Not Even Investors Know What Google Glass Is For 496
bdking writes "Google says it plans to ship its Google Glass Explorer Edition by the end of April to developers and consumers who paid $1,500 to test the computer-enabled eyewear, with vague plans for a general release (at a lower price) by year's end. But what will you really be able to do with Google Glass, beyond having information presented before your eyes? Even investors who are set to spend millions funding apps development for Google Glass have no clue. Is Google Glass being overhyped as a 'transformational' device?" I bet every real estate agent in the world would like one of these hooked up to a database of houses for sale, so they could instantly scan all the relevant information.
I know what it's for. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:If it really knew where it was... (Score:5, Insightful)
If the thing had good enough heading and position information, it could overlay detailed information on the real world. But it's not that good. It's just a smartphone display.
Too bad smartphones don't ship with GPS receivers, accelerometers, gyroscopes...
Re:I know what it's for. (Score:4, Insightful)
This is a toy for geeks having nerdgasms (Score:5, Insightful)
Golf (Score:4, Insightful)
I could see that thing being awesome for golf... they already do GPS through smart phones.. if it can tell you how far away an object is in your field of vision, pretty darn spiffy.. show you a trail where your ball went, display your swing trajectory in your field of view for analysis... lots of cool things. Plus golfers will spend that kind of money.
Re:Like the iPad? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple was able to tell people all the cool things they could do with an iPad.
Google: "You tell us what it's good for!"
When the inventor can't easily explain what the best uses for their invention are, it's a safe bet there really aren't any.
Seems obvious enough... (Score:5, Insightful)
Given the...how to put this politely... 'strongly habituated'... cellphone-checking among a large number of people, I'd say that the closest analogy would probably be selling infusion pumps to heroin junkies.
By making 'pulling out your phone and compulsively checking it all the goddamn time, even when in company' entirely seamless and automatic, Glass allows you to indulge your vices even further, while exhibiting the formerly required movements much less often...
I thought Sergei's(deeply weird) comments about being 'emasculated' by his phone were actually sort of telling with regards to the strange contradiction underlying the 'Glass' concept.
So, Sergei comes to the realization that damn do I spend a lot of my life, even when I'm ostensibly doing other things, basically poking at the little colored lights that live inside my cellphone, what am I doing? However, instead of adopting the "Hmm, maybe I should try doing less of that" approach, he goes for the "I know, I'll build a system where I no longer find myself clutching my cellphone alarmingly frequently; because it's hovering in front of my eye all the time!".
Re:If it really knew where it was... (Score:4, Insightful)
Driving is when I want augmented reality the most. Give me a GPS overlay with directions and when it gets dark/foggy/rainy give me vision in other spectrum. Display my current speed and the legal limit where I am, basically I want a damn HUD.
Re:I know what it's for. (Score:4, Insightful)
I really don't think masses will tolerate always-on advertising in a classical banner-video format in the visual field space. Plus liability that would come when people start claiming accidents on distraction.
Advertising will have to be done via shaping your information feed and not by distracting or grabbing your attention.
Re:If it really knew where it was... (Score:2, Insightful)
one needs to wait for the second or third generation to have those fancy bits in. how are they meant to make money off the same people again if the 1st device is good enough?
Re:This is a toy for geeks having nerdgasms (Score:5, Insightful)
In a previous life, I spent a lot of time hang gliding. Competition and Cross-Country pilots have to hang multiple instruments on their control bars - variometers, GPS's, radios - to maximize their performance. This is a problem area, as the $1000 worth of instruments are in an easily damaged location which also reduces performance due to air drag.
Google Glass would be a huge advancement here - stick your $200 cell phone where it gets good reception and is protected, use it for GPS, mapping, and communications functions, add a small cheap variometer interfaced to your phone. You'll have far better information, your instruments will be cheaper and your software will be vastly better, and your physical performance will improve by taking all that stuff out of the airstream.
This, I think, is an example of the niche markets that no marketer in his right mind would build a product to meet, but combined with 1000 other niches could start to make the product ubiquitous. /frank
Healthcare! (Score:5, Insightful)
Good grief, people! Healthcare!
"Glass, call the RT." "This is the RT. Can I help you?" "Can you have a look at this man's breathing? We're not sure what's going on..."
Re:to be really useful it needs to be realtime (Score:2, Insightful)
Leave it on continuously and tell me how long your phone's battery lasts. Constantly polling the camera and other sensors and overlaying that data correctly enough to be useful (and for something like driving it has to be damn near perfect to be safe) will drain a battery of that size in a few minutes.
This tech is being held back by the same limiting factor by which all mobile tech is being held back: batteries. Batteries are terrible. They've been terrible for a long time and barely gotten better. It takes all the improvements in chemistry we can muster just to keep up with the increased power draw. That's why phones today actually have shorter battery life than the phones of five years ago, and those phones had shorter battery lives than the ones made five years before them.
Until we see a revolution in battery technology there won't be a truly phenomenal Google Glass-like product that lives up to our expectations of what augmented reality should be. Glass is just going to be a persistent external display for your phone with a forward looking camera and mic. It's a smartphone resting on your ears and nose instead of carried in your pocket. This new form factor will allow some clever new tricks, probably even compelling enough to enjoy moderate success, but it's going to be disappointing compared to what could be possible if battery life was no issue.
Re:to be really useful it needs to be realtime (Score:5, Insightful)
When I am in the car, my battery should never deplete. My car surely makes enough electrical power for this task.
Phones today could have much longer battery lives if we did not sacrifice all the alter of thin. My galaxy nexus is more comfortable to hold with the extended battery pack. The entire device could be that thick and it would allow even more battery life.
Yeah, they suck, but we also make them way too small.
Re:Like the iPad? (Score:5, Insightful)
"When the inventor can't easily explain what the best uses for their invention are, "
how naive.
In the hardware industry, the best application seldom come from the company that developed it. Best game seldom come the the console makers, then best application for the iPad didn't come from Apple, and so on.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:If it really knew where it was... (Score:5, Insightful)
Who's gonna buy the 1st-generation device if it doesn't have those things?
The crapload of developers who already dropped $1,500 on one, for starters.
long term health effects (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:If it really knew where it was... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:WE ALREADY KNOW HOW TO WORK THE MIRROR API. (Score:4, Insightful)