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Google Glass

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Re: Google Glass

#501

Post by saulrh »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #301
jgroome wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear what you're saying, and I appreciate that you put the time in to write that out, but honestly I'm hearing this kind of argument from so many quarters ("we never look up!" "we all talk, but we never converse !" etc etc) recently that it's starting to get obnoxious. Conversation is not dead. People have been moaning about how we're all becoming socially isolated since the publication of the first novel. The art…

If you're hearing the same point made from a lot of quarters, then maybe there's an actual phenomenon behind it. But more than that, Glass is fundamentally different. It's designed, from the concept up, to always be in your awareness. That's what it is . That's the entire appeal of it. That's not a book, and it's not even a smartphone that spends most of its time in your pocket. It's something that always demands som…

Two things.

First, when something is always available and you are always aware of it and taking data from it, it becomes part of you in the same way that your eyes or your clothing are part of you. It's part of you when you're talking to people in the same way that your computer is part of you when you're having an email conversation. It's entirely possible that you with google glass is generally less socially adept or more distracted than you without google glass, but I don't think the effect will be as extreme as you fear.

Second, and more important, is that Glass doesn't force you to break eye contact or change your body language. Having worked for years with people that wear head-mounted displays religiously (look up a guy named Thad Starner), I can tell you that those two features actually make a huge difference. Instead of imagining a person using a cell phone in the middle of a conversation, imagine a family talking around the latest episode of Star Trek or across the dinner table - you aren't really looking at other people, but the conversation feels perfectly natural anyway.

Re: Google Glass

#502

Post by lnanek2 »

zmmmmm wrote: post #453
gfodor wrote: post #393

Here's one quirky thing though, there are moments in life where everyone around you wants to take a picture. Like, a celebrity walks by. Or you are at the top of a long climb. Or you're at the zoo. Are people in these situations going to be just a sea of voices saying in round "OK Glass take a picture, OK Glass take a picture"?

I found that the most unconvincing part of the video. Quite apart from the point you mention, even in the most-likely-edited video there was a noticeable lag between when she said to take the picture and when it happened, and that is not accounting for the second and a half it takes to actually say the sentence. How would we react if anybody released a camera with a 3 second shutter lag and then advertised it as idea…

Pictures are all moving to video streams nowadays anyway, like the recently announced HTC One. Just keep a stream going and have the voice prompt tag a place in the stream three seconds earlier.

Re: Google Glass

#503

Post by krapp »

vacri wrote: post #496
krapp wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The civil rights movement was important, but there were places in the world at the time where black people could walk into the same restaurant as whites. The end of colonialism was important, if you were Indian. The Vietnam war was important, but then again, World War 2 was important, and so was World War 1, and so was Hannibal crossing the Alps. With the moon landing, for the first time human beings were able to vie…

You're speaking a lot of romance. "we stood on another world for the first time"... and shortly after, we packed up and went home, never to return. Sure, it was a milestone in human history, but it's not like it really changed the way our societies work. Please give some examples of some fundamental changes if you disagree - "Seeing the moon landings on television changed people's lives": How? What was new in the way…

>You're speaking a lot of romance.

Epic events tend to lend themselves to romantic speech. I would stand on a soapbox but then my keyboard would be awkward to reach, and they don't make soapboxes anymore, except out of cardboard.

>and shortly after, we packed up and went home, never to return. True. That doesn't at all negate the impact of the initial event though. Just means one we got to the moon we discovered it was dirt, dirt and more dirt.

>Sure, it was a milestone in human history, but it's not like it really changed the way our societies work.

I'm not arguing that it necessarily changed the way our societies work, just the terms by which humanity could view its own potential. Before, we weren't a species capable of landing someone on the moon. Afterwards, we were.

I'd have no problem putting the advent of the World Wide Web up in the same category as the moon landing, or even ahead of it using your terms, but that still doesn't put Google in the same class as either, in terms of technology or revolutionary achievement. Yet. Glass may, indeed end up pushing the envelope of human interaction somewhere incredible and transformational. Or maybe it's just a gimmicky new UI. I don't know. But I guarantee fifty years from now nobody's going to be telling their grandchildren where they were when Google came out with anything unless at some point Google becomes responsible for strong AI or maybe a working teleporter.

>Seeing the moon landings on television changed people's lives": How?

They saw people landing on the moon on television. Live(ish).

>Edit: I also find it weird that you're characterising the social effects and fallout of WW2 as being less powerful in terms of civilisation change than a photo from the moon. Really, this is just geek romance talking.

I'm not. I'm suggesting that there weren't other, prior examples of being able to see the Earth from standing on another planet. It was a unique event, and its impact (however you choose to measure it) was likewise unique. Wars are not unique events, and my other point was their impact is bound by politics and geography, whereas the moon landing and the picture of earthrise wasn't.

And yes perhaps it is a bit of geek romance talking. It's also a bit of geek romance to suggest that Google is more important in social and technological terms than the moon landing. My geek romanticism just happens to look a bit further back.

Re: Google Glass

#504

Post by SilasX »

artursapek wrote: post #150

I am seriously concerned about this. I was in a long-distance relationship this summer. We would take turns visiting each other in our respective cities roughly 5 hours apart. It was a pretty long journey for a weekend - it would sometimes take 10 hours one way since you had to go through New York. Of course, it was worth it. But whenever we would go on a walk, or I'd take her out to dinner, I got as much face time w…

>I really hope I don't ever have to go on a date with some girl who's getting conversation tips from Google's magic headgear.

