6 ms·

This project scares the hell out of me. This is going to cause eye problems and distract people and cause injury and accidents.

ElliotH 14y ago
distract people and cause injury and accidents Like mobile phones then?
moistgorilla 14y ago
Seriously? How would this be more dangerous than current cellphones? At least with glass you can keep your eyes facing the road while gathering information and I'm pretty sure you don't need your hand to answer phone calls either (tilt your head.). Also, they wouldn't be releasing a product that caused eye problems.
- lloeki 14y ago
  > At least with glass you can keep your eyes facing the road A sheet of anything, however transparent, centimetres away from your eye won't help you see something a hundred meters away. You're concerned with alignment but focus matters even more. You usually don't notice the focus time because your eyes are doing it while moving (changing the alignment). HUDs work in planes and cars because they're far away enough to be in the "far sight" range. Worse, while once your eye moved the distracting elements are out of the way and you get an unobstructed and non-distractive view, with this you simply can't look away of the distracting elements — merely focus away — and however transparent and blurry it would appear it would still obscure the view. Besides, the attention problem makes it an order of magnitude more likely to have an accident whereas the hands problem makes it only a factor more. When you're on a call with someone or whatever, hands or not, your mind is simply not driving. So, should it be a cause of concern? I don't know, but it's certainly not the solution. Driving is an enjoyable yet serious matter, requiring a combination of motor and cognitive skills, therefore the solution is (whether people like it or not) that one should not do anything else but driving, or not drive at all (i.e have someone either drive meanwhile or do the task, or take the train, coach, taxi, or get a Google car). The huge majority of crashes are directly tied to an inadequate level of cognition from the driver (alcohol, testosterone excess, adrenaline addiction, sleep deprivation, psychological pressure, multitasking...) because every dent one makes in its ability to analyse raises the odds of an event ranging from nuisance to dramatic given the energies involved WRT our frail physical envelopes. So, drive responsibly. Don't answer, dial or text wile driving, and don't put an electronic lid on your eye. Even if you think it's safe while it's probably not, it's way safer not to.
  - Cogito 14y ago
    Just to make sure I'm not misunderstanding you, you're saying that having a display in front of your eyes would distract you from other things, for example the road? Surely in cases where this is important you can simply turn off the display? A piece of glass or plastic isn't going to interrupt anyone's vision, as we can see by everyone who wears glasses when driving. Furthermore, I don't agree that any loss of optical clarity is "way" more dangerous than perfect vision, nor that something being displayed on the glasses need be perceptible at all. For example, if a glasses wearing driver were to swap out their moderately rimmed glasses for fancy clear-framed glasses, their safety would be inpercievably improved. At times, it is easy to not notice dust on your glasses. Now, there is certainly potential for far more obstruction to be had, and the case for changing focus is surely one to be considered, however the claim that it is necessarily "way safer" to not have anything present close to your eye that is not completely transparent is incorrect. As a simple counterexample, the glasses could change tint or brightness according to driving conditions, improving the vision of the driver. Drivers already do this by putting sunglasses on, these glasses could do it automatically.
    - lloeki 14y ago
      I'm talking about the display being enabled (else it would simply be similar to regular glasses) bringing two problems: - the sight problem: both eyes converge and focus simultaneously (unless you have some serious neurologic issue). Unless Google solved the problem of measuring the the lens curvature (i.e eye focal distance) and send light rays the proper way in a ridiculously tiny and cheap package (compared to currently available professional equipment measuring such values), it is sending them in a best-effort way on a fixed focale. Hence the display will look blurred for some focal distances (possibly obscuring all of part of the field of view in a significant manner), while when at the correct focal distance change of focus takes time (possibly preventing to see or notice stuff in a timely manner, or at all). - the cognitive load problem: even simple notifications on your computer eats away your productivity, so imagine the firehose of your digital life randomly pinging you while driving. The first one is a general concern covering many areas (safety, health, comfort...) while the second one is making a point that it does not bring anything to safety while driving.
- Someone 14y ago
