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Google Glass - If I Had Glass
- Kartificial 14y agoCool initiative. Too bad I wear glasses already and don't live in the US.
- chinpokomon 14y agoLooks like you could replace your frames with this.
- bazzargh 14y agoSomeone was spotted last month wearing a Glass with prescription lenses (I'd looked it up 'cos I'd need that too) http://www.roadtovr.com/2012/12/30/google-glass-spotted-in-the-wild-in-nyc-2078 http://www.roadtovr.com/2012/12/30/google-glass-spotted-in-t...
- MojoJolo 14y agoWow. Thanks! I wear glasses to and it's also my concern. But my problem now, my lens are too thick (my grade is high) to be held up by a half frame. I always need a full framed glass. And I think, that one in the picture is just half framed.
- tzaman 14y agoI hope I meet someone wearing this. I'll get really close then say "OK Glass, Google porn". Or better yet, "OK Glass, take a picture and send it to everyone"
- rikacomet 14y agovoice recognition, will not work :P Nice try though!
- VLM 14y agoIt'll work just fine with "famous" people. All it takes is enough digital audio. I think newsreader/journalist types will have the worst of it, and unfortunately hype has to flow past them, so there are going to be PR issues. I could imagine entire soundboards being created to spoof people into viewing internet shock sites, etc. For example, lets pick on Leo Laporte, because I like him and he's famous in the tech journalism community. He must have thousands of hours, tens of thousands of hours, of digital audio free for use on the net. So all you need is a simple audio editor and an audio player to play the spliced commandline and you can spoof him. So at any time in his long recorded career has Leo ever said the words "girls" and "one" and "two" and "image" and "cup" and "google" and "search"? Well, I think he could be shock site'd pretty well with this technique. Not just shock sites, but rickrolls would be funny too. This takes some planning ahead, but not much.
- 3JPLW 14y agoIf they're smart, they'll pick up the bone vibrations from the wearer. You know how your voice sounds different when you hear it back from a recording? They should be able to detect when the wearer is saying something in the same way you hear yourself when talking.
- darth_aardvark 14y agoThey're already doing that produce sound. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/04/google-glass-bone-vibration http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/04/google-glass-...
- tzaman 14y agofor everyone downvoting: It's a joke.
- saraid216 14y agoYou must be proud of yourself for coming up with such an original joke. You know. One that hasn't been floating around since the first day Glass was even leaked.
- kerno 14y agoI really don't care if these look and feel dorky. How often do you get to participate in using something that looks like the future? I want in.
- meaty 14y agoJust remember the people in the past warned us about the future!
- thejosh 14y agoUS only? :-( I am so excited for this I hope they get it fitted for people with bad eyesight.
- maximveksler 14y agoI'm from Israel. Willing to pay for just an opportunity of time slice with Glass. Have so many ideas about augmented reality that it truly feels like a set back to learn its US only.
- rikacomet 14y agothe ' and live in the U.S. to apply' always kills it for me :(
- MichailP 14y agoNow away from the fun side, this could be a cool gadget for education also. For example imagine guitar lessons filmed using Glass.
- rikacomet 14y agotrue, the tutorial videos would become far more detailed and interactive, than right now.
- awjr 14y agoShame only in the US. I want to get these into our UK warehouse.
- Swizec 14y agoWonder if "US only" means you just have to be there for the in-person pickup. Because I am totally willing to do that ... That said, I wonder how difficult it would be to modify Glass so it mounts on my regular glasses. Either way, I applied. I won't be picked, but at least I tried :)
- mmahemoff 14y agoNo chance unfortunately. Even the IO 2012 signup was only available to US based attendees. There's regulatory hurdles for them to cover.
- Swizec 14y agoRegulatory hurdles schmurdles. If we could get the iPad and iPhone years before they were officially available here, we'll find a way to get Glass too :P
- cyphersanctus 14y ago"Explorers will each need to pre-order a Glass Explorer Edition for $1500 plus tax and attend a special pick-up experience, in person, in New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles." Interesting. Now we gladly apply for the chance to pay a company $1500 plus tax for a product.
