5 ms·
Microsoft is developing a Google Glass competitor
- bharyms 14y agoIs Microsoft really developing or simply trying to get some patent to fight with google?
- ryanmacg 14y agoIt looks like this was submitted (May 2011) before Google announced Project Glass (Apr 2012)
- mhb 14y agoAnd people have been thinking about augmented reality for decades. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Damocles_(virtual_reality) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Damocles_(virtual_...
- Peroni 14y agoNot sure if they plan on 'competing' with statements like this: The device described by Microsoft is a little less ambitious
- netcan 14y agoWhat these things really need is some way of being controlled directly by the brain. I don't want to be wearing goofy glasses and telling them to guide me to the pub. I just want to conjure up a rabbit to follow.
- cyphersanctus 14y agoHehe, I suppose that wont be hard in the nearby future (25 years). The glasses could have neuro-censors that would be in constant contact with key parts of both sides of the brain.
- acous 14y agoThe glasses could have neuro-censors That's a frightening typo!
- cyphersanctus 14y agoLol, frightening indeed. My bad.
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- T-A 14y agoNeuro-censors... you mean like this guy? http://vimeo.com/46304267 http://vimeo.com/46304267 ;)
- Evbn 14y agoOr like Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- cyphersanctus 14y agoThats the best video I've seen in a while. Thanks for sharing hehe.
- mtgx 14y agoYou might like this video, too: http://falkvinge.net/2012/10/05/plurality-an-amazing-short-film-about-surveillance-in-2023/ http://falkvinge.net/2012/10/05/plurality-an-amazing-short-f...
- diminish 14y agoI believe Google Lense would have a more bright future, than Google Glass. Google Lense may be a wireless lens screen which communicates with the smart device in your hand or pocket to show you app windows in multiple screens.
- cyphersanctus 14y agoAnd the lenses would be installed into any glasses or how do you envision it?
- pmelendez 14y agoAm I the only one who thinks Google Glass is a bad idea? We already trusted our virtual life to google (emails, what we do, etc). Are we sure that we are ready to trust our real(physical) life too? Don't get me wrong... It seems like a cool project but I wouldn't use it, maybe I am getting too old :/
- AnthonyMouse 14y agoIt doesn't bother me much for a simple reason: Sutherland's wheel of reincarnation applies to cloud computing. Right now there isn't enough processing power or storage on a portable device to store everything you would want out of a thing like this, but give it time. And then it's hardware, it doesn't have to be ad supported -- the device can know all about you, but it's your device. So that's one possible future. And the tech they're developing is pretty agnostic to whether the information it collects is stored in the cloud or just on the device, so let's try not to be too pessimistic about something cool just yet.
- Evbn 14y agoGoogle's software is almost completely reliant on the Internet to function (except for occasional offline caching), and the exceptions are nearly all legacy apps.
- cyphersanctus 14y agoTrue, then again the temptation for them to start feeding you personalized real time ads, were your whole life is their ad canvas, might be too great to resist. Lets wait and see.
- mtgx 14y agoI trust Google right now to anonymize the data they get from me, and to hide it from their own employees. What I wouldn't trust in this future is the Government to have easy access to this data, to see everything I've been watching and doing, and passing new laws to access this data even without warrants. To me that's orders of magnitude scarier than a company using the anonymized data to send me more relevant ads on web pages, on which I'll probably still be able to use Adblock.
- czr80 14y agoCan a product have a competitor if it hasn't actually launched yet?
- Achshar 14y agoNot only that, but the market has not been established either. The product has not real solid use case except getting Facebook/G+ notifications on the go.
- Evbn 14y agoAnd head mounted camera, and hands free walking/biking directions and augmented reality.
- Achshar 14y agoHead mounted camera is only of use to a niche of users. Walking/biking directions can still be seen on a mounted mobile on bike and mobile in hand/voice directions on headphones. Augmented reality is not a specific use. There are not many things that augmented reality can be used on in real world by casual user right now. And there won't be any until someone (like google) creates it.
- meaty 14y agoMicrosoft's current strategy with everything seems to be: "me too! me too!!!"
- daeken 14y agoAs was pointed out elsewhere, this was applied for a year before Google Glass was shown at all.
- meaty 14y agoHowever, patents versus material commitment are very different. The latter requires some effort.
- daeken 14y agoSo MS is copying Google on this, despite that they put in this patent application over a year ago, and despite that these types of devices have been discussed for decades and only now practical? This is very obviously not a "me too" effort, but even if it was... who cares? Competition is a good thing.
- scanr 14y agoI'm curious if you're arguing that Microsoft shouldn't hedge their risk to Google Glass taking off by building a competitive product? There are certainly a bunch of areas where Microsoft are also innovating (see Microsoft Research).
- meaty 14y agoMicrosoft Research: innovating to keep ideas away from other technology companies through patent hoarding. I'm not convinced anyone should be developing this product.
- kvb 14y agoI hope this isn't really your view of MSR; if it is, you might consider whether your opinions of Microsoft are coloring your perception. How is all of the academic work done on Haskell, for example, motivated by an impulse to exclude others from the technology? Or consider the MSR contributions to the papers on http://jeffhuang.com/best_paper_awards.html http://jeffhuang.com/best_paper_awards.html, many of which are theoretical in nature. Do you view Xerox PARC or Bell Labs's research in the same way? Disclosure: I'm doing some contract work with the F# team in MSR Cambridge.
- addies 14y agoMaybe I'm way off, but I think this is kind of what Google intended in some sort of way with their Google X lab. They're exploring innovative and new ideas but I think it's with the intent of spurring on this competitive spirt with the other tech giants. One company exploring these ideas is innovative but may not make much progress; having a bunch of companies compete to come up with the best version of these ideas may make the progress on these technologies increase rapidly.
- Evbn 14y agoGoogle would prefer if MS Monocle ran Android. They aren't a charity.
- upthedale 14y agoSeems related to the big Xbox roadmap leak from earlier this year. 'Fortaleza' was the codename I think if anyone wants to do some digging.
- scotty79 14y ago> Microsoft Patent Shows It’s Working On A Google Glass Type Device Of Its Own It only shows that Microsoft calls dibs on this newfangled idea of wearable display. I don't see any invention described there. Rather just an idea.
- nchlswu 14y agoI love the spin. This is a non story. This is how invention and innovation works; multiple parties come up with the same idea. Not to mention that the idea of augmented reality glasses has probably been a childhood dream for many.
- vyrotek 14y agoI was really hoping they would call it Microsoft Monocle.
- puzza007 14y agoKnowing Microsoft they'll come with a keyboard
- benliong1 14y agoof course they are </sarcasm>
- micampe 14y agowe don't even know what Glass is going to be, how can it have competitors? so far all we know is that it's a network connected display inside a pair of glasses. but that's been available for purchase for a couple of years now (http://www.reconinstruments.com/products/snow-heads-up-display http://www.reconinstruments.com/products/snow-heads-up-displ...). people have been working and experimenting on wearable computing and HUDs for decades (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/one-on-one-steve-mann-wearable-computing-pioneer/ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/one-on-one-steve-ma...), I'm really curious to see what Google can come up with, being probably the first major company trying to make a general consumer product, and Glass may well end up being an awesome revolutionary product but so far I fear that it's being hyped so much that it may end up being the next Segway.