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He wore this at a "Dining in the Dark charity event for the Foundation Fighting Blindness" event? Does anyone think that seems a bit… insensitive? I mean I gues

by po 15y ago

He wore this at a "Dining in the Dark charity event for the Foundation Fighting Blindness" event? Does anyone think that seems a bit… insensitive? I mean I guess they have audio as well but is version 1.0 going to be blind-accessible?

Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
Do you stop using your eyes around blind people just to avoid being insensitive?
- mcrider 15y ago
  Yes, if its a charity event for blind people and the most media attention this event gets is for a product that is possibly the coolest thing to ever happen to your eyeballs.
  - melling 15y ago
    I find your lack of imagination disturbing. I guess it's kind of vogue to be a politically correct whiner these days. Plus, it has been quite a few years since Star Trek Next Gen has been on so let me help you here. Let's say we are both blind and we have a pair of glasses like these with a camera, a computer, some image recognition, perhaps even the ability to read. Now, we're blind so none of this technology is useful to us right? Siri, please help this HN reader.
    - melling 15y ago
      Ugh, I got downvoted for my sarcasm. It also seems like the original message to which I replied was changed so I guess my message was received, but my reply does seem out of place. Anyway, if you're bind, your lenses will be opaque and you'll be using audio, and maybe ... just Google Jordy on Star. This type of device will change your life if you're blind. You could "read" HN, for example.
  - Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
    You think if he'd gone to the charity before and said "hey, I'm going to be wearing a prototype pair of glasses to this thing, it's likely to get you a whole bunch of publicity, would you rather I took them off?", they'd have said anything other than "Hell no, keep them on"? Everyone I've ever met who works for a charity is massively pragmatic about these things. They would understand that he's not doing it to mock the blind and accepting that would very quickly move on to the potential good for the charity.
- vidarh 15y ago
  True. Though "Dining in the dark" does involve largely not using your eyes - that's kind of the point of the "in the dark" part.
  - Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
    That's fine but when the shot was taken the lights seemed to be on.
tspiteri 15y ago
I don't speak for the blind, but I guess if I were blind, I would dislike people not using what I wished I could use just because I couldn't.
- TazeTSchnitzel 15y ago
  Yeah, I guess you'd see it as people being ungrateful for the fact they had sight.
  - tspiteri 15y ago
    Oh, I was ambiguous. I meant to say I'd dislike that they do not use something, not that I'd dislike the people.
Tichy 15y ago
Maybe the glasses could help people with impaired vision, for example by highlighting things that would otherwise be difficult to see.
- EvilTerran 15y ago
  Indeed. Pairing this sort of hardware up with something like [http://www.bristol.ac.uk/vi-lab/projects/casblip/ http://www.bristol.ac.uk/vi-lab/projects/casblip/] could work well for the partially-sighted -- I mean, that research group already have prototype hardware, but Google's setup looks a lot more compact.
wisty 15y ago
There might be some good stuff to come out of this. If the glasses do "augmented reality", they could do stuff like read things, locate obstacles (cars? pedestrians? Google's car is doing this, right?), give directions, and so on. If the information is there, some kind of speech assist plugin could be a literal lifesaver for the blind.
bhousel 15y ago
"Blind" doesn't necessarily mean "zero vision". There are a lot of people with vision impairment (legal blindness, but partial sight) who could benefit from these glasses. For example, the glasses could automatically magnify small text that you are reading. They could speak out directions as you walk around a city. They could help you identify products at the store. That's just a handful of things I came up with off the top of my head. Consider all of the assistive devices (mostly expensive btw) that are currently being used by the blind (and don't forget the deaf!), and think of how these glasses could augment or even replace what's available now. It could be huge.
- po 15y ago
  I certainly know that blindness isn't binary as my neighbor while growing up was legally blind yet mowed her yard every day with a hand pushed mower. She used a giant magnifying glass a few inches from her eye to read. However, I understand and appreciate what you're getting at. I'm specifically asking if they are going to go the extra mile and make this technology blind-accessible. The iPhone is extremely successful product for the blind for example because it has a well thought out alternate input mode that they spent a lot of time and effort developing. If Google isn't going to actually add accessibility provisions in then this seems like rolling up to a environmental charity event in a custom Hummer.
  - DanBC 15y ago
    It would be fantastic if mainstream tech went that extra mile and had well thought out accessibility stuff built in form the beginning. Imagine these glasses being able to tell you what colour that shirt is; no more garish colour clashes for people with colour blindness. Or a bajillion other ideas.