  "At least with glass you can keep your eyes facing the road while gathering information" But can you keep attending to the road? Fighter pilots can, but they take a lot of training, lots of them don't make it through training, and their display doesn't show 'I am contacting you on behalf of my deceased Nigerian aunt" messages. For mere mortals, I think it may be safer to have separate gaze directions for 'looking at the road' and 'looking at my cellphone's screen', if that screen shows data unrelated to the driving task.
taligent 14y ago
Right now the primary use case of the Google Glasses is as an always-on video camera. Now most people (including myself) don't appreciate being filmed without permission and there are plenty of situations where people could be filmed committing illegal acts. So I can guarantee you that injury is going to occur at some point and especially in the US a not insignificant chance of being shot.
- mikedmiked 14y ago
  Is it possible to stream from the glasses? If so then a criminal would be deincentivised to murder a witness wearing the glasses - as everything they have seen is already online. Of course it would take a few years of people getting shot by criminals who don't understand the technology before we get to that stage...
  - wingerlang 14y ago
    Live streaming is possible, yes.
- jff 14y ago
  I don't think the camera will be always-on, just always-available. Continually recording from a camera is sure to be very draining on the battery.
- njharman 14y ago
  The primary use case of the Google Glasses is an always on advertising platform.
kami8845 14y ago
and cars cause accidents. the future is coming, better embrace it.
- tudorw 14y ago
  cars don't cause accidents, people cause accidents with cars ;)
  - gbog 14y ago
    This works also for anything from guns to nuclear bombs.
    - tudorw 14y ago
      true, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT2YYLkIFZ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT2YYLkIFZ4
- rimantas 14y ago
  Ads and even more sever privacy violations are comming, not the future. People with bluetooth sets in their ears looks funny to me, I guess people wit GG will look even more weird and scary.
danso 14y ago
I think the biggest scare that will happen is when geocoded data of the value-added type is overlayed upon your view. Imagine these scenarios: * The gun owners address map re-oriented so that when you look at a house, you see a "gun" symbol over it * Property value over each home (available from county assessor) * When Facebook makes another privacy-opening-oops and people with their wall/statuses set to semi-public have a little bubble over their head with their latest status update ("I'm so drunk from yesterday!"). * When you look at people, or their children, they automatically assume you are videotaping them. And someone out there is going to write an app that checks your name against a sex-offender registry and will notify anyone if you have a similar name to said person (guess you'd have to reveal your name somehow...which you might through Google Plus and the required real name)
- hahla 14y ago
  All of these things are already possible to implement, google glass just makes it more accessible by keeping it in your field of view the entire time your wearing the device.
  - danso 14y ago
    Yes, all of these things are already possible to implement, in the same way that it was possible to construct a webpage in which you listed your activities and doings and manually update them -- and track your friends who have their own webpages -- long before Facebook came along. The idea isn't the point here, it's the ease of use and the visceralness of it. The gun maps debate is a prime example of this. Anyone could go to the government office and get those records. And if you were a thief, you would have much more use out of them as a straight excel spreadsheet which you could cross-reference with other property records...or at least just do quick name searches across a large Excel file. But as soon as a newspaper put a bunch of red dots on the map (which made it nearly impossible for a user to find anything more than who has a gun and who lives at that red dot without clicking manually thousands of times), the New York state legislature is hot to pass a law to ban those public records. Usability and location is much more than just "additional features".
Shorel 14y ago
I drive everyday with one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Third-Eye-Round-Helmet-Mirror/dp/B0012OKAZS/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1358345165&sr=8-7&keywords=helmet+mirror http://www.amazon.com/Third-Eye-Round-Helmet-Mirror/dp/B0012... I have to stop looking forward to use it, for just a small part of a second, because of different focal distance, different angle of my eyes, limits in the brain part that focus the attention, etc. It actually helps me avoid accidents. I don't see how Google Glasses would be much different to that mirror. I would love to use them for GPS or other related info. Focal distance in tiny screens is either a solved problem, or one being solved by smart people right now.

