Extendiality

Google Glass will definitely face huge resistance from some groups of people, who are afraid of the privacy.

In my opinion, danger is a bit exaggerated. Michael Bloomberg, mayor of the New York city, said recently that surveillance cameras will be placed on autonomous drones, flying around. And he gave advise: “Just get used to it!”. Even now it is easy to get everything about you by checking you phone cell data, credit card usage and your own public tags — Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook.

So, we are watched more and more, no big issue if someone also makes a photo of you. But drones do not post their pics on Facebook for all to see (yet 🙂 how drunk you were last night :). And this is the main concern – not everyone want their pictures to be publicly available on the web.

By the way, Facebook is testing their feature of face auto-recognition. You will be able to remove tag, but there can be lots of views before you do that.

Bar in Seattle (ok, this is more marketing thing than real protest, so here is the name — The 5 Point Cafe) already banned Google Glass proactively in their premises. They say, people visit them to have fun and not be afraid of someone making pictures of them. Reasonable.

I predict, this type of places, where “Google Glass” style devices are banned, will be quite popular in the beginning. And I still wonder, how long will it take for people to get used to Google Glass and stop being afraid of a, so called, “Facebook eye“, watching their every step?

My opinion, this will be soon. Even now you can grab a smartphone and make a discredit picture quite quickly. Why don’t you do it all the time? Because it is dirty. Google Glass makes it easier, but reasons for not using it for shooting inappropriate pictures and videos are the same.

So, would you take Google Glass off or just find another bar?

Are you ready for future? For Google Glass? Hope, some of you took a chance to get their Glass by participating in the contest.

The Verge journal published a remarkable “hands-on” testing of Google Glass by Joshua Topolsky. There are both experience described in the article as well as video. This is particularly interesting as now it is not a polished marketing teaser, but an actual opinion of a very judicial columnist.

And he met with the most important Google Glass employees — Product Director and Chief Designer.

The idea behind Glass is very simple. You cannot avoid using modern gadgets, but it results in “living” inside them. You do not belong to reality anymore, you are in smartphone now. Goal is to make interaction as smooth as possible without distracting you from the beauty of the world around.

Joshua even asks, — “Isn’t it weird that to become more “human” we need to augment with Glass?”. Yes, that’s the paradox.

There will be different colors to match your personality, some parts will be detachable (probably, to change colors easily). Cooperation with fashion companies like Ray-Ban can be a possibility. Google Glass device needs to be not only perfect in technical sense, but also appealing as an accessory. It should be attractive as it will be placed on the “strategically important” part of our body — the face.

Version for normal prescription glasses is also on its way. Additionally, you are able to attach a “sunglasses” lens to Google Glass and it becomes even more stylish.

Joshua admits that walking around is simply awesome and adds the whole new layer of reality. I strongly encourage you to read and then check the video.

By the way, just got information that there are already some widely used apps ported to Glass. For example, Gmail and Evernote. And this is only the beginning.

The picture, which illustrates emotions, is simply this one:

YouTube comments rock. Pranksters want to approach people on the street, scream some commands and then run away 🙂

Now, you can be a lucky owner of the first Google Glass prototypes. Yes, it is a new milestone for this project and be prepared.

You need to fulfill 4 requirements:

• Be a US resident (I believe, most readers of this blog are from US)
• Be ready to spend $1500 (plus tax) — reasonable price for becoming one of the first testers
• Convince Google that you are the right person. This one is tricky, see instructions below.
• Be able to attend Google Glass event in either New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco.

Ok, what’s needed to become the lucky one? Write a short story (not more than 50 words) in Google+ or Twitter (no Facebook, ha-ha!) using hashtag #ifihadglass explaining what you would do if you had Glass. Simple as that. Also, you can attach up to 5 photos and 15 sec video, if you want.

Hopefully, you are older than 18 years 🙂 Hurry up as deadline is 27th of February.

All the information is available now at the official (and very cool) webpage — Google Glass Official. Be sure to check an awesome video, demonstrating current possibilities like taking pics and videos by voice, checking directions, weather, info, googling for anything you want, showing live picture to your friends (jumping with a parachute!!) etc.

Consumer version should be available around beginning of 2014 (damn too long to wait).

Already now it is awesome.

I need one.

Now.

 

It is not a big surprise that not only Google and Valve are working on “Augmented Reality Glasses” project. But the name of the next player on this field is unexpected. It is.. Olympus.

Yes, Japanese company introduced their concept back in July 2012 and there have been no other official news regarding it. As you can see from the picture, it needs real glasses (unlike Google’s version) and is designed only to show information from the mobile phone via Bluetooth.

Virtual screen is 320 x 240 resolution and it is also only in front of one eye. Weight of the device is 30 grams, battery life is around 2 hours. Olympus claims that device is not created to work continuously and “with normal use” 2 hours become 8. Not bad already.

It has no camera, but there is accelerometer to determine, which direction the wearer is facing at the moment. Key difference from Google Glass is that it is intended to show information rather than collect it. Display is rumoured to be of a very high quality, perfectly visible in daylight.

Price and availability are unclear at the moment, probably it stays as a prototype. For me they look quite ugly, to be honest. And lack of camera makes them not a real competitor for Google. Why choose something weird and with less options?

Also, a strange Olympus patent has been found. It is basically an external viewfinder, which switches on only if camera is placed near the glasses. This option is quite nice as it makes cameras lighter and smaller while still retaining viewfinder option. And it can be easily implemented in MEG4.0 to work via Bluetooth.