Althouse: Google's "Project Glass."

April 5, 2012

Google's "Project Glass."

"If you venture into a coffee shop in the coming months and see someone with a pair of futuristic glasses that look like a prop from 'Star Trek,' don’t worry. It’s probably just a Google employee testing the company’s new augmented-reality glasses."

Wow.

36 comments:

LordSomber said...: Apple's version will use hipster glasses.; 4/5/12, 12:47 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I want different information.

Tell me the breed of the dog. Bring up Amazon reviews for the books I look at in the store. Tell me the species of the trees I pass.; 4/5/12, 12:52 PM
gerry said...: Great. Now they'll be walking into me as they focus on their eyeballs-up displays instead of where they are stepping.

I don't want to mention how this will affect driving.; 4/5/12, 12:55 PM
Tim said...: If it doesn't link to my Aimpoint and improve peripheral functionality, I'm not interested.; 4/5/12, 1:01 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Oh, and make it so you can measure things by sight. That would rule. How tall is that tree? How wide is that bench?

How about instant background checks? Anyone you walk by who has been convicted of a violent crime in the past has a red exclamation point above his head?

Menus could have that too. Look at a menu and exclamation points appear next to things people have reviewed poorly. Stars next to good things.

Information pouring down in a torrent.; 4/5/12, 1:04 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Help Wanted app. Look at a place, and it shows you their current openings.; 4/5/12, 1:07 PM
Known Unknown said...: "Oh, and make it so you can measure things by sight. That would rule. How tall is that tree? How wide is that bench?

How about instant background checks? Anyone you walk by who has been convicted of a violent crime in the past has a red exclamation point above his head?

Menus could have that too. Look at a menu and exclamation points appear next to things people have reviewed poorly. Stars next to good things.

Information pouring down in a torrent."

You just want to be a T-1000. Admit it.; 4/5/12, 1:14 PM
Sorun said...: "Share it to my circles."

What in hell is he talking about?; 4/5/12, 1:14 PM
Tim said...: ...but in California, they'll pass a law against driving, riding a bicycle, skateboarding, roller-skating, roller-blading, and walking while wearing these.

You'll only be able to use them while sitting.; 4/5/12, 1:16 PM
Sorun said...: Oh, and make it so you can measure things by sight. That would rule. How tall is that tree? How wide is that bench?

That would require a way to get the distance to the object, such as using a laser range finder.; 4/5/12, 1:19 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: That would require a way to get the distance to the object, such as using a laser range finder.

That's easy. Make the range finder part of the laser gun.

Surely these will have laser guns.; 4/5/12, 1:21 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Real estate app.

Dating service apps. People who sign up for online dating services could have their profiles analyzed with other people within their proximity. Anyone who seems like a good match according to the services algorithm could have a heart over the head.; 4/5/12, 1:23 PM
kjbe said...: Freeman, there's an app, Theodolite, that can make those measurements.

We were out in RMNP, recently, and I wanted something that would tell me the peaks I was looking at. This could be that thing, though I prefer they look like normal glasses...; 4/5/12, 1:23 PM
Bill said...: I don't like the way it puts opaque icons in the center of the field of view. That goes beyond being annoying to being dangerous.; 4/5/12, 1:26 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Consumer app tells you what brand and where to buy whatever you see that you like.

Services app could cull info from social media networks that use location. See a haircut you like? Google knows that according to Foursquare, that woman was in Salon Froo-Froo four weeks ago.; 4/5/12, 1:27 PM
Sorun said...: Surely these will have laser guns.

Hopefully two laser guns, sitting atop left and right side gun turrets.; 4/5/12, 1:27 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Later on we'll want auxiliary processor implants for our brains to manage the immense amount of additional information we'll be taking in.; 4/5/12, 1:28 PM
pm317 said...: Well, it is about time. MIT guys had a project called sixth sense that was similar a while ago.