ElliotH 14y ago

distract people and cause injury and accidents Like mobile phones then?

moistgorilla 14y ago

Seriously? How would this be more dangerous than current cellphones? At least with glass you can keep your eyes facing the road while gathering information and I'm pretty sure you don't need your hand to answer phone calls either (tilt your head.). Also, they wouldn't be releasing a product that caused eye problems.

lloeki 14y ago
> At least with glass you can keep your eyes facing the road A sheet of anything, however transparent, centimetres away from your eye won't help you see something a hundred meters away. You're concerned with alignment but focus matters even more. You usually don't notice the focus time because your eyes are doing it while moving (changing the alignment). HUDs work in planes and cars because they're far away enough to be in the "far sight" range. Worse, while once your eye moved the distracting elements are out of the way and you get an unobstructed and non-distractive view, with this you simply can't look away of the distracting elements — merely focus away — and however transparent and blurry it would appear it would still obscure the view. Besides, the attention problem makes it an order of magnitude more likely to have an accident whereas the hands problem makes it only a factor more. When you're on a call with someone or whatever, hands or not, your mind is simply not driving. So, should it be a cause of concern? I don't know, but it's certainly not the solution. Driving is an enjoyable yet serious matter, requiring a combination of motor and cognitive skills, therefore the solution is (whether people like it or not) that one should not do anything else but driving, or not drive at all (i.e have someone either drive meanwhile or do the task, or take the train, coach, taxi, or get a Google car). The huge majority of crashes are directly tied to an inadequate level of cognition from the driver (alcohol, testosterone excess, adrenaline addiction, sleep deprivation, psychological pressure, multitasking...) because every dent one makes in its ability to analyse raises the odds of an event ranging from nuisance to dramatic given the energies involved WRT our frail physical envelopes. So, drive responsibly. Don't answer, dial or text wile driving, and don't put an electronic lid on your eye. Even if you think it's safe while it's probably not, it's way safer not to.
- Cogito 14y ago
  Just to make sure I'm not misunderstanding you, you're saying that having a display in front of your eyes would distract you from other things, for example the road? Surely in cases where this is important you can simply turn off the display? A piece of glass or plastic isn't going to interrupt anyone's vision, as we can see by everyone who wears glasses when driving. Furthermore, I don't agree that any loss of optical clarity is "way" more dangerous than perfect vision, nor that something being displayed on the glasses need be perceptible at all. For example, if a glasses wearing driver were to swap out their moderately rimmed glasses for fancy clear-framed glasses, their safety would be inpercievably improved. At times, it is easy to not notice dust on your glasses. Now, there is certainly potential for far more obstruction to be had, and the case for changing focus is surely one to be considered, however the claim that it is necessarily "way safer" to not have anything present close to your eye that is not completely transparent is incorrect. As a simple counterexample, the glasses could change tint or brightness according to driving conditions, improving the vision of the driver. Drivers already do this by putting sunglasses on, these glasses could do it automatically.
  - lloeki 14y ago
    I'm talking about the display being enabled (else it would simply be similar to regular glasses) bringing two problems: - the sight problem: both eyes converge and focus simultaneously (unless you have some serious neurologic issue). Unless Google solved the problem of measuring the the lens curvature (i.e eye focal distance) and send light rays the proper way in a ridiculously tiny and cheap package (compared to currently available professional equipment measuring such values), it is sending them in a best-effort way on a fixed focale. Hence the display will look blurred for some focal distances (possibly obscuring all of part of the field of view in a significant manner), while when at the correct focal distance change of focus takes time (possibly preventing to see or notice stuff in a timely manner, or at all). - the cognitive load problem: even simple notifications on your computer eats away your productivity, so imagine the firehose of your digital life randomly pinging you while driving. The first one is a general concern covering many areas (safety, health, comfort...) while the second one is making a point that it does not bring anything to safety while driving.
Someone 14y ago
"At least with glass you can keep your eyes facing the road while gathering information" But can you keep attending to the road? Fighter pilots can, but they take a lot of training, lots of them don't make it through training, and their display doesn't show 'I am contacting you on behalf of my deceased Nigerian aunt" messages. For mere mortals, I think it may be safer to have separate gaze directions for 'looking at the road' and 'looking at my cellphone's screen', if that screen shows data unrelated to the driving task.

