Google’s Project Glass Looks Awesome!

First things first, watch the following video and join me the other side:

That was a concept video for Google’s “Project Glass”, a futuristic idea for an augmented reality powered by Google that the technology are currently working on developing. According to the New York Times, they could even be ready by the end of the year, and could retail for the same price as current smartphones, although this has been classed as speculation.

This video was the first thing I had heard about the project, but apparently it has been Google’s “open secret” for a short while. The purpose of the video was to open dialogue with consumers to see what they wanted integrated into the technology, and to gauge reactions to their concept.

In my opinion the project looks very, very cool. The potential of the concept is fantastic, and could be hugely useful in the future. The video shows that the glasses will be able to keep you in communication with friends and family via texts and emails that you will be able to send with Google’s voice recognition technology, accessed through a built in microphone. It also shows that it will be able to project Google maps onto the real world, with directions in the top corner so you never get lost. There are even photo and video possibilities and news updates depending on your surroundings. With Google asking for input too, it is likely they will come up with some other ideas too to add to the videos 14 functions, which is very exciting indeed.

Of course, it looks like there will be a lot of drawbacks to the technology, as there are always bound to be.

Firstly, the people who own this, will look like idiots talking to themselves, just like people do with Bluetooth headsets now. Until the trend for Google glasses catches on, they will look a bit ridiculous. Although the glasses are sleek in design (show above), they are also a big statement of “look how rich I am”, and will not be well received when the product hits the market by people who haven’t splashed their cash. I can see the Google glasses becoming the new fashion statement technology product like the iPhone.

Secondly, I am a bit sceptical about the reliance on voice controlled technology, as this is one technology developers have not completely nailed yet. The chances are that the fluidity of commands shown in the video will never happen, and not only will people look moronic ordering their glasses to do things, but will look even stupider as they have to repeat themselves over and over with increasing levels of frustration. However, fortunately and promisingly, the experience I have had with the voice search on Google’s iPhone and iPad search apps has actually been quite good, so perhaps with the reliance they require, they will have fine tuned it.

Thirdly, although augmented reality is an awesome concept and could be really useful, it could also become a massive pain. The video shows the protagonist in constant contact with everyone he knows, their messages coming into his vision whether he chooses to or not. Of course, in today’s world, constant communication is the norm, but at least with a smartphone you can ignore it if you are busy or unable to talk, but now, as long as you’ve got your Google glasses on, the whole world can reach you at any time, whether you like it or not. Also, taking off the glasses could become a strange concept, and some people could become too used to augmented reality and never remove their precious glasses, I can see some serious problems with Google addiction arising.

Finally, the augmented reality also poses potential problems for normal human interaction. In the interest of some privacy (although, this is Google…) , it is likely people may will not be able to see what you are seeing. This could mean you could tune out and browse the internet mid-conversation, or read through your emails or something, all whilst ignoring actual human contact. Taking stealth, unwanted photos would also be far easier with these glasses, and this raises some series issues about privacy and respect for others. This is something Google needs to address to make sure that this new technology doesn’t get too out of hand.

So, to conclude, the new Project Glass concept does indeed look absolutely awesome, and we are definitely reaching a future dreamt of only in science fiction movies, however it does have, to me anyway, some glaring drawbacks. Fortunately for us however, the whole reason this story surfaced today was because Google are requesting consumer feedback based of their launch video. Hopefully they will see some of the potential problems, or will at least have them pointed out to them by consumers like you and me. If the New York Times are to be believed, we will be seeing these hit the market very soon, which is exciting, as long as the kinks are worked out. Even if they are not, you can bet that their competitors, Apple, Microsoft and almost every single technology company will be hot on Google’s heels developing their own concepts and products for launch soon after. This means that even if Google do not heed our advice and warnings, it is likely someone might, and these type of augmented reality glasses will become a popular item. I know that if I have the disposable income, I’ll be getting a pair!

Related articles

• Google’s Augmented Reality Glasses – Project Glass (webdistortion.com)
• Video Demo Of Google’s Augmented Reality Glasses (geekologie.com)
• Googles Project Glass: Mass market augmented reality glasses. (wttfuture.wordpress.com)
• Who Wants Google Glasses? We Do! (kidfriday.com)