Why didn't put plain glasses on it to make it look like a pair of regular glasses?; 4/5/12, 1:43 PM
KLDAVIS said...: This is essentially running the Android OS in a heads up display (with some advanced/evolved Google Goggles functionality). If you've used an Android phone, none of it should seem that foreign. That said, I can't wait to try it.; 4/5/12, 1:47 PM
ricpic said...: All that wizardry and he can't pronounce monsieur. Quelle domage.; 4/5/12, 1:51 PM
edutcher said...: I'm with Bill.

Too few people are looking where they're going anyway (ever tried to navigate a small parking lot?).

Half of them are too busy talking on the phone, now you want to add this?

Sorry, besides, I like to step away from CyberPlanet at regular intervals.; 4/5/12, 1:57 PM
Patrick said...: Was this their annual April Fool/ I remember laughing at their "interview" with the guy who filled in search suggestions; 'i have to type really fast.'; 4/5/12, 1:58 PM
bgates said...: Dating service apps.

Beer goggling app. Superimpose your choice of celebrity figure and attire over the body of whoever you've resigned yourself to settling for for the evening.

Oh, and make it so you can measure things by sight.

Also potentially part of the dating service app.; 4/5/12, 2:28 PM
bagoh20 said...: It's happening so fast that I think we won't even notice when it goes too far. It will run right past us, out of reach. We'll stretch and claw to get it back, but to no avail, as the beast will be loose, and man will have lost his prominence to his own creation, just like God did before him.; 4/5/12, 3:14 PM
dhagood said...: @sorun: "share it to my circles" is a google+ term. a circle is roughly equivalent to your friends list on facebook (i think).; 4/5/12, 3:17 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Oh, and make it so you can measure things by sight. That would rule. How tall is that tree? How wide is that bench?"

36-24-36; 4/5/12, 3:19 PM
Anonymous said...: Clearly illegal -- distracted walking! I'm sure Bloomberg and his nannies are readying their ordinances.

As soon as hipsters start tumbling into open trenches, it will lose its cache. Has Siri really taken off? Seems like another distraction to me.; 4/5/12, 3:32 PM
D.D. Driver said...: We are all Robocops now.; 4/5/12, 3:40 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Maybe it should read "Share to My Circles/Delete."

Alas, Google+ doesn't seem to have caught on.

Or maybe I'm wrong about that.; 4/5/12, 3:55 PM
raf said...: I'm sure Bloomberg and his nannies are readying their ordinances

It will be forbidden, umless they can see a personal advantage to making it mandatory.; 4/5/12, 4:32 PM
bagoh20 said...: I guess we need to have the government supply these free to all feminists so that they can be warned of oncoming traffic. We need to protect the most vulnerable of our community.; 4/5/12, 4:43 PM
KCFleming said...: Do the google glasses inform women on the status of their underpants homunculi?

Bajingo tweets would prolly be helpful, when them ovaries be painin'.; 4/5/12, 5:21 PM
rhhardin said...: What's wanted is a bigger L2 cache and faster processor, not stupid glasses.; 4/5/12, 8:06 PM
Carnifex said...: Adults are "oohing" and "ahhing". Their kids are gonna go "Uh? What's the big deal?"

Read Verner Vinge's Rainbows End or Stephen Baxters The Light of Other Days.

Nanotech in medicine is where I get a tech chubby. Imagine having robots small enough to enter your cells and repair damage, 1 cell at a time. Unclog blood clots before a stroke, or remove (dammit, brain fart) Cholesterol! remove cholesterol from your arteries, or repair a thin heart wall.

You could have the nannies invade gametes so babies were born already enhanced.; 4/5/12, 10:04 PM
Carnifex said...: Just watched the video, I can see liberals insisting that the government pay for these things because it would be discriminatory for only the wealthy to have such access. I can also see Google even further in bed with the NSA, DHS, and every other alphabet soup bureaucracy in DC to invade our privacy.

And I can see really intellectually lazy people being totally lost if these things go down.; 4/5/12, 10:16 PM
MarkD said...: Let me test them. If I vote for Obama, they work.

I don't think that much augmentation is possible, but try me.; 4/6/12, 10:10 AM