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Google relaunches Glass for businesses

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Re: Google relaunches Glass for businesses

#271

Post by oliwarner »

aeontech wrote: post #137
oliwarner wrote: post #117

Some of this stuff is so obviously cool but remember the cost of efficiency. 30% time saved means one person does more in their day. This has a personal toll because working less intensively gave you time to think and physically rest. You're at it non-stop now. And that also means you need 30% fewer employees to manage the same workload. That's going to be the trade-off here. How many people will have to go just to o…

> working less intensively gave you time to think and physically rest I don't buy this argument, honestly. By extension, you're saying we should go back to manual book-keeping instead of computers to do accounting, because it would employ more accountants, and let them work at a more relaxed pace. Looking up documentation, for example, is not an intellectually demanding task. Instead of going back and forth between p…

No, I think automation helps humanity a lot in certain places. But my (tangential) experience and main concern really applies to healthcare. Especially in the UK. I should have added this before but couldn't find the words to explain it without going off on one.

To put it briefly, the utopian "we get to go home and see our kids on time" world Augmedix is selling is just the sort of stuff that gets bought by the NHS to make GPs handle double their workload.

There supposedly are protections in place (contracted and EUWTD) to stop doctors and nurses working without protected breaks, but you find me a single competent (eg) med-reg who manages to regularly take theirs.

There is a ton of quite low-hanging fruit... But half of it is a poison in some professions and most of that relies on the reason it was bought.

Really, chasing this thought process can get pretty philosophical, especially when you consider the widespread skills we have already lost because we outsource and automate. They are things to consider too but immediately I'd worry about the people being told their workload is doubling because they've got a fancy gadget now.

Re: Google relaunches Glass for businesses

#272

Post by Zak »

Sharlin wrote: post #219
Zak wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which (rightly so) raised serious concerns about privacy I always thought the privacy concerns were overblown: If it's about users surreptitiously recording others, wearing the really conspicuous gadget known to contain a camera on your head is a really ineffectual way to do that. A smartphone in a shirt pocket would be better, and surveillance devices intended to be concealed better (and cheaper) still. If it's ab…

It was never about secretly taking photos. It was all about having an obvious contraption on your head that might not be recording or not. That makes people a) uncomfortable and b) conclude that you either don't care or just lack the social skills to realize that. It's not like recording secretly with a concealed cellphone, it's like overtly aiming your cellphone camera at someone while interacting with them, whether…

It has a light on the front that comes on if the camera is active. Do you think most of the people who were uncomfortable were unaware of that, or didn't trust that people using it wouldn't disable the light?

The former would make a lot of sense to me. That it has a camera is obvious, and knowing how the light works requires a modicum of research. The latter, not so much, as we're back in the realm of secret recording.

Re: Google relaunches Glass for businesses

#273

Post by Sharlin »

Zak wrote: post #272
Sharlin wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was never about secretly taking photos. It was all about having an obvious contraption on your head that might not be recording or not. That makes people a) uncomfortable and b) conclude that you either don't care or just lack the social skills to realize that. It's not like recording secretly with a concealed cellphone, it's like overtly aiming your cellphone camera at someone while interacting with them, whether…

It has a light on the front that comes on if the camera is active. Do you think most of the people who were uncomfortable were unaware of that, or didn't trust that people using it wouldn't disable the light? The former would make a lot of sense to me. That it has a camera is obvious, and knowing how the light works requires a modicum of research. The latter, not so much, as we're back in the realm of secret recordin…

Almost certainly almost everybody would be unaware that there's a light.

Re: Google relaunches Glass for businesses

#274

Post by nojvek »

gfodor wrote: post #247
Helmet wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think having a piece of nonfunctional plastic on the other side would be silly and, by definition, useless. I think they look pretty sleek, especially in an industrial setting - also, asymmetry doesn't always look bad. I'm reminded of BMW motorcycles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9SIS4izLqE and: http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2009/march/mar2709-histor...

I feel about 30% confident that a "silly" piece of plastic on one side would have made it possible for Glass to deliver on its original vision of a mainstream consumer device, since people would feel way less awkward using it if they didn't look like they were part of the Borg collective. (And before you say "but cost", most likely a mainstream consumer version of Glass would be priced way below the initial explorer…

This + strapping a goddamn camera to your face that could be recording all the time.