- ngokevin 14y agoI'm sure you could eBay it off for a lot more.
- kaolinite 14y agoIt's not a product yet. It's a development device and it has a lot of interest. Having to pay $1500 for it will mean that the people who apply will be serious about building things for it. It's like applying and paying for a development kit to a games console, etc.
- cyphersanctus 14y agoFair enough. Nevertheless, a company like Google could certainly afford to be gracious with developers and let them contribute to the future product's success without making them pay a hefty amount.
- dferlemann 14y agoThink this in Google's perspective. If developers are begging to take their money, why would they refuse?
- ZeroGravitas 14y agoI think it's more likely they want to filter for people that are serious about it.
- ImprovedSilence 14y agoThere still has to be a barrier to entry, or everybody and their mother would apply, and just leave the glasses sitting around on the table when they got bored with them. The price tag will weed out all but those serious about developing for glass and few peeps with disposable incomes.
- hirenj 14y agoI've always hoped that the Hitchhikers (Zaphod Beeblebrox) method for initiating an interaction with computers (saying "OK [computer]") would catch on.
- 3pt14159 14y agoSeeking Google to at least include Canada :(
- rikacomet 14y agoIs it me, or a fundamental flaw in it, is that someone who wears normal glasses, can't wear it? It can't act as a stick to a blind man, can it?
- pmorici 14y agoCheck out the "what it does" page towards the bottom under the headline "evolutionary design" it shows a picture of a lens mounted on a pair I assume you could get a prescription lens if you wore glasses. http://www.google.com/glass/start/what-it-does/ http://www.google.com/glass/start/what-it-does/
- ry0ohki 14y agoI normally wear glasses, but would gladly pop in some contacts for this.
- codeulike 14y agoIt looks like its designed to work with any type of lens, some of the pics at http://www.google.com/glass/start/what-it-does/ http://www.google.com/glass/start/what-it-does/ show it without any lenses at all. Its kind of like a projector that beams onto whatever lens is used, I think.
- Lost_BiomedE 14y agoI think it looks better with glasses: https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSQr6-vNh5qMQsc7Fm178YcATxtqh7RBX1BWVIyev5eohAM0VDj https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSQr6-v... Here is sunglasses on Brin from opposite profile: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTvbW54qLIkleLXs6mwdqHyA1MuyMgAYd9HuOGeO-_5CZ5x1d7D https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTvbW54...
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- ry0ohki 14y agoJust to clarify you are not winning anything free here (still an amazing opportunity though): "Explorers will each need to pre-order a Glass Explorer Edition for $1500 plus tax and attend a special pick-up experience, in person"
- rquantz 14y agoApparently they're seeking explorers financed by king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
- pvarangot 14y agoThey need people with cash, otherwise their users won't be able to afford all the horses, planes and balloons necessary to enjoy the full Google Glass experience.
- hughlomas 14y agoThat cuts out a sizable demographic from "exploring" it.
- madsushi 14y agoCompete for the amazing opportunity to give us $1,500 of your money!
- eqreqeq 14y agoIs the same thing as people trying to buy a Ferrari. Demand vastly exceeds supply so they will have no problem finding people that will think nothing of spending that amount of money. And frankly speaking $1,500 is not a lot of money. If you are poor or stingy I guess it is but at this point in time they are not targeting cheapskates.
- jwdunne 14y agoOh man, I wish I was in the US, I've been raving about glass for a while. I really think it opens up new doors. One way is combing augmented reality and social networking with Glass. There are a number of cool things that come of this. One is being able to look at someone also using the Glass app and being presented with their profile, plus options to send messages or view more information. It may even be possible even if they don't have Glass using a combo of geolocation and facial recognition. The most exciting bit is sending a message between two glass users because it'd be pretty much like telepathy. When the 'internet of thing' comes about, it may even be posdible to control all your various devices without lifting a finger. I could look at my kettle from across the room and flick it on! There are tonnes of possibilities and I think, especially when it's on a contact lens, it will make what's currently considered magical (telepathy, psychokinesis, etc) a reality, just like the plane removed the magic from human flight. I think wearable computing opens up many exciting doors and the two thoughts above only scratch the surface of the possibilities I imagine. In fact, I feel so strongly about ot I'd emigrate to the US just to get my hands on this awesome tech. I need to get onto it ASAP.