by po 15y ago

Tyrannosaurs 15y ago

Do you stop using your eyes around blind people just to avoid being insensitive?

mcrider 15y ago
Yes, if its a charity event for blind people and the most media attention this event gets is for a product that is possibly the coolest thing to ever happen to your eyeballs.
- melling 15y ago
  I find your lack of imagination disturbing. I guess it's kind of vogue to be a politically correct whiner these days. Plus, it has been quite a few years since Star Trek Next Gen has been on so let me help you here. Let's say we are both blind and we have a pair of glasses like these with a camera, a computer, some image recognition, perhaps even the ability to read. Now, we're blind so none of this technology is useful to us right? Siri, please help this HN reader.
  - melling 15y ago
    Ugh, I got downvoted for my sarcasm. It also seems like the original message to which I replied was changed so I guess my message was received, but my reply does seem out of place. Anyway, if you're bind, your lenses will be opaque and you'll be using audio, and maybe ... just Google Jordy on Star. This type of device will change your life if you're blind. You could "read" HN, for example.
- Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
  You think if he'd gone to the charity before and said "hey, I'm going to be wearing a prototype pair of glasses to this thing, it's likely to get you a whole bunch of publicity, would you rather I took them off?", they'd have said anything other than "Hell no, keep them on"? Everyone I've ever met who works for a charity is massively pragmatic about these things. They would understand that he's not doing it to mock the blind and accepting that would very quickly move on to the potential good for the charity.
vidarh 15y ago
True. Though "Dining in the dark" does involve largely not using your eyes - that's kind of the point of the "in the dark" part.
- Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
  That's fine but when the shot was taken the lights seemed to be on.

tspiteri 15y ago

I don't speak for the blind, but I guess if I were blind, I would dislike people not using what I wished I could use just because I couldn't.

TazeTSchnitzel 15y ago
Yeah, I guess you'd see it as people being ungrateful for the fact they had sight.
- tspiteri 15y ago
  Oh, I was ambiguous. I meant to say I'd dislike that they do not use something, not that I'd dislike the people.

Tichy 15y ago

Maybe the glasses could help people with impaired vision, for example by highlighting things that would otherwise be difficult to see.

EvilTerran 15y ago
Indeed. Pairing this sort of hardware up with something like [http://www.bristol.ac.uk/vi-lab/projects/casblip/ http://www.bristol.ac.uk/vi-lab/projects/casblip/] could work well for the partially-sighted -- I mean, that research group already have prototype hardware, but Google's setup looks a lot more compact.

wisty 15y ago

There might be some good stuff to come out of this. If the glasses do "augmented reality", they could do stuff like read things, locate obstacles (cars? pedestrians? Google's car is doing this, right?), give directions, and so on. If the information is there, some kind of speech assist plugin could be a literal lifesaver for the blind.

bhousel 15y ago

"Blind" doesn't necessarily mean "zero vision". There are a lot of people with vision impairment (legal blindness, but partial sight) who could benefit from these glasses. For example, the glasses could automatically magnify small text that you are reading. They could speak out directions as you walk around a city. They could help you identify products at the store. That's just a handful of things I came up with off the top of my head. Consider all of the assistive devices (mostly expensive btw) that are currently being used by the blind (and don't forget the deaf!), and think of how these glasses could augment or even replace what's available now. It could be huge.

po 15y ago
I certainly know that blindness isn't binary as my neighbor while growing up was legally blind yet mowed her yard every day with a hand pushed mower. She used a giant magnifying glass a few inches from her eye to read. However, I understand and appreciate what you're getting at. I'm specifically asking if they are going to go the extra mile and make this technology blind-accessible. The iPhone is extremely successful product for the blind for example because it has a well thought out alternate input mode that they spent a lot of time and effort developing. If Google isn't going to actually add accessibility provisions in then this seems like rolling up to a environmental charity event in a custom Hummer.
- DanBC 15y ago
  It would be fantastic if mainstream tech went that extra mile and had well thought out accessibility stuff built in form the beginning. Imagine these glasses being able to tell you what colour that shirt is; no more garish colour clashes for people with colour blindness. Or a bajillion other ideas.