Slog Apr 4, 2012 2:02 PM

Google's Project Glass in Action: Would You Wear Google Glasses?

by Paul Constant

Comments

just great, more people walking around talking to themselves.

eastcoastreader on April 4, 2012 at 2:07 PM ·

I like the youtube comment of "This is pretty much how wrong you can get on the pronounciation of 'Monsieur'."

stinkbug on April 4, 2012 at 2:07 PM ·

It's about damn time.

jjm84 on April 4, 2012 at 2:08 PM ·

More like http://vimeo.com/8569187

Laura Lynn on April 4, 2012 at 2:12 PM ·

Hm... not so different from THESE glasses.

Urgutha Forka on April 4, 2012 at 2:15 PM ·

They need to fold them into something more aesthetically pleasing, but the idea's neat.

tired and true on April 4, 2012 at 2:16 PM ·

People who wouldn't kill their own grandmother for those glasses should be shot. I mean I ... I just... I mean, after rocket pants this is about as cool as it could get with private tech. Do we have rocket pants? If not then who could possible not love it more than glittering kittens that sing show tunes?

JensR on April 4, 2012 at 2:17 PM ·

I would be okay with them if they looked like regular glasses rather than something Jory would wear

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17ik2u2x…

UNPAID COMMENTER on April 4, 2012 at 2:19 PM ·

It sounds great. TeeVee, phone, internet, texting, stock ticker and games all going right in your kisser! If you wear them when you have sex, you can give your partner any face or body you want.

Vince on April 4, 2012 at 2:19 PM ·

I can't believe there are ANY of you Luddites, much less a majority, who aren't just head-on-fire stoked about this. I'm sure the release product and especially subsequent generations will be more aesthetically pleasing, but really... who gives a shit? I've been waiting my entire life for these!

balderdash on April 4, 2012 at 2:21 PM ·

@8, I've also been waiting my entire life to be Geordi LaForge, so you're not really dissuading me, here.

balderdash on April 4, 2012 at 2:23 PM ·

I both love and hate the idea of this.

bleedingheartlibertarian on April 4, 2012 at 2:27 PM ·

"Come quietly or there will be... trouble."

Dougsf on April 4, 2012 at 2:30 PM ·

I'm with @12. I love the idea of having a bit of information at the ready through a heads up display (and I'm already wearing glasses) and taking pictures by looking.

But I'm already imagining the pop up ads.

Chris B on April 4, 2012 at 2:31 PM ·

Also, is there something wrong with me that I thought the video what going to end with him dropping his glasses off the ledge after asking "Jessica" is she "wanted to see something cool"?

Dougsf on April 4, 2012 at 2:33 PM ·

We saw this all in a movie called, "They Live."

CC-Rob on April 4, 2012 at 2:37 PM ·

I don't see why they don't make them look like regular glasses. This design seems so conspicuous and distracting, and will make them annoying like bluetooth headsets, instead of integrated into something we're already used to, like headphones with microphones on the cord.

Still, the technology and the concept is fucking cool.

Anthony Hecht on April 4, 2012 at 2:45 PM · Stranger Staff

I love it. But did they have to make the 'star' of the video such a fucking hipster?

guy on April 4, 2012 at 2:49 PM ·

I can really only see two problems here:

1) They're gonna have to either be illegal to use while driving, or have hells of reduced functionality while in the car, because talking is distracting enough without adding graphics to it. And yes, that's a shame, because a GPS HUD would be awesome, but having even more fuckwads than already don't watch the road would not be awesome; and

2) Even if you take automobiles out of the picture people are going to be just running into shit like crazy. Sidewalks will turn into shouldercausts. I feel like maybe there ought to be a mandatory operator training course for these.

Honestly, though, that's all human error. The only problem with the gogs is that I don't have them yet.

balderdash on April 4, 2012 at 2:52 PM ·

@19: No problem with driving while wearing Google augmented reality glasses because you'll be in a Google automated car. IT ALL FITS TOGETHER.

LMcGuff on April 4, 2012 at 2:54 PM ·

No. Just no.

The part of me that loves sci-fi nearly has a nerdgasm over this.

The part of me that already feels like electronics are intruding too much into real life and worries about Facebook and Google (not to mention our own government) violating our privacy, wants to run and hide in terror.

