Goggle Glasses right around the corner

[DaveChase]

http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/22/4...-its-the-future-with-monthly-updates#comments

When you activate Glass, there’s supposed to be a small screen that floats in the upper right-hand of your field of vision, but I don’t see the whole thing right away. Instead I’m getting a ghost of the upper portion, and the bottom half seems to melt away at the corner of my eye.

Steve and Isabelle adjust the nose pad and suddenly I see the glowing box. Victory.

It takes a moment to adjust to this spectral screen in your vision, and it’s especially odd the first time you see it, it disappears, and you want it to reappear but don’t know how to make it happen. Luckily that really only happens once, at least for me.

Here’s what you see: the time is displayed, with a small amount of text underneath that reads "ok glass." That’s how you get Glass to wake up to your voice commands. Actually, it’s a two-step process. First you have to touch the side of the device (which is actually a touchpad), or tilt your head upward slowly, a gesture which tells Glass to wake up. Once you’ve done that, you start issuing commands by speaking "ok glass" first, or scroll through the options using your finger along the side of the device. You can scroll items by moving your finger backwards or forward along the strip, you select by tapping, and move "back" by swiping down. Most of the big interaction is done by voice, however.

The device gets data through Wi-Fi on its own, or it can tether via Bluetooth to an Android device or iPhone and use its 3G or 4G data while out and about. There’s no cellular radio in Glass, but it does have a GPS chip.

Traveller/SciFi is coming soon in today's world.

Dave Chase

 

[BytePro]

:rofl: Yeah, its been coming soon for three years now...

I wore my first pair of virtual projection glasses last century ( '91 - CGA and red only, IIRC).

 

[Timerover51]

http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/22/4...-its-the-future-with-monthly-updates#comments



Traveller/SciFi is coming soon in today's world.

Dave Chase

I find it annoying enough when people are talking on their Bluetooth phones, using language normally associated with a locker room or ⌧ film. Would you care to speculate on what an entire room of people talking into their Glasses is going to sound like? Of if you are on a plane with an infant, and the person next to you is busily talking away into their Glasses in an overly loud voice? Or the driver of the car coming at you on a 2-lane highway is focusing more on the image in his/her Glasses than he/she is on where the car is in the highway?

The sheer fact that a device is technologically possible to produce does not ipso facto make it a good idea.

 

[BytePro]

Yeah, though actually that all applies to cell phones today... the main difference is we'll have a harder time knowing when someone rolls their eyes at us.

Its a whole new way to put advertising in people's faces - and support the optical health industry. Check out the goofy looks of folks using this thing - - no way that won't screw up the eyes.

I frequently lecture folks who sit for hours hunched over in front of or grasping a electronic devices pounding away - unnaturally straining hands, back, and eyes. Though, if the microwave transmission is head mounted, then it will at least help establish more definitively any medical risks...

BTW: unless its a Lear (or some other aircraft that maintains 1 atm) I wouldn't take an infant on a plane.

 

[atpollard]

Or the driver of the car coming at you on a 2-lane highway is focusing more on the image in his/her Glasses than he/she is on where the car is in the highway?

My employer likes to show off his Mercedes. It senses the lines on the road and keeps the car between the lines if the driver is too busy doing other things ... and it breaks all by itself if it senses a collision.

So for better or worse, it looks like future cars may have this one covered.

 

[Timerover51]

My employer likes to show off his Mercedes. It senses the lines on the road and keeps the car between the lines if the driver is too busy doing other things ... and it breaks all by itself if it senses a collision.

So for better or worse, it looks like future cars may have this one covered.

If I remember correctly, you live in Florida. It would be interesting to see how well that works when you have snow cover or blowing snow sweeping across the road and the lines are not visible, or maybe not even there, and then there is also glare ice, so if the car starts breaking, it just keeps sliding, and also probably spinning.

 

[HG_B]

So for better or worse, it looks like future cars may have this one covered.

Until some kid comes along with a can of spray paint. :rofl:

 

[nDervish]

If I remember correctly, you live in Florida. It would be interesting to see how well that works when you have snow cover or blowing snow sweeping across the road and the lines are not visible,

Several years ago, I read about a system that was being used in Minnesota (and probably elsewhere, but MN is where I lived) which allowed snowplows to operate in total whiteout conditions by using a combination of GPS, inertial tracking, and radar to pinpoint the plow's position and project a HUD on the windshield showing where the lines on the road are. My impression is that it was at least semi-experimental at the time and I have no idea what came of it, but if it was able to show the driver where the lines are when they're obscured by a blizzard, then it should also be possible to create modern driver-assist systems with access to that information.

or maybe not even there, and then there is also glare ice, so if the car starts breaking, it just keeps sliding, and also probably spinning.

Antilock brakes are a proven technology that's been in consumer-market vehicles for at least two decades. (I had a '92 Toronado with antilocks.) I can't imagine that vehicles with additional driver-assistance tech wouldn't include them. Granted, they don't help much on glare ice, but they aren't noticeably more likely to lose control than an experienced human driver.

 

[BytePro]

Yeah, aside from environmental conditions and vandalism - even assuming excellent programming logic (big assumption) - sensors invariably fail.

Skill, manual control and enough steel often survives better in the extremes.

 

[BytePro]

Several years ago, I read about a system that was being used in Minnesota (and probably elsewhere, but MN is where I lived) which allowed snowplows to operate in total whiteout conditions by using a combination of GPS, inertial tracking, and radar...

That's cool. Know systems have been used in farming tractors and combines for efficiency.

Antilock brakes ... aren't noticeably more likely to lose control than an experienced human driver.

Unfortunately, antilocks can trigger falsely - tragically increasing braking distance or even instigating spin.

Given their much higher PSI, they are also more likely to result in catastrophic loss of brakes - whereas a normal boosted system usually gives the keen operator warning, allowing for feathering the brakes in conjunction with engaging the independent emergency brake, down shifting and selective vectoring.

 

[Blue Ghost]

http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/22/4...-its-the-future-with-monthly-updates#comments



Traveller/SciFi is coming soon in today's world.

Dave Chase

The prototype was actually developed way back circa 1982ish(?) at MIT (possibly before). It was essentially a hand held "calculator" like device wired to a set of regular glasses, which projected data on the screen. Apparently their professors let them use them for exams