- don_draper 14y agoWhat you see as awesome I see as scaring the @!#@$ out of me. I enjoy being anonymous in crowds. No thanks.
- analyst74 14y agoBeing anonymous in crowds is going to go, with or without Google Glass.
- jkaunisv1 14y agoFinally, my dream of wearing masks in public has a chance of becoming more acceptable! As stuff like Google Glass becomes more common, I could see there being a reactionary movement of people who want to stay anonymous. The easy solution is to wear masks like in Venice.
- snowwrestler 14y ago
- maloofma 14y agoI'm really excited about these. Between this, driverless cars, and Google Fiber, I'd say it is safe to say Google has taken over Apple in innovation.
- Void_ 14y agoMaybe, but I never met anybody wearing Google Glass driving (riding?) a driverless car. Real artists ship.
- jgrahamc 14y agoEvery time I see Google Glass I think "Oh, cool" and then I realize that what I want/need in everyday life is de-augmented reality (i.e. just vanilla reality). I've already got devices buzzing etc. to get my attention for "important thing". The argument for things like Glass is that they will make the merging of reality and technology seamless which could have great advantages. I fear, however, that it just means I'll have a thing right in front of my face asking for my attention. The $1B idea with Google Glass is not the technology of putting it in front of your eyes etc., it's figuring out the software that filters down what's shown to the stuff you actually want/need. I don't think we've done that successfully in other domains yet.
- jwdunne 14y agoI see these things as a natural progression. The Internet is so important that we are becoming connected tighter with each revolultion. When I first started using the Internet, it was using an unreliable 56k on a large desktop. I had to visit one spot in my house to connect. After this, I got my first laptop. This was great because now I can connect any where in my house. By that time, I had broadband do always on, faster and way more reliable. Fast forward again and I got my first smart phone. Now I can connect pretty much anywhere (given a decent signal) just by pulling my phone out of my pocket. Google Glass means I won't have to pull it out of my pocket anymore. Now my life will be constantly enhanced at every moment by great hackers, just like it has been enhanced in increasing amounts since I first touched the Internet.
- mattgreenrocks 14y agoWhere "enhanced" == abusive apps that rely on dopamine hits and fear of missing out to spur traction?
- jwdunne 14y agoNo, I cannot say my life has been enhanced by those types of applications. I'm talking stuff we take for granted like email, the web, word processing. These things have enhanced my life. The web alone opens a whole library of information and I am actually thankful because without it I'd know only a fraction of what I currently know. Similar revolutions will happen and I fully believe something like Google Glass will be the medium. Just as a thought, look at everything you use computers for now and think what it'd be like if they wasn't there? Even the most basic tasks should be considered.
- retube 14y agoSo... you are entering a competition to win the privilage of spending $1,500. People will sign up for this? Wowser.
- sp332 14y agoIt's a status symbol, and an awesome toy. I don't think anyone is looking at this as a sound economic decision :)
- netrus 14y agoIt's aimed at developers at the moment ... early access to this technology could give you a small piece of the giant cake that is about to come. Might be worth much more than $1,500.
- robmcm 14y agoPeople spend that much money on leather sacks...
- friendly_chap 14y agoWhen I saw the icon I hoped it is a synthesizer because of the sawtooth wave. Too bad.
- Nursie 14y agoI have no idea of the rendering power available in these things, but a kick-ass alternate reality game with things only glass-wearers can see would be a good start. Can it overlay reality with giant scary monsters?
