Google Glass, crazy demo

[Matrix]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7TB8b2t ... r_embedded" target="_blank

Dont know if you guys seen it, but its presentation of google glass. Worth watching.

[Arcanis]

I love Google I/O conference. They really pull out all the stops.

[Covenant72]

I agree with a lot of the comments on youtube. The demo didn't show us anything beyond what a helmet cam/web cam can already accomplish (not to mention how choppy the video is). Seems like the concept of this demo would have been perfect to demo a heads up GPS display with directions or what not.

In a way actually, this demo goes against it's intention as it points out that you would NEVER want anything popping up in your field of vision when doing something that requires actual attention. You think people texting while driving is bad, imagine what it'll be like when the general population gets their hands on something like this.

[noxiousdog]

I agree with a lot of the comments on youtube. The demo didn't show us anything beyond what a helmet cam/web cam can already accomplish (not to mention how choppy the video is). Seems like the concept of this demo would have been perfect to demo a heads up GPS display with directions or what not.

In a way actually, this demo goes against it's intention as it points out that you would NEVER want anything popping up in your field of vision when doing something that requires actual attention. You think people texting while driving is bad, imagine what it'll be like when the general population gets their hands on something like this.

Helmet cam/web cams can handle 7 i/o streams wirelessly?

[Covenant72]

I agree with a lot of the comments on youtube. The demo didn't show us anything beyond what a helmet cam/web cam can already accomplish (not to mention how choppy the video is). Seems like the concept of this demo would have been perfect to demo a heads up GPS display with directions or what not.

In a way actually, this demo goes against it's intention as it points out that you would NEVER want anything popping up in your field of vision when doing something that requires actual attention. You think people texting while driving is bad, imagine what it'll be like when the general population gets their hands on something like this.

Helmet cam/web cams can handle 7 i/o streams wirelessly?

7 i/o streams? Not sure what you are referring to.

[Chaz]

If they were trying to show us that everyone involved in that group videochat was seeing all the feeds in their HUD, they did a really lousy job of it.

Glass is going to be one of those technologies that's tricky to sell. You kind of have to use it to get a handle on how it actually works, since we don't yet have a frame of reference for "stuff is being projected directly in front of my eyeball."

[noxiousdog]

I agree with a lot of the comments on youtube. The demo didn't show us anything beyond what a helmet cam/web cam can already accomplish (not to mention how choppy the video is). Seems like the concept of this demo would have been perfect to demo a heads up GPS display with directions or what not.

In a way actually, this demo goes against it's intention as it points out that you would NEVER want anything popping up in your field of vision when doing something that requires actual attention. You think people texting while driving is bad, imagine what it'll be like when the general population gets their hands on something like this.

Helmet cam/web cams can handle 7 i/o streams wirelessly?

7 i/o streams? Not sure what you are referring to.

I'm pretty sure the point of that was that it was a google hangout with each helmet having an i/o stream. You had the main window big, and then each of the individual streams below (that you could switch on your panel as desired.)

I went back to count and it looks like 5 streams. Most of the 2nd half of the video shows all of them active.

[Covenant72]

I agree with a lot of the comments on youtube. The demo didn't show us anything beyond what a helmet cam/web cam can already accomplish (not to mention how choppy the video is). Seems like the concept of this demo would have been perfect to demo a heads up GPS display with directions or what not.

In a way actually, this demo goes against it's intention as it points out that you would NEVER want anything popping up in your field of vision when doing something that requires actual attention. You think people texting while driving is bad, imagine what it'll be like when the general population gets their hands on something like this.

Helmet cam/web cams can handle 7 i/o streams wirelessly?

7 i/o streams? Not sure what you are referring to.

I'm pretty sure the point of that was that it was a google hangout with each helmet having an i/o stream. You had the main window big, and then each of the individual streams below (that you could switch on your panel as desired.)

I went back to count and it looks like 5 streams. Most of the 2nd half of the video shows all of them active.

I still don't see that in the video. It looked like a bunch of people wearing a video feed and broadcasting to a common location where someone on a PC could switch views on the fly. So basically a video chat room; nothing we havn't seen before at least concept-wise. If that video was actually being broadcast to anyoner pair of glasses and being switched/controlled from there then that's more impressive, but i didn't get that impression at all.

Don't get me wrong, if that's what they are going for then they did a good job of it; it's small, portable, and seems to work fine. My point is that the exciting and new side of this product is supposed to be the whole HUD element and we didn't see any of that. I havn't been following the product too closely though, so maybe that all changed?

[noxiousdog]

I still don't see that in the video. It looked like a bunch of people wearing a video feed and broadcasting to a common location where someone on a PC could switch views on the fly. So basically a video chat room; nothing we havn't seen before at least concept-wise. If that video was actually being broadcast to anyoner pair of glasses and being switched/controlled from there then that's more impressive, but i didn't get that impression at all.

At some point they mentioned it was a google hangout.

Don't get me wrong, if that's what they are going for then they did a good job of it; it's small, portable, and seems to work fine. My point is that the exciting and new side of this product is supposed to be the whole HUD element and we didn't see any of that. I havn't been following the product too closely though, so maybe that all changed?

Yeah. I see where you're coming from. I hadn't seen it at all, so missed the point that the magic is supposed to be the screen in a pair of glasses. I'd be curious to know if they had any screen at all or they were just showing off the cam tech.

[Arcanis]

Google hangouts all work as that main screen with the other streams smaller off out of your focus. So if those guys were in the hangout, which is what they said, then they all had all of those displays going at once. The choppyness I would expect considering they were on some sort of WiMax, so at best it was satelite internet on their person or they were close enough to the ground to get 4g coverage from the cell towers.

