5 ms·

Simple solution: no camera. Wearable displays have other great benefits - though input awkwardness might kill it (voice isn't good enough as the sole input).

by hyp0 12y ago

fixermark 12y ago
Unfortunately, the camera is half the benefit. I've seen some very clever augmented reality work with this system. There's some real power in the ability to take visual input from the environment, enhance it, and display it to the user in a more useful format. Most of the actually nifty uses for Glass are camera-related.
- hyp0 12y ago
  I agree the camera is a tremendous benefit. But it's problematic; and there are great benefits without it (half of them by your accountant - it's still a lot). Specially, a phone/browser you don't have to take out of your pocket. A display that is light and unobtrusive. A form factor that has "headroom to shrink" - smartphone size is limited by having a usable display. But they are hard to read. So we have a trend towards bigger displays, which therefore are both more and less convenient, because of these conflicting benefits. Wearable displays resolve the conflict. It's very hard, especially for an engineer, to give up fantastic benefits of a new technology. That's why I suspect Google cannot bring itself to drop the camera. In contrast, Apple has often foregone specific benefits for the sake of overall benefits (e.g. no 1080p phone resolution, for the sake of battery life). So I think Apple could bring itself to do this.
fpgeek 12y ago
That depends on what you think the problem is. Sure, if you think it's "people don't like Google Glass", ditching the camera is one option. If, on the other hand, you think the problem is "people don't like being recorded when they don't know it", Glass is just a symptom. Even if Glass made recording super-obvious or ditched the camera entirely, someone would just make "Black Glass" that didn't or stick a tiny cameras in other things (watches? baseball caps? ...). Personally, I think the real problem is the latter. All the excessive focus on Google Glass just distracts us from that. And that's unfortunate, because the real problem is much thornier than the Glass problem.
- nknighthb 12y ago
  Behold, tiny cameras: http://www.amazon.com/Eyewear-Sunglasses-Hidden-Camera-Recorder/dp/B00C3UKE88/ref=pd_sim_sbs_p_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JKEY7WYZY96Z6B4JRDR http://www.amazon.com/Eyewear-Sunglasses-Hidden-Camera-Recor... And this is just the obvious crap you get for $50 off Amazon.

Simple solution: no camera. Wearable displays have other great benefits - though input awkwardness might kill it (voice isn't good enough as the sole input).

by hyp0 12y ago

Simple solution: no camera. Wearable displays have other great benefits - though input awkwardness might kill it (voice isn't good enough as the sole input).

fixermark 12y ago

Unfortunately, the camera is half the benefit. I've seen some very clever augmented reality work with this system. There's some real power in the ability to take visual input from the environment, enhance it, and display it to the user in a more useful format. Most of the actually nifty uses for Glass are camera-related.

hyp0 12y ago
I agree the camera is a tremendous benefit. But it's problematic; and there are great benefits without it (half of them by your accountant - it's still a lot). Specially, a phone/browser you don't have to take out of your pocket. A display that is light and unobtrusive. A form factor that has "headroom to shrink" - smartphone size is limited by having a usable display. But they are hard to read. So we have a trend towards bigger displays, which therefore are both more and less convenient, because of these conflicting benefits. Wearable displays resolve the conflict. It's very hard, especially for an engineer, to give up fantastic benefits of a new technology. That's why I suspect Google cannot bring itself to drop the camera. In contrast, Apple has often foregone specific benefits for the sake of overall benefits (e.g. no 1080p phone resolution, for the sake of battery life). So I think Apple could bring itself to do this.

fpgeek 12y ago

That depends on what you think the problem is. Sure, if you think it's "people don't like Google Glass", ditching the camera is one option. If, on the other hand, you think the problem is "people don't like being recorded when they don't know it", Glass is just a symptom. Even if Glass made recording super-obvious or ditched the camera entirely, someone would just make "Black Glass" that didn't or stick a tiny cameras in other things (watches? baseball caps? ...). Personally, I think the real problem is the latter. All the excessive focus on Google Glass just distracts us from that. And that's unfortunate, because the real problem is much thornier than the Glass problem.

nknighthb 12y ago
Behold, tiny cameras: http://www.amazon.com/Eyewear-Sunglasses-Hidden-Camera-Recorder/dp/B00C3UKE88/ref=pd_sim_sbs_p_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JKEY7WYZY96Z6B4JRDR http://www.amazon.com/Eyewear-Sunglasses-Hidden-Camera-Recor... And this is just the obvious crap you get for $50 off Amazon.