taligent 14y ago

Right now the primary use case of the Google Glasses is as an always-on video camera. Now most people (including myself) don't appreciate being filmed without permission and there are plenty of situations where people could be filmed committing illegal acts. So I can guarantee you that injury is going to occur at some point and especially in the US a not insignificant chance of being shot.

mikedmiked 14y ago
Is it possible to stream from the glasses? If so then a criminal would be deincentivised to murder a witness wearing the glasses - as everything they have seen is already online. Of course it would take a few years of people getting shot by criminals who don't understand the technology before we get to that stage...
- wingerlang 14y ago
  Live streaming is possible, yes.
jff 14y ago
I don't think the camera will be always-on, just always-available. Continually recording from a camera is sure to be very draining on the battery.
njharman 14y ago
The primary use case of the Google Glasses is an always on advertising platform.

kami8845 14y ago

and cars cause accidents. the future is coming, better embrace it.

tudorw 14y ago
cars don't cause accidents, people cause accidents with cars ;)
- gbog 14y ago
  This works also for anything from guns to nuclear bombs.
  - tudorw 14y ago
    true, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT2YYLkIFZ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT2YYLkIFZ4
rimantas 14y ago
Ads and even more sever privacy violations are comming, not the future. People with bluetooth sets in their ears looks funny to me, I guess people wit GG will look even more weird and scary.

danso 14y ago

I think the biggest scare that will happen is when geocoded data of the value-added type is overlayed upon your view. Imagine these scenarios: * The gun owners address map re-oriented so that when you look at a house, you see a "gun" symbol over it * Property value over each home (available from county assessor) * When Facebook makes another privacy-opening-oops and people with their wall/statuses set to semi-public have a little bubble over their head with their latest status update ("I'm so drunk from yesterday!"). * When you look at people, or their children, they automatically assume you are videotaping them. And someone out there is going to write an app that checks your name against a sex-offender registry and will notify anyone if you have a similar name to said person (guess you'd have to reveal your name somehow...which you might through Google Plus and the required real name)

hahla 14y ago
All of these things are already possible to implement, google glass just makes it more accessible by keeping it in your field of view the entire time your wearing the device.
- danso 14y ago
  Yes, all of these things are already possible to implement, in the same way that it was possible to construct a webpage in which you listed your activities and doings and manually update them -- and track your friends who have their own webpages -- long before Facebook came along. The idea isn't the point here, it's the ease of use and the visceralness of it. The gun maps debate is a prime example of this. Anyone could go to the government office and get those records. And if you were a thief, you would have much more use out of them as a straight excel spreadsheet which you could cross-reference with other property records...or at least just do quick name searches across a large Excel file. But as soon as a newspaper put a bunch of red dots on the map (which made it nearly impossible for a user to find anything more than who has a gun and who lives at that red dot without clicking manually thousands of times), the New York state legislature is hot to pass a law to ban those public records. Usability and location is much more than just "additional features".

Shorel 14y ago

I drive everyday with one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Third-Eye-Round-Helmet-Mirror/dp/B0012OKAZS/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1358345165&sr=8-7&keywords=helmet+mirror http://www.amazon.com/Third-Eye-Round-Helmet-Mirror/dp/B0012... I have to stop looking forward to use it, for just a small part of a second, because of different focal distance, different angle of my eyes, limits in the brain part that focus the attention, etc. It actually helps me avoid accidents. I don't see how Google Glasses would be much different to that mirror. I would love to use them for GPS or other related info. Focal distance in tiny screens is either a solved problem, or one being solved by smart people right now.