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Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'

computerworld.com

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Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'

#31

Post by ams6110 »

krapp wrote: post #29
coldtea wrote: post #25

Year of smart glasses? It's a half assed product, introduced years before it's any good for use, and it's main real utility is that of a smaller Go Pro-style live action camera. Plus, it didn't even make any dent in the market. It's not like Google search in 1996 or the iPhone in 2007, products that immediately changed whole markets. So, no, 2014 would not be the year of "smart glasses". With the display technology u…

Interestingly, a friend of mine who is a professional videographer and who tried Google Glass told me he could think of a few uses for it in his field, but he couldn't come up with any reason why he would use one as a general purpose device.

I predict a moderately successful app that scrolls random 6502 assembly code in your field of vision as you scan your surroundings.

Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'

#32

Post by InclinedPlane »

kumarm wrote: post #7
bsirkia wrote: post #3

I really think this will be the year of smart watches. Smart glasses look so absurd, I think this year there will be a number of options for glasses in market, but they won't gain popularity 2015-2016. Smart watches, however, don't look particularly different than normal watches, they aren't obtrusive to other people, etc. like glasses are. EDIT: Using words better.

I doubt there ever will be a Year of Smart Watches. They are too small (and too far to eyes) to provide a smart screen.

Smart watches like the pebble can be amazingly useful in certain circumstances. For example, if you're very busy and using some sort of messaging system to stay in touch with a team then a smart watch is indespensible. You can keep up with the message flow without digging out and unlocking a phone. It easily replaces radios without many of radio's downsides and with many unique advantages (archived messages that can serve as a reference later).

I don't know how useful they are in the general case though. But they do lower the friction of keeping up with a textual conversation without being in front of a computer.

Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'

#33

Post by repsilat »

csallen wrote: post #30
krapp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But your assertion seems to be that new technologies should be above criticism by virtue of the inevitable march of technology itself, part of which is driven by consumerism and hype, and not any process which necessarily judges technology on its own merit. It hasn't yet been proven that smart glasses are going to be as transformative as gunpowder, or as revolutionary as the internet, or what have you. Maybe they wil…

Yes, Glass may fail, but it seems obvious to me that the perpetual shrinking of technology is an unstoppable trend that was set in motion decades ago. It turns out that computers, and phones, and recording devices, and the internet are all really useful technologies, and people like having access to them wherever they go with as little hassle as possible. As time approaches infinity, the likelihood of our brains beco…

> Yes, Glass may fail

Even if Glass' victory is inevitable, it may not be wrong to oppose it. Opposition need not take its value from its chance of success -- delaying the inevitable has value, as does the simple fact of having acted morally.

When asked to choose between the moral highground and the literal highground, many people take the former. I'm not convinced the two don't coincide here, but I don't see a problem with that position in theory.

Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'

#35

Post by codingdave »

coldtea wrote: post #25

Year of smart glasses? It's a half assed product, introduced years before it's any good for use, and it's main real utility is that of a smaller Go Pro-style live action camera. Plus, it didn't even make any dent in the market. It's not like Google search in 1996 or the iPhone in 2007, products that immediately changed whole markets. So, no, 2014 would not be the year of "smart glasses". With the display technology u…

Just for the sake of argument -- We tell software startups to get their MVP out as fast as possible in order gain feedback and improve the product... yet we smack down hardware vendors who have done exactly that?

Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'

#38

Post by laureny »

mildtrepidation wrote: post #2

Ugh, I really hope not. I can't see any reason people wouldn't use this, though, since it's a lot less likely for someone to care about other people's privacy or convenience than their own. I can certainly see myself asking people to take them off if they want to talk to me (unless they're the same people that currently browse/text/play on their cell phones during conversations, as that's a conversation you might as…

> I can certainly see myself asking people to take them off if they want to talk to me

I bet that ten years ago, you would ask people to turn their phones off before agreeing to talk with them.

Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'

#40

Post by krapp »

laureny wrote: post #38
mildtrepidation wrote: post #2

Ugh, I really hope not. I can't see any reason people wouldn't use this, though, since it's a lot less likely for someone to care about other people's privacy or convenience than their own. I can certainly see myself asking people to take them off if they want to talk to me (unless they're the same people that currently browse/text/play on their cell phones during conversations, as that's a conversation you might as…

> I can certainly see myself asking people to take them off if they want to talk to me I bet that ten years ago, you would ask people to turn their phones off before agreeing to talk with them.

Cellphones weren't meant to have their microphones left turned on, in order to constantly be processing ambient audio for recognizable words, or to process commands, or to match voices to identities. Smart glasses are far more confrontational and intrusive by design.

If I held my phone up and pointed the camera wherever I went, people would be annoyed at it, and not irrationally so.

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