- rytis 14y agoI wonder, when this becomes mainstream, what is going to start happening on the roads? It is already quite dangerous with some drivers texting/talking on their phones while driving. So now they will have yet another thing to look at (other than the road they're on)... Not saying glass is a bad thing, I think it's really great. Just wonder how (or if) this is going to affect the road safety.
- cbr 14y agoI think google has another project to help there.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- wuest 14y agoI think it could either enhance or diminish road safety. It all comes down to the person using the technology, though. The sort of person who would use something like Glass to use GPS or a HUD (speedo, tach, clock?) without taking their eyes off of the road will likely be a more safe driver. HUDs have been credited with enhancing aviator safety; this could bring such innovations to the road. The sort of person who looks for distractions anyway will now be distracted by Glass. I'm not sure if this will constitute new distractions or a new way to consume old ones, though.
- aaronbasssett 14y agoSome cars already come with HUDs which are projected onto the windscreen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1s6SZ73i8A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1s6SZ73i8A
- VLM 14y ago"what is going to start happening on the roads?" Generally the more crooked the police department, the more violently they react to being filmed in action. Where I live they're fairly lawful so they kinda laugh and/or cooperate (pose for the camera, would your kids like some free baseball cards, etc). On the other hand, there are less civilized places on the coasts where you'll get pretty well beaten and jailed and your camera destroyed if you film corrupt cops, even if by some miracle they're not breaking the law at that moment. Aside from corruption, this is going to be a pretty big issue for "drive by recording", both sides of every little drunk driving traffic stop and minor fender bender (oh and worse situations too) will probably want your recording data, even if its just a few seconds outta the corner of your eye. Even if its a complete waste of time, if its a high enough crime you'll have the criminal system going bonkers with you in the middle. I could see this affecting road safety in a self censorship manner. Oh no a crash, better not look that way or I'll get dragged into court as a witness for the zillionth time, whoops just crashed into the ambulance that pulled out while I was intentionally not watching the accident.
- andyjohnson0 14y agoObvious idea: Peril Sensitive Glasses [1] that go opaque at the first sign of danger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_in_The_Hitchhikers_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Joo_Janta_200_Super-Chromatic_Peril_Sensitive_Sunglasses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_in_The_Hitchhikers_G... (Edit: HN is stripping apostrophe in link - should be Hitchhiker's_Guide)
- Yuioup 14y agoI wonder why Google felt the need to put this out just before the Playstation 4 announcement today.
- mtgx 14y agoI don't think they care about that. Not like the products overlap much.
- Gmo 14y agoThe main thing that Google Glass makes me think of is the movie "Final Cut" starring Robin Williams : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364343/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364343/
- celticninja 14y agomust be a US resident... well thanks google, dont you think that foreigners may also be interested, you are a multi-national organisation that operates on a global scale providing a service to users in almost every country, yet only americans can test your product. It almost guarantees that your test base will be predominantly white, male, educated and middle class anyway.
- pvillega 14y agoMulti-national organisation unable to sell Google Nexus 4/10 in Ireland, where they have their European HQ. Like if they cared about multinational, except to reroute taxes...
- snarfy 14y agoI'm not sure how I would stop myself from rage smashing my Glass the first time an ad popped up at an inappropriate/dangerous time. Glass could be really cool, and it could be really, really stupid too. There will be apps. Will there be free/ad supported apps? I hope not.
- ihuman 14y agoHey, it looks like you're on Hacker News. Amazon thinks you'll love this book. Do you want me to open this in a new tab in Google Chrome?
- forgotAgain 14y agoIf the glass measured pupil dilation it could disable certain functions in times of emergency. Would probably do an auto 911 after an impact just as a way of making up )).
- lucb1e 14y agoWhy must I live in the US to apply for each and every hardware beta...
- forgotAgain 14y agoNot trying to justify it but just saying it could be privacy laws in other countries.
