Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses

#11

Post by koalaman » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 4:48 PM UTC

orblivion wrote: post #4

9k9 wrote: post #3

Everyone would go crazy with the ability to check a news feed 24/7. I suppose we'd have to find a way to adapt to it as there are some pretty awesome advantages.

I keep hoping that the next real revolution will be a way we can decrease the amount of data we get. I can't conceive of how this would work even on a theoretical level, but I hope someone figures it out.

I've been thinking about this a lot myself. I think that software is eventually going to have to help us stay disciplined in concentrating on one thing at a time. Of course people are creeped out by the idea of software that tells us what to do, or not to do, but I for one would like my phone to remind me that this is not the time to look at hacker news, and besides, there's nothing critical on it for me to look at it that can't wait until later.

Re: Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses

#12

Post by acgourley » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 4:48 PM UTC

9k9 wrote: post #3

Everyone would go crazy with the ability to check a news feed 24/7. I suppose we'd have to find a way to adapt to it as there are some pretty awesome advantages.

Don't phones do this now? To me the killer feature isn't 'always available' but that it's 'always passive'. Passively recording, passively overlaying information you might want, passively inserting ads...

Re: Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses

#13

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 4:49 PM UTC

heyrhett wrote: post #5

Why would the largest advertising company in the world want to place a screen between my eyeballs and reality?

[deleted]

Re: Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses

#14

Post by jonknee » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 4:50 PM UTC

joejohnson wrote: post #10

DasIch wrote: post #6

Augmented reality glasses, self-driving cars... Google is becoming a really exciting and interesting company. It will be interesting to see how Apple will react to this given that they are the ones claiming to revolutionize consumer technology every couple of years.

Real artists ship. I'm very excited about all of Google's cool new projects, but they have a history of shooting themselves in the foot. If these technologies are so far along, why not build a consumer version and get people to pay to be testers?! Then iterate on the concept and keep improving it through successive versions. But that's Apple's game.

Because you don't ship when it still kills people. Google launches stuff in betas all the time (arguably too much and for too long), but I'm glad they're not out there letting anyone test self driving cars or augmented reality contacts.

Apple's difference isn't that they iterate, it's that they don't talk about their new stuff until it ships.

Re: Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses

#15

Post by pfraze » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 4:51 PM UTC

mladenkovacevic wrote: post #2

Youtube promo of how it might work (is this for real or just a concept? looks too good to be true) http://youtu.be/9c6W4CCU9M4

I'm buying first gen. Then second gen. All the gens.

Re: Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses

#16

Post by exit » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 4:51 PM UTC

is it a mistake releasing concept videos far ahead of the state of the art?

hopefully what google announces at i/o will be shockingly advanced

Re: Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses

#17

Post by nextparadigms » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 4:52 PM UTC

DasIch wrote: post #6

Augmented reality glasses, self-driving cars... Google is becoming a really exciting and interesting company. It will be interesting to see how Apple will react to this given that they are the ones claiming to revolutionize consumer technology every couple of years.

To me it looks amazing and really impressive. I kind of expected Google to release some bulky glasses as rumored, that would look like version 0.1 of such a product in the future. But I'm really impressed with what I'm seeing so far.

Re: Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses

#18

Post by reginaldo » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 4:53 PM UTC

DasIch wrote: post #6

Augmented reality glasses, self-driving cars... Google is becoming a really exciting and interesting company. It will be interesting to see how Apple will react to this given that they are the ones claiming to revolutionize consumer technology every couple of years.

Oh, this is because these technologies complement each other... Not much use in having people wearing augmented reality glasses if they'll die in car crashes as soon as an ad pops up in front of their eyes when driving. They won't even click on the ad. Hence self driving cars...

Kidding apart, it's nice to see Google innovating in many fronts :)

Re: Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses

#19

Post by jgrahamc » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 4:54 PM UTC

heyrhett wrote: post #5

Why would the largest advertising company in the world want to place a screen between my eyeballs and reality?

Also, in the concept video he goes into a physical book store and selects a physical book and buys it. Surely, his Googgles would just scan the book tell him how much cheaper it was in the Google Store... Rather amused that when meeting a friend he spent time checking in to the location rather than talking to the dude.

But these could be useful in situations where you don't have your hands free to hold a smartphone. For example, I would very much like GPS as a heads up display for cycling around London. And skiers/snowborders would enjoy them for other information (How many Gs am I pulling in this turn? How fast am I descending? Where am I?)

Re: Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses

#20

Post by mdwrigh2 » Wed, Apr 04, 2012, 4:55 PM UTC

joejohnson wrote: post #10

DasIch wrote: post #6

Augmented reality glasses, self-driving cars... Google is becoming a really exciting and interesting company. It will be interesting to see how Apple will react to this given that they are the ones claiming to revolutionize consumer technology every couple of years.

Real artists ship. I'm very excited about all of Google's cool new projects, but they have a history of shooting themselves in the foot. If these technologies are so far along, why not build a consumer version and get people to pay to be testers?! Then iterate on the concept and keep improving it through successive versions. But that's Apple's game.

> Real artists ship.

While true, don't you think that the world would be a poorer place without the research from Xerox Parc? People who were notoriously bad at shipping, but their ideas were used to create product elsewhere.

My only point is that shipping isn't everything for research, unlike product development. So the question is really, are they looking to build a product, or research the future of computing? Perhaps both. Having said that, I do wish I could get my hands on one...