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Glass

dcurt.is

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Re: Glass

#161

Post by [deleted] »

Volpe wrote: post #14
tomasien wrote: post #6

Anyone want an unsolicited opinion? waits for everyone to leave I hope Google Glass is an experiment, because voice reco isn't particularly important outside of when you're driving. When I get tired of texting and consider voice reco, 2 things hit me (and others, I've done solid research on this) 1. Voice reco would be slightly better now that I'm tired of texting, but not much. 2. It is nowhere near socially accepta…

sitting at a table messing on a computer in your hand used to be socially unacceptable.

[deleted]

Re: Glass

#162

Post by rogerbinns »

nahname wrote: post #32

After trying google glass out last week, it still has a long way to go. Many tech people lined up to try it out. All of us failed to do anything useful with it. We had to be told how to activate it. We had to be told what we could do with it. What phrases it keys off of ('Okay glass'). These were all highly technical people and we couldn't figure it out on our own. Contrast that with a few christmas' ago when I left…

When mice first came out for PCs, they included training software for how to use them. Earlier versions of Android used to include intro software for the same reason.

In retrospect drag and drop, pinching, double clicks, long holds, swipes, acceleration etc are all obvious. But at one point they weren't.

Re: Glass

#163

Post by ianstormtaylor »

FireBeyond wrote: post #144
nsns wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And at times they would, out of the blue, cancel a taste you really like.

Not really fair to reference Google here. After all, the flip side is, "or announce that a flavor that you paid $600 for barely 14 months ago is end-of-life and will not be getting any updates".

Is that really the flip side? With an Android you don't even have to wait 14 months to be guaranteed no updates.

Re: Glass

#164

Post by danellis »

zacharycohn wrote: post #146
Thrymr wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mirror is there to increase your situational awareness while cycling. Glass has a strong potential to do the opposite. If its use is limited to HUD for information useful to you for cycling, fine, but if you're getting text messages or anything else you have to think about, it's distracting.

Those do not pop up while navigation is on.

And, it's worth pointing out, even navigation isn't displayed all the time. It only pops up when giving instructions.

Re: Glass

#165

Post by danellis »

saurik wrote: post #11
tomasien wrote: post #6

Anyone want an unsolicited opinion? waits for everyone to leave I hope Google Glass is an experiment, because voice reco isn't particularly important outside of when you're driving. When I get tired of texting and consider voice reco, 2 things hit me (and others, I've done solid research on this) 1. Voice reco would be slightly better now that I'm tired of texting, but not much. 2. It is nowhere near socially accepta…

(I agree with you, and want to be clear that I do not bring up this example with the goal of showing you are "wrong", but someone I know brought up the example of "while cooking, and your hands are messy", and it made me think that there were at least a few other non biking/driving examples where voice recognition would be valuable. Still, however, I agree with you.)

> someone I know brought up the example of "while cooking, and your hands are messy"

Voice control isn't there yet. You could have a card deck in your timeline that consisted of individual steps of a recipe, but you can't use your voice to advance to the next card; you have to swipe. Hopefully that will change.

Re: Glass

#166

Post by kryptiskt »

revscat wrote: post #5
ars wrote: post #2

Can you retitle this to "Google Glass"? I know the policy is to copy the original title, but "Glass" is too generic.

Given the topicality of the word I very much doubt that many HN users will confused.

Well, he had a long post about choosing the perfect flatware before, I thought this might be about finding the perfect glass to go with it.

Re: Glass

#167

Post by kryptiskt »

coldtea wrote: post #84

Sorry, but this sounds like a pre-alpha gizmo. And not of the "beta coming in Fall" kind, the check-back-in-ten-years kind. If, say, Apple was also presenting such pre-demo quality stuff, they would have flooded the media with BS. E.g they could have shown their iPad prototypes in 2004, in a similar crappy form. Google only presents this half-baked shit to show us it "innovates". I'd rather know if they can deliver.

Google and Apple are different. They have different cultures, but also quite different businesses. If someone else takes the Google Glass as it is now and makes a more attractive product out of it, Google still wins, as they make their money from usage, not hardware sales. Therefore it often makes sense for Google to throw half-baked products out there and get help from others to gain traction, Android being the shining example.

Re: Glass

#168

Post by gfodor »

raldi wrote: post #42
kposehn wrote: post #30

This is a perfect example of a primary difference between apple and google. Apple makes sure that before you ever use it that almost every single thing akin to what Dustin pointed out is a non-issue. Google gives you an alpha/beta product and wants you to find the flaws for them, and maybe help shape it. Using bread as an analogy, Apple gives you a beautiful tasty loaf ready to eat; Google gives you some dough and te…

I think ice cream shops might make for a better analogy. Apple is like one that makes the absolute best vanilla and chocolate ice creams you've ever had. And maybe in the back, they're working on an amazing mint-chocolate-chip, but they haven't quite found just the right supplier of peppermint extract, and until then, nobody gets to try it. Google is like that crazy experimental ice cream shop that has all sorts of w…

Also, the Apple ice cream shop is staffed by friendly, well dressed servers who are knowledgeable and passionate about ice cream and all of the relevant subfields.

The Google ice cream shop is actually a vending machine.

Re: Glass

#169

Post by jacquesm »

rdl wrote: post #12

I'd personally settle for a voice-output-only Glass (maybe with chording for text input to avoid the "talking to yourself crazy person" problem, and with a camera/microphone built in for ambient data gathering). Hardware we could have built for the last 10 years, and really unobtrusive. You'd need better UI and software than with video, since information needs to be more closely tailored for a lower bitrate channel,…

> I'd personally settle for a voice-output-only Glass (maybe with chording for text input to avoid the "talking to yourself crazy person" problem, and with a camera/microphone built in for ambient data gathering).

I pitched exactly that idea to Logitech & Inria in Switzerland about 15 years ago and I agree with you, we could have done that long ago and it is one of the best interfaces that you could have. Think 'personal assistant'.

The general idea was to simply open a voice channel with a server farm somewhere that listens to your ambient audio and pics up cues / clicks and responds with audio.

The project stranded on privacy concerns, and on speech decoding issues that Inria foresaw would be hard to overcome.

Re: Glass

#170

Post by coldtea »

kryptiskt wrote: post #167
coldtea wrote: post #84

Sorry, but this sounds like a pre-alpha gizmo. And not of the "beta coming in Fall" kind, the check-back-in-ten-years kind. If, say, Apple was also presenting such pre-demo quality stuff, they would have flooded the media with BS. E.g they could have shown their iPad prototypes in 2004, in a similar crappy form. Google only presents this half-baked shit to show us it "innovates". I'd rather know if they can deliver.

Google and Apple are different. They have different cultures, but also quite different businesses. If someone else takes the Google Glass as it is now and makes a more attractive product out of it, Google still wins, as they make their money from usage, not hardware sales. Therefore it often makes sense for Google to throw half-baked products out there and get help from others to gain traction, Android being the shin…

>Therefore it often makes sense for Google to throw half-baked products out there and get help from others to gain traction, Android being the shining example.

I'm not sure Android is a good example of "Google making their money from usage".

For one, have the Android development costs been recouped even? Including the Motorola buyout.

Second, the more successful companies (Amazon with Kindle and Samsung, which is 95% of all Android sales IIRC), are either already having or in the process of locking Google out of it. The Fire's already doing it, and Samsung is investigating it's own path there too.

And if they could replace the web search to something else, they probably would -- but there's nothing much at the moment, which is why even iOS using Google as the default.

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