- lucb1e 14y agoI know, lots of extra issues besides the one they already have when they distribute the technology in the US. It still sucks to be excluded.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- loyals 14y agoI am not going to fall for this Publicity stunt. Even if they are serious. I am not letting a device distort my reality the i see with my own eyes. thank you very much
- o0-0o 14y agoWould anyone here strap a cell phone to their temples? In voice of Arnold... Its not a tumor. Its a Google glass side effect.
- sjtrny 14y agoI would. Mobile phones emit and receive non ionising radiation. They are perfectly safe. Are you worried about the constant radio waves hitting your skull 24/7 from radio, tv, wifi etc? And who is to say this isn't piggy backing off your phone in your pocket?
- kd0amg 14y agoI bet some people here would attach a Bluetooth headset to their ears.
- veb 14y agoWhat about Cochlear Implants?
- bane 14y agoSo I have to build up an application so I can get invited to pay $1500 for a device I don't really know what it does and probably don't want? (oh and I wear glasses so I probably couldn't use it even if I wanted to)
- raldi 14y agoYou don't have to do anything.
- btipling 14y agoI saw someone in a store with those glasses and I had to say I felt a bit weirded out by the thought they could be recording things. Does it indicate to other people if it is recording? These things are going to run into some social issues I think.
- DanBC 14y agoThat's an interesting reaction. You're sort of in public. You're just living your everyday life. The person recording doesn't know you; probably has no interest in you. Why is it a problem that they're recording? (Note that I'm not saying you're wrong! Or that you should change your mind!) Candid photography has provided some fantastic photographs over the years. There's some amazing social commentary. With a bit of luck we'll get something similar (as well as petabytes of junk) from people recording everyday life.
- scrumper 14y ago> Why is it a problem that they're recording? It's a problem because while I don't expect privacy in public, I do expect my presence to be transitory and under my control. The two seconds I spend scratching my arse walking down the street are forgotten by all who saw it instantly, but not if that moment is immortalised in flash memory. When my wife's skirt blows up in an autumn breeze she gets embarrassed, I get amused and the van drivers get titillated. We've all forgotten it minutes later; now some passing pervert with terminator glasses can grab a freeze frame and share her misfortune with the world. Henri Cartier-Bresson didn't have his camera up to his eye constantly. By the time he'd reacted to her skirt billowing up and readied his camera she'd have yanked it down again.
- btipling 14y agoI feel like someone should invent a directed emp pulse weapon so I can disable these permanently whenever I see them. What a horrible future awaits us. I hope Google glass fails. I realize this is inevitable, but I'm not ready, and neither is my family.
- sp4ke 14y ago#ifihadglass i would give you all my ideas for free so you could earn money with it and make me pay for using it
- ponyous 14y agoWas so excited until I read "and live in the U.S. to apply"
- Cieplak 14y agoPlease take off your glasses before entering the restroom.
- leoc 14y agoTwo thoughts: 1) Google is obviously terrified that being seen wearing Glasses will brand you as terribly nerdy. (Compare the 'gargoyle' stigma in /Snow Crash/.) So to control the early perceptions they're doing a heavily-publicised early release to some carefully-selected mobile-phone-company-commercial beautiful people. The ideal candidate will be taking photos for /National Geographic/ while cave-diving for her Rhodes Scholarship. She will also be rather attractive, and not a wearer of prescription glasses. (Compare http://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/05/08/the-sophie-choice http://www.stevenlevy.com/index.php/05/08/the-sophie-choice . Courting Steven Levy seems to have turned out pretty poorly for Google, eh?) 2) Glasses looks very promising, but isn't it a bit of a stretch to call what it does Augmented Reality? AR more or less implies a HUD, or some other means of superimposing CGI on what you see of the real world. But the http://www.google.com/glass/start/how-it-feels/ http://www.google.com/glass/start/how-it-feels/ video seems to suggest that instead Glasses takes a "picture-in-picture" approach, and the screen's transparency seems to serve mainly to make it feel less oppressive, and to minimise the amount it obstructs your vision when the whole screen is not in use. Goggles http://www.google.ie/mobile/goggles/ http://www.google.ie/mobile/goggles/ is more of a true AR system. (I'm not suggesting this is a bad decision: in light of the current problems with head-tracking http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/raster-scan-displays-more-than-meets-the-eye/ http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/raster-scan-displays-m... and precise geolocation it seems like a good one.)
