What this will provide for disabled and autistic people is amazing. It's too easy to get caught up in the "social sharing" part of this and forget that something like this can really help change people's lives.<p>Edit: To expand a bit, take an autistic adult that wants to do something, like go to the movies. It's simple for us, we wash up, get dressed, go outside, go down the straight, hope on the 132 Bus for 3 stops, get off, walk 2 blocks, pay for tickets, and go into theater number 5. For someone with autism, they can struggle with things like this. These glasses provide them with visual cues base upon their location, so when they finally do get to the theater, the glasses can show them what to do next, and give them that visual cue.<p>Currently working on an app for tablets for this sort of things, but having it work in glasses would be simply amazing. God, what I wouldn't give to be apart of this.
I dunno, maybe I'm a Luddite but I don't think the tendency to never be disconnected is good for the human psyche. I know that personally my own mental well being tends to suffer if I don't let myself have considerable stretches of time where I'm not consuming any information.<p>Also, though cool, the video is probably a pretty inaccurate representation of what that tech would actually get used for. It shows some guy getting directions, scheduling events, and meeting friends. Nice enough, but the reality is that, like most mobiles, it's probably more likely to be used for Facebook addiction and sending pointless text messages.<p>[I guess the answer is "yes", I'm becoming a Luddite.]
99% of the technology is having a really good connection either wifi or your phone company's wireless data.<p>I remember when I got a Nexus One and tried showing off the Google Translate app to co-workers; one Japanese, one Portuguese, one Bosnian but it took so long to connect it was embarrassing. I managed to get some Japanese translated after about 10 minutes.<p>Now I have a Samsung Galaxy S 2 (translate still sucks) through my phone company it has HSPA+ (21Mbps) but I have yet to consistently get anything above 3Mbps, I tend to get 1Mbps.<p>Also imagine this in a movie theatre or some place where they claim everything is copyrighted place or even walking towards police in a country where taking video of police could get you arrested.<p>It seems simple enough but holy can of worms Batman!
Very cool. Except...<p>They forgot to show the "Ukulele $350" ad that pops up when he looks at the book. Also, "Monsieur Gayno Boxed Set - $24.95", "Feet hurt? Try walking shoes from Reebok!" and "John Smith for Mayor! I'll make the trains run on time."
I know it has been said a thousand times, but Google could really take a cue from Apple on how to launch a new product. The "closed beta" approach generates a good deal of hype, but prevents early adopters from buying or using your product, which is insane! Google is tipping their hand to the competition. It may seem far-fetched that anyone else is working on a wearable computer like this, but I guarantee Google is not alone. If Google is slow to bringing this to market (which wouldn't surprise anyone), then this announcement gives Samsung/Apple/lots of others a chance to catch up in a potentially new market.<p>Ugh. Google, you have so many cool ideas and so little business acumen.
This is great an everything, but I think Google really needs to concentrate on many of their half baked solutions they currently have. I am a huge fan of Google, but with their whole social drive recently and this (their take on augmented reality which to be honest just looks like another was of wrapping you into their facebook clone rather than providing any real context aware information) I'm beginning to feel they are really loosing it. I just bought a chromebook (as a lightweight browsing machine) and im massively disappointed because its just such a terribly laggy, glitchy and frustrating experience. Its very quickly becoming a 300 quid paper weight.<p>Google have many brilliant sounding pie in the sky ideas, but when it comes down to it they have to really ask themselves, will people actually be able to use this? Is it really worth chasing after this or will they concentrate their efforts and resources on other more achievable things.
If you're into this stuff, check out Steve Mann, who's been doing wearable tech since the 80's:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mann" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mann</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiFtmrpuwNY" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiFtmrpuwNY</a>
"Not in-game footage".<p>Just like the Google tablet mock-up video vs reality. Anyone can craft a mock-up video. Not everyone can execute on it, and in recent years Google isn't doing well on that score.
How do you solve the most obvious problems of focus? Is there a really strong lens on the front of this thing?<p>I keep thinking of this problem when I hear about things like heads-up contact lenses and so on. It is a tremendous eyestrain for me to focus on anything within a meter, and so I'm often relaxing my eyes by looking away from my laptop at distant things. Within 10-20 cm or so it is extremely difficult to focus on anything; within 10cm it is actively impossible.<p>So are they really using a lens that can make a 1cm-away display look like it's 100cm away?
<i>"one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment."</i><p>uhmm, am I not in the moment when I walk the streets without popup notifications on my eyes?
This reminds me of "Use the force Luke". I hope people don't start walking around with things like this all the time. I feel like in a 10 years people will walk around talking to themselves all the time and acting quite odd for today's standards ;p (I still find the people talking on handsfree cells phones weird at times.)
The entire photo-taking thing is a bit funny - with the price of storage the way it is, there probably isn't much harm in leaving the camera recording by default and have the user turn it off temporarily if they wish. There's no telling how many amazing photos you could take in a single day with technology like that.<p>I guess the flip side of that coin is the massive surveillance potential if these glasses are controlled by a third party like mobile phones are; they're even worse than mobile phones because they spend most of the day on your head rather than in your pocket.
Ed Grimley endorses this technology.<p><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-A6pD_FWmYxg/T3xUSvVz8LI/AAAAAAAAABk/qdfLOQRlrXE/s150-c/photo.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-A6pD_FWmYxg/T3xUSvVz8LI/A...</a>
prediction: by end of 2015 these will be as popular as iPhone and iPad. the future will have arrived : ) woohoo. <a href="http://clippedcomic.blogspot.ca/2012/04/google-glasses.html" rel="nofollow">http://clippedcomic.blogspot.ca/2012/04/google-glasses.html</a>
This looks like a copy of TEDx Sixth Sense by Pranav Mistry.<p><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potenti...</a>
Its too bad Microsoft's not doing this. I was rather hoping for Clippy to make a comeback ;)<p>For those that don't know Clippy: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Assistant" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Assistant</a>
What percentage of the population wears glasses now? If you believe the 150 million (1) number, than less than half the population.<p>How many people can you convince to wear glasses that do not normally?<p>What about sun glasses? Will I need two pair of Googgles (2)? One for day, one for night?<p>Do you really think young women (or men) are going to wear these things?<p>My bet is that this project goes no where with Google in its current form. If anyone has a chance, it's Apple. Apple is the only large company with enough style to make something like this cool/socially acceptable.<p>If you can make the Camera etc, invisible, then that's a whole different story.<p>1) <a href="http://www.aao.org/newsroom/press_kit/upload/Eye-Health-Statistics-June-2009.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.aao.org/newsroom/press_kit/upload/Eye-Health-Stat...</a><p>2) my term