Post contributed by
Nicholas Belitz -
A new device from Google was teased last week, it is code-named Project Glass. The product was seen when Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin wore the device out in public last week. The new device is a pair of augmented realty glasses. The glasses have a HUD (heads up display) that will give wearers the same information they would receive from their smartphone and will even have capabilities to interact with the internet.
These glasses are receiving mixed reviews according to an article on CNET.com which includes interviews from three experts in the augmented reality field. Blair MacIntyre, director of the Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech has this to say about the new device, "In one simple fake video, Google has created a level of overhype and over expectation that their hardware cannot possibly live up to." It seems that many of the experts do not believe that this device (in its current state) will really amount to anything.
Source -
Google's augmented-reality glasses: Is it all PR? c/net news
This is a really cool idea, but I do not really understand what they do. Does the small screen just give you continual updates, news feeds, etc.?
ReplyDeleteIf so, this is going to separate the generation gap even more so. Baby Boomers already consider us impersonal, but this is taking it to the next level. What's the point of personal relationships if we have every piece of necessary information two inches from our eyes?
Is this something that is going to work like most goggles in action movies? Scrolling information across about everything you look at? I do not understand the purpose. We are continually getting lazier and lazier. A continual line of information about things streaming across your eyes not only steers your attention away from anyone you might have an actual conversation with, but even more importantly we are no longer going to know how to research things. Kids are not going to know how to look up information in the future or know how to decipher what is important if there is just a constant stream of information about every detail of life in your eyes all day.
ReplyDeleteInnovation is just a way of making things easier whether or not it makes us lazy, but this is ridiculous. I don't know if any of you have watched "Back to the Future Part II" in a while, but when Marty and Doc Brown go to the future to get Marty's future son out trouble, the movie shows a scene at the dinner table where Marty's future son and daughter have these machines on their head and know who's calling when the phone rings. Maybe this influenced the invention of the "augmented reality glasses". We have the information in our pocket and on our computer. Do we really need to carry them around on our head to make it that much easier? It sounds like a teacher's nightmare.
ReplyDeleteI think this will be an incredibly useful technology. While many of my classmates are concerned with this technology promoting laziness, I think there are far greater uses that would outweigh it's drawbacks. A great application for these glasses are in the medical field. Imagine a Doctor that can simply look at your face to get all of your relevant medical info rather than looking up and down from a file. Or a triage surgeon, that sees potential complications with a surgery he/she is about to perform because all the information pops up in the augmented reality. I think the eventual goal would be to pair this technology into contacts or even eye implants. Imagine a broadcast journalist on air. No physical teleprompter would be needed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jamison that this technology would be useful in other areas. As a firefighter, I know that it would be nice if there was technology built into my visor in my helmet so that in the event I am crawling through a smoky house, I can have a handsfree thermal imaging device to see if there are people in the house through the smoke and where the hot spots are. I could communicate with the outside handsfree and have a map of the house and my location broadcast in front of my eyes so I know where to search and don't get disoriented.
ReplyDeleteI have several problems with this technology for everyday use. Are the classes and the technology going to be water proof and shock proof. Glasses get wet all the time from sweat and rain and are probably dropped quite a bit. Second, there are a lot of people that don't wear glasses. I don't want to wear glasses just so I can get walking directions.
I think the technology can be helpful to a select group of people. As far as everyday use, it is just lazy and ridiculous.
As Jaime said, it would be pointless to buy them if they can become water-damaged or break easily. If they get scratched then they are worthless, as well. I don't see why anyone would want to buy pay for this, and for lens which are never cheap, when buy a smart phone that does the same things.
ReplyDeleteBesides that, when I used to wear glasses, I found it incredibly annoying that my peripheral vision was cut off slightly. With these glasses, that issue would not only exist, but the information being displayed on a screen will be blocking your view of everything behind it. If there is not a way to limit that, I predict that many people will stop wearing them because they will be a driving hazard.
At first glance, this is something that sounds cool...then you start to think and it no longer seems like as good of an idea. Everyone had pointed out most of the major flaws, but I had a few more.
ReplyDeleteTo me, this seems like another unneeded distraction in the world. For example, people text and drive all the time, so what will stop them from looking at images while driving...it is another hazard. Plus, it is furthering the gap of people's association with the world. As it is, human-to-human interactions happen less and less and this just helps it. If everyone had this, there would be no interactions on the street...just people walking staring at lenses. That is basically a long way of me saying that this should just stay to a "cool" video, not an actual concept.
David Comm
Augmented reality is very interesting for marketer because it is very promising to increase the sales It can create the customer to be involved in marketing campaign. The experience of marketing campaign will create potential customer to increase conversion rate.
ReplyDeleteVirtual Reality Booth