I'm more interested in some of the features they claim glass will have that are obviously being put into the wilds now. Like the natural speaking voice recognition, which was added into Jelly Bean voice search. They have some more details in Jelly Bean that I foresee being the test bed for glass.

[Covenant72]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406501,00.asp

This link is a breakdown of how the demo was accomplished. Of particular note is some on the language used in the slideshow... they specifically mention the google hangout and how the feeds are "transmitted from the glasses" but no mention that the glasses are receiving any data. I am very suspect that the glasses are actual hangout hubs that are also receiving stream data. The picture showing all the feeds to me looks like it's obviously being run on a PC. Again, I might be wrong but if I'm not they did a horrible job of making it clear.

It also seems of limited use in the real world as it requires WIFI to work and the only way you will have that available at all times it to make your cellphone a mobile hotspot. And once you do that, enjoy paying those data charges for streaming video non stop in real time.

[Arcanis]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406501,00.asp

This link is a breakdown of how the demo was accomplished. Of particular note is some on the language used in the slideshow... they specifically mention the google hangout and how the feeds are "transmitted from the glasses" but no mention that the glasses are receiving any data. I am very suspect that the glasses are actual hangout hubs that are also receiving stream data. The picture showing all the feeds to me looks like it's obviously being run on a PC. Again, I might be wrong but if I'm not they did a horrible job of making it clear.

I have no doubt that the display was that of a PC which was participating in the Hangout. The fact that they had people on the roof pointing hand held transmitters at the skydivers for wifi really explains the cutouts and bandwidth issues. I'm not sure what they people were seeing or not seeing, but I do know they had voice going back and forth as they mentioned the skydivers coordinating with the roof crew.

[Covenant72]

Yeah but the language they use doesn't indicate they are definitely using the glasses for that communication; it's all just assumptions on our part. Considering the safety concerns and coordination efforts required for this, I'm inclined to believe they were communicating by more standard means (having their wifi connection crap out in the middle of things and losing all voice comms as a result seems like an implosable risk to me). The only thing I could see as them specifically stating about the glasses is that they were transmitting to a google hangout.

[Isgrimnur]

Don't wear them to the movies:

A Google Glass wearer has told an extraordinary story of going to his local movie theater in Ohio and allegedly being accosted by the FBI for wearing his device.

In an impassioned and slightly shiver-making e-mail to The Gadgeteer, the man, who only gave his initials as T.U., said that he went to the AMC theater at the Easton Mall in Columbus in order to see the new Jack Ryan movie, "Shadow Recruit."
...
However, an hour into the movie: "A guy comes near my seat, shoves a badge that had some sort of a shield on it, yanks the Google Glass off my face and says 'follow me outside immediately.'"

Outside, he said, was a group of policemen. T.U. says that the man who dragged him out explained he was from the "federal service."

What was the Glass-wearer's alleged crime? He was, he said, being accused of recording the movie on his device.
...
This is merely the latest incident in which Google Glass has caused consternation. Some bars and restaurants have banned wearers. Only last week, software developer Cecilia Abadie won her case against a ticket for driving while Glassing. Just as T.U. claimed, she said hers was turned off.

[LawBeefaroni]

Don't wear them to the movies:

This is merely the latest incident in which Google Glass has caused consternation. Some bars and restaurants have banned wearers. Only last week, software developer Cecilia Abadie won her case against a ticket for driving while Glassing. Just as T.U. claimed, she said hers was turned off.

While I agree it's a bit draconian, if they were turned off, why were the users wearing them? AFAIK, they don't contain any kind of corrective lens (they go over glasses/contacts).




A friend of mine is testing Glass and I have been going round and round on whether I like the idea or not. On the one hand, it's very cool with amazing potential. On the other, it's a whole new level of being connected and recorded, on both ends of the device.


I'm all for private establishments having the choice to ban them, FWIW.

[Isgrimnur]

I tried to explain that he's holding rather expensive hardware that costed me $1500 for Google Glass and over $600 for the prescription glasses. The response was that I was searched and more stuff was taken away from me (specifically my personal phone, my work phone - both of which were turned off, and my wallet).

[Jeff V]

There was a news story a few weeks ago about a bill being introduced to ban them in the State of Illinois. I hear other states are considering a similar ban.

[Isgrimnur]

Good luck having that hold up to Constitutional scrutiny.

[Isgrimnur]

A chapter ends:

Google is ending sales of Glass, but insists it is still committed to launching smartglasses as a consumer product.

The Glass team now become a separate operation, under its current manager Ivy Ross, who will report to Tony Fadell, a former Apple executive who is now chief executive of Nest, the home automation business was acquired by Google for $3.2 billion a year ago.

[Isgrimnur]

Gizmodo

Last Friday, it was reported that Canadian smart glasses startup North was on the verge of being snapped up by Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Today, it’s official.

North announced the acquisition on both Twitter and in an official blog. Details regarding the terms of the sale were scant, though a Globe and Mail scoop from Friday put the number at around $180 million. North’s remaining staff will, however, be staying in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada and joining a Google team also based there.
...
In recent years, Focals by North was probably the most viable consumer options for smart glasses, with a not-too-dorky design and decent functionality. However, it was held back by limited apps, finicky customized fitting process, and an expensive price tag of $600 (which was discounted just a few weeks after launch from an original price of $1,000.) This past December, North announced it was ending Focals 1.0 and would be gearing up to launch a 2.0 version of the product.

Well, it looks like with the acquisition, we’ll never know if a Focals 2.0 would’ve fixed the problems of the original. North’s blog says the company will not only be winding down Focals 1.0, but that the Focals 2.0 will not ship.