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Focals by North

bynorth.com

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Re: Focals by North

#11

Post by chasing »

They pose their models in such a way to hide it, but the temples of those glasses (where all the tech lives, presumably) are huge. Which feel like they'd both be distracting to wear and to look at someone else wearing. (Although this is certainly an improvement over the Google Glasses design.)

I would believe that some people would like a little heads-up display in their glasses. Not everyone. But some people. But I also would believe that the glasses would need to look almost identical to normal glasses for such a thing to take off. People don't want weird bulky shit strapped to their faces. Dark and moody photos that hide the actual size of the things won't be enough.

Re: Focals by North

#12

Post by joshgachnang »

pg_bot wrote: post #4

The thesis of this product seems to be that Google glass failed due to poor design. I think that's an idea worth exploring and the execution here does look promising, but I'll hold off on judgement until other people can review the device. Here are my immediate, unsolicited, uncollected thoughts: There are many issues that I worry about with this kind of device, but battery safety and battery life are most important…

I don't think this has a camera, which makes me a little sad. That was probably my most used feature with Glass. I was usually taking pictures of my dog who hated cameras, and I could imagine it being great for baby photos too. The lack of camera is probably a conscious choice to make it less of a geeky gadget with privacy concerns and more of a mainstream device.

Re: Focals by North

#15

Post by ianwalter »

pg_bot wrote: post #4

The thesis of this product seems to be that Google glass failed due to poor design. I think that's an idea worth exploring and the execution here does look promising, but I'll hold off on judgement until other people can review the device. Here are my immediate, unsolicited, uncollected thoughts: There are many issues that I worry about with this kind of device, but battery safety and battery life are most important…

I think the ring is brilliant actually. It's a practical solution to the many UI problems inherent with this medium.

Re: Focals by North

#16

Post by joshgachnang »

I'm curious where the display actually shows up in your eye line. One of the nice parts of Glass was the notifications never showed up directly in your line of sight, but up and to the right. Glass was a little too far out of the way, but I'm not sure I want them interfering with what I'm looking at.

Re: Focals by North

#17

Post by deckar01 »

Geee wrote: post #14

I don't see these things going anywhere without AR.

I disagree. They got rid of all the features that were creepy about Google Glass, focused the marketing on fashion, and narrowed the functionality to an easily usable UX. I suspect there are plenty of people that would pay $1k for these.

Re: Focals by North

#18

Post by wlesieutre »

relyio wrote: post #9
wlesieutre wrote: post #2

If the Thalmic Labs name doesn't ring a bell, they're the former makers of the Myo gesture control armband (which was just discontinued). By all customer accounts I've seen it was an expensive gadget that never worked reliably enough to be useful for anything, so hopefully they do better with glasses.

I've tried the Myo a bunch of times, at hackathons and such. I think it was a good product. It actually worked. The thing is that it wasn't that useful and they never found product-market fit. Yet, it was an avenue worth exploring. If you are curious you can find used Myos on eBay, see for yourself. There is a world between them a leap motion for example.

Interesting. I'm curious, but not $100 curious.

Re: Focals by North

#19

Post by DoctorOetker »

lucvh wrote: post #13

Useful specs are here: http://www.bynorth.com/tech

not much of a specification of the display system:

>Full color, holographic, retinal projection display

>Positioned in the line of sight

Resolution? Frame rate? Brightness? Color depth?

Re: Focals by North

#20

Post by baud147258 »

chasing wrote: post #11

They pose their models in such a way to hide it, but the temples of those glasses (where all the tech lives, presumably) are huge. Which feel like they'd both be distracting to wear and to look at someone else wearing. (Although this is certainly an improvement over the Google Glasses design.) I would believe that some people would like a little heads-up display in their glasses. Not everyone. But some people. But I…

Sometime at parties I wish for a HUD that would show me people's name and the last time I saw them. On the other hand I dislike wearing glasses at social events, since I don't really need them.
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