Google Glass

[Arifriekinel]

It could be because I come from a generation where glasses are cool, not something we freak out and punch each other over, it could be because I and a lot of my peers are involved in tech start ups, or it could be because I can't remember a world before the internet, but Google Glass and other augmented reality devices are things I am incredibly excited about.

Having seen a pair up close, they are no thicker than ordinary glasses. I am curious how they will implement the prescription models that they're hoping to come out with in the first gen to go over our existing glasses.

But it's a technology I'd very much want to use, especially when they start implementing GPS overlays like highlighted paths, or maybe an app where you can see the health rating of a food place before you walk in. It would also be nice to scan a barcode with the glass, like we do with phones, to compare prices of something in person to online. Just the things I already do, a bit more quickly. Every second saved is one more I spend doing something I enjoy

 

[imoldernu]

Wonder if Beyonce will approve of GLASS? Beyonce's backlash after Buzzfeed's unflattering photo feed | Perth Now

 

[Major Tom]

or it could be because I can't remember a world before the internet,

You mean the internet as in the one we all use now, as opposed to that thing that was around before we started endearingly calling it the worldwide web at some point in the 1990's?

Wow - I'm only 49 and I have many, many memories before the internet. You must be a mere babe. That's a good thing though

 

[explanade]

When they can get all the tech into something that looks like normal eyeglasses or sunglasses, then get back to me.

Otherwise, they look as ridiculous as those bluetooth headsets.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Now hip critters can be making eye contact with random objects to activate their glasses for data while they are loudly jabbering into their phones to people they aren't with. It's going to be even more fun dodging urban pedestrians, and worse, some of the urban bikers here in Chicago. I wonder if we can "googlebomb" the glasses wearers like people do photobombing.

But in all seriousness I bow to Google for its research efforts and developing technology.

 

[Arifriekinel]

You mean the internet as in the one we all use now, as opposed to that thing that was around before we started endearingly calling it the worldwide web at some point in the 1990's?

Wow - I'm only 49 and I have many, many memories before the internet. You must be a mere babe. That's a good thing though

Haha, yep! I was born in '93, my earliest memories involve AOL's dial up, so that's the 'good old days' for me.

 

[imoldernu]

GGG=Google Glass Gone

It looks as if Google Glass has flamed out.
The current New York Times article "Why Google Glass Broke" traces the rise and fall of the "invention of the year".

Can't link the article here, (paywall), but Googling the article title should get you there.

If you were one of the "Google Explorers" @ $1500, perhaps you could check in here with your experience.

 

[Chuckanut]

I never understood Google Glass for two reasons:

1. It would make people around you in social situtations very uncomfortable. I can see a GG wearer not getting invited to parties and other activities.

2. People have spent thousands of dollars getting their eyes lasered so they don't need glasses. Now they are going to spend big money to buy these special glasses. I don't see it. (pun intended)

 

[JoeWras]

My only experience with a "glass-jerk" was uncomfortable. (The more common expression uses a word that rhymes with "stole" instead of "jerk.")

We were on a hiking trip and made it to the top, where there is a small lodge. You meet up with strangers and share a meal. It is a unique experience, that is very "organic." Using your own feet, and own determination, you go to a place that is unusual, and something mankind has been doing since the dawn of man.

You share some coffee, maybe a smuggled in flask and lots of conversation as it gets dark. It is one of those LBYM experiences that you remember forever. It is an "experience" and not a "thing."

But then Mr. Glass comes along and wants to record everything with his "thing." What a pain in the butt. Talk about a mood breaker.

I'm not surprised it failed.

The problem is that the concept will get better and you won't know someone is wearing one. Frankly, right now the thing stuck out like a sore thumb. The next generation is likely to be more stealth.

 

[martyp]

I'm not sorry or surprised by the shut down of the public version of Google glass but I think it would have been an interesting tool in my workplace. As an automation engineer on a production line it is something I could have put it to good use.

 

[JoeWras]

martyp: I agree, the device has huge promise.

The problem was that it was being used in socially odd and unacceptable ways.

Air horns and megaphones are put to use in really good ways every day too. But sometimes they are also used inappropriately.