People walked into bars and clubs with these. Then bouncers kicked them off.

If people use your product and they are labelled assholes, clearly you have not done market research.

Apple would have made it aesthetic as hell before a rumour even got out.

Re: Google relaunches Glass for businesses

#275

Post by grogenaut »

smeroth wrote: post #269
techthroway443 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, also notice how in the Glass wearing video the technician brings up the tools he needs and sets them on the floor whereas in the other video he sets each tool back and forth. Pretty lame comparison.

Could it be that the glasses also tell you which tools you'll need, allowing you to plan ahead, whereas the alternative is to fetch a tool when you need it?

Generally when you're doing shit like this you read the destructions first and grab the tools. That is if your destructions are good and actually list them and sizes which most aren't... Which wouldn't help if it was or wasn't in glass, that's a content problem not a form factor issue. I will say I'd rather bring these hardened devices in than get oil on my smart phone which is what I did last week.

I do like sticking my smart phone in holes to take photos there I can't otherwise get.

Edit: this is for personal automotive work

Re: Google relaunches Glass for businesses

#276

Post by methodin »

acdha wrote: post #212
methodin wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course those articles were written with the goal of getting people to read it so it's not like they were grounded in reality.

I'm not sure how that connects to the question of whether it was promoted outside of developer circles.

"If you followed the news at the time there was a ton of coverage in mainstream media with bold claims about how society was going to be transformed" You cannot control what the media decides to hype their purposes. It was not as if Google itself made those same claims - that wouldn't be confirmation that the goal of the product was to transform the lives of every consumer. If they were throwing a bunch of ideas around to see what sticks that is a far cry from a purportedly failed "massive consumer push"

Re: Google relaunches Glass for businesses

#277

Post by Spooky23 »

dmix wrote: post #250
Spooky23 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They even have a specialized English dialect called simplified technical English to help eliminate confusion.

Have they done any studies on the benefits of using the simplified language vs the time investment it takes to produce the manuals to spec? I'd imagine most of the gain comes from companies with a high number of ESL workers - but it sounds like it may be a tool that a bureaucratic, control obsessed, management culture likes but is largely just busy work parading as productivity gains. It could also make the technical…

I'm not sure.

I don't work in aviation, but you can produce much better documentation by following at least the spirit of this vs. the specific grammars and vocabulary.

Engineers and IT people are often not very strong in writing ability, and there are many non-native speakers in technology. I've seen situations where "Cute" documentation with TV references (infrastructure placement was captured by types of disney vs. looney tunes characters) and lots of implied context. Having a style guide that forces simplicity can be a high value.

Re: Google relaunches Glass for businesses

#279

Post by glenneroo »

lnanek2 wrote: post #112
morley wrote: post #23

Has anyone here worked on a Glass app? How is the UI programmed? Does it require a special programming paradigm like VR, or are these instruction manual HUDs basically just PDF viewers?

Initially you could just write Android apps. Every OS release broke the standard features more and more, however, and you were pretty much forced into their special programming paradigms, yes. For example, originally swiping emulated the d-pad buttons, but that was removed. For a long time you could pair Bluetooth keyboards, mice, and trackpads, but then they broke that for a long time. It may have been added back re…

Someone else posted this somewhere in here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14608894

Basically they pushed an update out a couple weeks ago (after almost 3 years of nothing) which added Bluetooth device support.

Re: Google relaunches Glass for businesses

#280

Post by mirimir »

Zak wrote: post #272
Sharlin wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was never about secretly taking photos. It was all about having an obvious contraption on your head that might not be recording or not. That makes people a) uncomfortable and b) conclude that you either don't care or just lack the social skills to realize that. It's not like recording secretly with a concealed cellphone, it's like overtly aiming your cellphone camera at someone while interacting with them, whether…

It has a light on the front that comes on if the camera is active. Do you think most of the people who were uncomfortable were unaware of that, or didn't trust that people using it wouldn't disable the light? The former would make a lot of sense to me. That it has a camera is obvious, and knowing how the light works requires a modicum of research. The latter, not so much, as we're back in the realm of secret recordin…

Anyone who wanted to record routinely would disable the light.
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