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Monocle: A pocket sized open-source AR device

brilliantmonocle.com

181–190 of 223 posts

Re: Monocle: A pocket sized open-source AR device

#181
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A killer app for me would be floating name tags above people's heads, but I imagine that would require better HW than what is available here. This is a societal issue, more than a HW/SW issue. Google Glass explicitly bans this type of feature: https://developers.google.com/glass/policies#c_what_you_cant... > Don't use the camera or microphone to cross-reference and immediately present personal information identifyi…

> I wouldn't expect any "official" facial recognition on any of these upcoming AR devices any time soon. I would, just not for the general public. This would be very helpful for police to immediately do a check on people around them and spot people with active warrants.

By that logic, why not just put cameras everywhere, use image recognition tech to do all the identification and enforcement, from traffic violations to active warrants, China-style?

Re: Monocle: A pocket sized open-source AR device

#182
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a 5MP camera for still photos, limited to 720p for video--although the data sheet says it can do 1080p as well. Perhaps that's bottlenecked elsewhere in the system.

from https://docs.brilliantmonocle.com/monocle/monocle/#bluetooth... : It supports Bluetooth 5.2, up to 2Mb/s. 720p == 1280w x 720h * 3bytes (rgb) * 8bits/byte == 22.1Mb / frame So video compression is going to have to get more than ~10x reduction to fit into 2Mb/s and that's just 1 frame/sec.

10x reduction from raw to jpg is not what worries me (provided decent-ish computing power) as much as that this is a theoretical maximum under lab conditions. When has any wireless technology ever delivered?

When 802.11n 300mbps was the hot thing that made LAN obsolete, you'd be happy to get 60 megabits (which is still plenty for most purposes, don't get me wrong, but it isn't 300). Bluetooth is more resilient due to spectrum hopping that I wish newer WiFis had taken over (no more channel madness where you either have to coordinate with 3d neighbors or, on auto, might have good and bad days; everything just uses the whole spectrum as efficiently as possible), but I still doubt you'll have one fps stable.

Re: Monocle: A pocket sized open-source AR device

#183

I've looked around their website and the links people have commented here, but I've yet to see a video or image of the device actually working. I know it's hard to demo AR devices, but a simple video of a phone camera pointing through the device to show that there is actually content displaying would add much more credibility. Especially for $350 I need to see some sort of product demonstration.

The carousel with the play button works if you use the keyboard. It gives you an idea of how it works.

Does not work with Hacker's Keyboard (https://github.com/klausw/hackerskeyboard). It closes itself after a few deciseconds, whereas usually the permanent notification feature can be tapped to open and use a keyboard anywhere. Or maybe I haven't tried using it on the new Android 11 yet and yet another of my favorite hacks broke.... now that I try it elsewhere, it seems this app got broken by google breaking userspace again... Never mind, looks like I'll have to go and fetch a USB keyboard for this in the future :/

Re: Monocle: A pocket sized open-source AR device

#185
Cameras are quickly becoming as ubiquitous and boring as light bulbs. I’m actually more interested in how a light bulb works than some of these projects that are targeted at software developers for learning purposes.

There are tons of these dev hardware projects you can buy which usually are centered around having a camera. “Did you ever want to see in slow motion? Now you can.” “Never miss a moment.” Go ahead a miss the moment. Big foot is fake. There is not much point to this anymore.

I see a lot of projects that hunt out developers as customers, but I can’t get excited for them most of the time. I think Playdate is one of the highest quality of this type of product. Behind that is some of the holographic 3D displays they are making now that use 3D pixels. They can go for $200. Pretty cheap.

Augmented reality is very lame to me. I think most of the hope for useful AR applications has been snuffed out long ago. Its the same question asked a different way, “Why can’t you just google the answer? Why do you need to do x,y,z (go to college, call plumber, whatever)” The answer is, invariably, nobody has the data! A lot of good data is being held hostage or destroyed by greedy corporations. Its a winner take all world. Companies are reluctant to have a brand new game.

Re: Monocle: A pocket sized open-source AR device

#186
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I can do python, have not used micropython and I have not worked with FPGA's before so that's not what I'm trying to do now. The micropython sounds more tangible to me. So I'm going to see about somehow feeding in text into the monocle via phone/BT... like an OBS situation. Then you could use your phone's screen as a mouse/input method. I know it seems pointless just use your phone... but you know... it's cool.…

Nreal Airs mentioned in another comment thread seem viable for the dishes problem. Thought I should mention to you.

I saw those a while back looked interesting. I already pre-ordered a simula vr headset regarding both-eyes. I know they're not the same thing but yeah.

Re: Monocle: A pocket sized open-source AR device

#187
post #47

As someone with only 1 eye, this is quite suited to me! I am actually sad that the previous crop of "low cost, slim, not earth shattering" AR glasses all died out. A camera built into one stem and some simple text displayed for one eye would suffice for a ton of use cases. A killer app for me would be floating name tags above people's heads, but I imagine that would require better HW than what is available here. I'd…

> A killer app for me would be floating name tags above people's heads, but I imagine that would require better HW than what is available here. This is a societal issue, more than a HW/SW issue. Google Glass explicitly bans this type of feature: https://developers.google.com/glass/policies#c_what_you_cant... > Don't use the camera or microphone to cross-reference and immediately present personal information identifyi…

The Google Glass backlash (which may well have happened to any AR glasses) has set back practical use of AR in private life so much. It's frustrating, especially because of the splash damage it's had.

What's particularly odd to me is that many people seem to be sensitive about, specifically, cameras in glasses. I sometimes literally wear a bodycam, not subtle at all, and it's mostly ignored, while with no-camera HUD glasses people get nervous that there's a camera there.

I hope that we can eventually get away with stuff like real-time facial ID as an adaptive technology feature - though the only way that will work is if we can get it pretty much invisible. Or we finally get used to all being recorded all the time anyway and stop freaking out about it.

Re: Monocle: A pocket sized open-source AR device

#188
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You could walk by a business and see hours on a virtual sign. Most stores have those posted already. :-D > They can almost entirely be replaced with a smart watch. Agreed, unfortunately current smart watches are tasked with doing a lot, and as a result they are not very good at blending into the background of life. I'd also love a life logger, being able to see snapshots of my day and quickly create journal entries…

>Most stores have those posted already. :-D Ok but it could be 3rd party data instead. It could be live open seating data, etc etc.

Or, hear me out.. it could be _targeted advertisements._ /s

Seriously though, I'd love to have a wearable adblock. Detect anything that resembles an ad, blank it out. Obviously not while you're doing anything safety critical, but most of the time - good trade.

Re: Monocle: A pocket sized open-source AR device

#189
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not much, but https://www.instagram.com/p/CgAu-TTlBHS . They're not exactly helping their credibility with claims of 16x superZoom from a 720p camera.

It seems to me that unlike HoloLens and such, it's not trying to be seamless. It's almost entirely obstructing one eye with a small screen. They use a translucent case so you can sorta see around the screen, but not very well. Kinda butts up against what the actual promise of AR was supposed to be.

So basically the same experience as a thermal monocular. Which is pretty decent "augmented vision" once you get used to it.
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