- leoc 14y agoUPDATE: Actually, I've just come across this Steven Levy article in Wired that illustrates the perception challenge nicely. http://www.wired.com/business/2012/04/epicenter-google-glass-ar/ http://www.wired.com/business/2012/04/epicenter-google-glass... On the LEFT: how Google wants you to think of Glasses. On the RIGHT: how you think of Glasses. And again: this was a Wired article, by Steven Levy.
- Kylekramer 14y agoIf the market is only people who think it'd be cool to look like a Star Trek character, that is still a pretty big market.
- GHFigs 14y agoWithout denying that it's "neat", I'd like to be on record as looking askance at the fact that a company that makes >90% of revenue from advertising wants to sell me a tiny screen to put an inch in front of my eye.
- B-Con 14y agoMaybe for $X/month you get the experience ad-free. As sad as that type of deal sounds.
- saraid216 14y agoGoogle is sort of on record on doing cool things for mostly-free simply because they're there to be done.
- mieubrisse 14y agoThough Google's a big company, they still have bottom lines to meet. I think the key word in your comment is "mostly", and how much that means to the average Glass user. What you think of as "mostly free" may be preciously expensive to someone else.
- jaggederest 14y agoThe best useful purpose for headmounted displays is lifelogging. A reasonably high definition stream with audio and video of everything you see during a waking day (call it 16 hours) is only about a hundred gigabytes. There's no reason not to do it, at this point. Imagine if we could go back and look at the lifelogs of historical figures. In order to achieve that, you basically have to archive everyone, since you don't know in advance if an individual is going to be important later in life. People complain about the panopticon, but I'm interested in the opposite.
- stuffihavemade 14y agoYou can think of no reason someone wouldn't want to have every waking moment of their life recorded?
- jaggederest 14y agoYup, I'm assuming that we're neglecting permissions and privacy issues - imagining that nobody but you could ever access it.
- waterlesscloud 14y agoAnd, of course, the government if it's stored on Google's servers.
- primitur 14y agoI just finished my first Augmented Reality app, which is rolling out to its intended users as I type, so I'm a bit biased about this .. but personally I think: AR is AMAZING. I've used the Vuforia SDK, and the ability to track paper with accuracy on the basis of a well-designed customized brand or design layout .. this is fantastic. So my app is to demonstrate how AR can overlay and track over print, and edit print materials smoothly .. and I'll be damned if it doesn't work just great. My next app will be for kids to make planes, in fact. Use the iPhone like a Magic Loupe, print out the picture, get a folding guide in 3D. Oops, I guess I gave that idea away for nothin' ..
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- te_chris 14y agoThe POV porn industry is going to love this.
- piyush_soni 14y agoAfter all that application process including collecting ideas from people, I was really thinking they'd give a pair of glasses to each of those 'selected candidates' for free. Turned out it's not the case. Would I do all that application process when I'll possibly be able to buy it after some time without that for the same money anyway?
- jpatokal 14y agoTL;DR: Google's focus on the mass market, social stuff and slick appearance is precisely the wrong path to be going down for a user interface as novel as this. http://gyrovague.com/2013/01/25/dorky-is-ok-google-glass-does-not-have-to-be-the-next-iphone/ http://gyrovague.com/2013/01/25/dorky-is-ok-google-glass-doe...
- habosa 14y agoI think Google really should be running this as a free promotion. A pair of Google Glass (Glasses? Not sure how to pluralize) is worth less than two shares of GOOG, they can afford it. A contest to win a free pair (or two) would really drum up some buzz, I don't understand the strategy of charging for the winner. It's kind of like those contests where you "win" the chance to buy super bowl tickets.