolff 6y agoDefinitely this. Although honestly i thought it was a bullshit argument. You can buy tiny disguised cameras. If someone wanted to creepily record you, they could easily do so and you would never know. They certainly wouldn't use something as ostentatious as google glass.
- ethbr0 6y agoIt's the uncanny valley between "might be harming me" and "is detectable by me." People don't care about things they can't see -- because they can't see them. But if something is seen, it probably shouldn't have cause to make people worry.
- gundmc 6y agoGoogle with Glass and Microsoft with Zune have shown that it's not always important to be the first mover if you can't generate hype and nail the user experience. Apple came in and cleaned up the music playing space. Now I suspect they may be about to do the same with AR.
- 6y ago
- cblconfederate 6y agoVR glasses also. I love the Quest despite it being half a kilo and barely staying put witout holding it. People have shown time and again they will adopt something they love, no matter how grotesquely bulky, like brick cellphones
- dwighttk 6y agoWhat’s the killer app for bci though?
- laser 6y agoHand-free high fidelity input
- nwah1 6y agoElon Musk says improving the speed of communication is the killer app. Typing with "meat sticks" is inefficient compared to the speed of thought. Eventually using it to backup and data mine memories will likely happen, as in Black Mirror. Using it to filter, annotate, and block parts of reality is also likely. Again, Black Mirror touches on this. Some have posited the idea of gamifying reality, for all sorts of purposes. I've often thought realtime logic-checking would be useful. Fact-checking would be more subject to biases in the software and data, but could also be useful. Eventually the idea is probably that neural prosthetics will be developed that act as entire new brain subsystems.
- caddemon 6y agoI'm not sure what timescale Elon thinks this company is on, but even that first point is probably much further away than any new product team at Google could survive for (and no this is not a "Google is ADHD" joke, although that is also kinda true). Additionally, an implant is pretty damn invasive. So some cute demos or niche consumer applications are not going to cut it. IMO the two possible paths here are either this will be an R&D money sink for our entire lifetimes (maybe funded by Elon for fun, maybe some government grants, etc.) or they will primarily operate as a medical device company. The implants they are developing are definitely a tech improvement, so they could realistically improve existing DBS treatments. The company could also work on their own novel DBS paradigms for treatment of specific diseases. A lot of DBS (especially for psychiatric diseases like OCD) is currently rudimentary AND we have a poor understanding of why it even sort of works. But it does clearly work for at least some subset of patients, so there are real avenues for continued development.
- 6y ago
- agnosticmantis 6y agoI think real time language translation and speech to text could be a killer app for smart glasses and I’d love to have one when visiting a foreign country. Also, for people with hearing impairment, I think speech-to-text and maybe even sign-to-speak using the glass would be very helpful for interactions with people who don’t know sign language.(I’m not hearing impaired, so maybe I’m mistaken about this.)
- vbezhenar 6y agoTruly interesting glasses app would be the one to recognise people around you and show quick dossier about them collected from public sources. Unfortunately Google did not build one. That app would truly shake the society.