Not so fast. I think that would mark the tipping point between tech/hacker culture being a "guy" think to being a "feminine" thing.

Re: Google Glass

#505

Post by rayiner »

krapp wrote: post #503
vacri wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're speaking a lot of romance. "we stood on another world for the first time"... and shortly after, we packed up and went home, never to return. Sure, it was a milestone in human history, but it's not like it really changed the way our societies work. Please give some examples of some fundamental changes if you disagree - "Seeing the moon landings on television changed people's lives": How? What was new in the way…

> You're speaking a lot of romance. Epic events tend to lend themselves to romantic speech. I would stand on a soapbox but then my keyboard would be awkward to reach, and they don't make soapboxes anymore, except out of cardboard. > and shortly after, we packed up and went home, never to return. True. That doesn't at all negate the impact of the initial event though. Just means one we got to the moon we discovered it…

My dad remembers watching the moon landing in Bangladesh, and someone commenting on how it couldn't be possible because "you can't punch a hole in the sky." I don't think he could tell you when he switched from Altavista to Google.

Re: Google Glass

#506

Post by vibrunazo »

sshconnection wrote: post #438

Dear god, so many haters in here. It's a brand new prototype product, and people are complaining about minor features etc. What is wrong with you people? I thought this was a board full of hackers. If you can't see the massive potential in this, you may be in the wrong place.

> I thought this was a board full of hackers.

Complete opposite. This board is full of people interested in startups and looking to get a better grasp of technology. But only a tiny minority here actually code, if you're looking for that you should probably try a more specific coding board or group.

Also, people around here are obsessed with, what they call "playing devil's advocate" or "offering a counter point". Which, in other parts of the planet would be called "trolling". But here that's encouraged as long as the post is well formatted enough to not immediately remind you of reddit.

Put those 2 together and it's very easy to understand the illogical negative posts on the top. It's just people trolling without technological insight. In fact, you'll hardly find any thread about a new technology on HN, which the top post isn't contrarian.

Re: Google Glass

#507

Post by [deleted] »

Lagged2Death wrote: post #498
jgroome wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear what you're saying, and I appreciate that you put the time in to write that out, but honestly I'm hearing this kind of argument from so many quarters ("we never look up!" "we all talk, but we never converse !" etc etc) recently that it's starting to get obnoxious. Conversation is not dead. People have been moaning about how we're all becoming socially isolated since the publication of the first novel. The art…

People have been moaning about how we're all becoming socially isolated since the publication of the first novel. The art of socialising has been declared dying ever since the first VHS was available to buy and watch at home. You're not offering anything more than an assertion that they're wrong, though. That is, you're using the same anecdata standard of evidence that they are: "My friends and I have cell phones but…

[deleted]

Re: Google Glass

#508

Post by angersock »

ctdonath wrote: post #149
msvan wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crimecam made me laugh, hehe. The uses are potentially endless: 5) Procrastination monitor: Someone is actively monitoring you, making sure that you do what you're supposed to do. Actually, this would be even creepier if it were your corporate control-freak boss who ordained it. 6) Voyeurist's refuge: Pay someone with social skills far more developed than yours, have him go out and pick up a woman while you sit back…

6) See movie Gamer .

As awful as a lot of that movie was, it actually went to some interesting places with that technology.

Re: Google Glass

#509

Post by vacri »

rayiner wrote: post #499
vacri wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, you're only giving credit to google for the first year of their product. NASA was nowhere near the moon in 1959. Where's the level playing field here? Similarly 'access to the internet' isn't the same as use of it. Those 100 million weren't using the internet with any degree of the pervasiveness we see today. It absorbed all the highly talented engineers All of them? Wow. developed the technology that defined…

> Again, you're only giving credit to google for the first year of their product. NASA was nowhere near the moon in 1959. Right. But the .com bubble was ending the first year of Google's product in 2000, while commercialization of space technology through things like Space X (which are leveraging NASA's developments) is happening 50 years after 1959. If you're going to give Google credit for internet uptake, you have…

Do a thought experiment.

Sure, do one of your own. Have the developers of all your things use only the resource searching of the mid-90s. Watch all those technologies slow down considerably. This is part of what I mean when I say catalyst. Got a weird problem? I hope you happen to be in just the right group or forum that happens to have a willing expert.

Personally, I like how you completely disallow me any influence of Google on any other company, but you are more than willing to subsume any steel-using work into the provenance of US Steel. Apparently other steel companies - even other countries, don't exist. Your bias is beyond belief. I called Google a catalyst, not directly reposible for 'everything', unlike your mention of the steel industry.

Re: Google Glass

#510

Post by angersock »

stcredzero wrote: post #270
Erwin wrote: post #77

The recorded videos' have a strange voyeuristic feel, probably due to the POV being so close to the wearer's eyes. That you can use the glasses do do a hangout in real time and broadcast seems novel though. There's no shortage of sci-fi stories dealing with this sort of always-on recording. "Strange Days", "Black Mirror (#3)". I wonder about the legality of this product, if it becomes inconspicuous. Some product idea…

This could save millions of dollars on construction sites. It would give architects and engineers the next best thing to being able to teleport around a construction site. With the right software and organization, any foreman at a building site could get nearly instantaneous clarification. Then again, maybe it would make people mentally lazy and unable to plan, like smartphones did with meeting up in town.

From what I've seen of the AEC industry, I doubt we'll actually see any real changes in the next decade or two. :(

However, I do see this being super useful for navigating racks and racks of servers to kick one over if it needs thunking.

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