No good can come of this.

Reverse Polarity on April 4, 2012 at 2:57 PM ·

YAY! I can hardly wait to be intrusively marketed to, tracked, and trapped by shitty popular culture through yet another disposable genre of bullshit consumptive technology!

tkc on April 4, 2012 at 3:10 PM ·

To convince me they need to include what I consider the "killer app": when someone I've met before walks up to me, their name is displayed above them. I'm HORRIBLE with names.

Scalpel on April 4, 2012 at 3:13 PM ·

Google's Project Glass: "because you didn't look like enough of an asshole wearing your Bluetooth headset."

aaronbrethorst on April 4, 2012 at 3:22 PM ·

A few months ago, I saw a middle-aged white woman almost get run over in a car driven by another middle-aged white woman.

The one crossing the street was looking down at her iPhone, ignoring all traffic lights and patterns --- the woman driver immediately increased her speed once she saw the woman, and began honking her horn.

Unfortunately, the woman pedestrian raced across the street, narrowly missing being run over by the psychopathic middle-aged white woman driver.

Bring these google glasses on --- only ever more Social Darwinism of the worst sort can conceivably occur....

sgt_doom on April 4, 2012 at 3:26 PM ·

I don't care for mediated reality. I would hate to have texts and tweets shoved in my face each time they occurred. They will also be illegal to drive with, or should be. I don't mind looking things like the weather forecast up myself and don't I certainly don't need a soft ambient/jazz soundtrack acconpanying me everywhere. They are too obvious as well, being about as cool as a Bluetooth permanently nested in an ear.

thatsnotright on April 4, 2012 at 3:27 PM ·

Well, I might as well give up on having any kind of meaningful conversation with friends after these come out. It's already ridiculous going for a night out and being surrounded by a bunch of people constantly on their smart phones who can't carry on a conversation.

pfffter on April 4, 2012 at 3:33 PM ·

Anyone who uses Google Maps extensively, as I do, is going to be extraordinarily frustrated to see the vast amount of garbage data in their database translated to their field of vision in real time. All those closed businesses, wildly inaccurate addresses (often by a thousand miles or more -- it says here that Strand Books is in Tegulcigalpa!), gross misinterpretations ("books" being taken to mean not just books but bookkeepers and bookmakers), and just plain omissions (Mud Truck is on there but not the really good one a block away) -- nightmare.

Right here in technologically advanced Seattle I spent a year trying to convince Google Maps that the library branch in the ID wasn't fifteen blocks away on First Hill. Now take that experience to a place like Mexico, where half the entries are as wrong as they could possibly be, wrong enough to get you killed if you go looking for that hotel in THAT neighborhood.

Google is starting to resemble MIT Media Lab -- gee whiz stuff that might sound cool at first glance (though probably not as cool as the guy wearing it thinks it is) but never in a million years live in the real world.

But it is impressive how a hot chick still looks like a hot chick wearing them. Look! Boobs!

Fnarf on April 4, 2012 at 3:34 PM ·

Wal*Mart Test: Can I go there right now and buy these?

No?

Laters

Supreme Ruler Of The Universe on April 4, 2012 at 3:37 PM ·

Wake me when they come with frickin' lasers.

Will in Seattle on April 4, 2012 at 3:40 PM ·

@28: I'm always amused that google's Street View isn't available for Pike Street between 1st and 4th (not including intersections).

stinkbug on April 4, 2012 at 3:41 PM ·

I agree with the general consensus that these will be much more viable once they're integrated into an existing glasses frame design (which seems pretty doable with some beefed up hinges).

Vince @9: Doesn't "kisser" mean "mouth?" I always thought so.

Scalpel @23: Yes, facial recognition software is one of the cool potential parts of having an always-on HUD. On the other hand, it's perilous, as Reverse Polarity points out @21. Imagine for a moment: you go to a party, and your glasses conveniently pop up the full name, birth date and astrological sign of every acquaintance you see there. Then, because every portable device manufacturer has a questionable idea of what consumer privacy is, all of that information is uploaded to their servers, along with a GPS fix on your location (which is currently standard for phones and other cellular devices). Now the only thing standing in the way of a government subpoena and information on the whereabouts of you and many of your acquaintances at that moment is Google's legal team. Yikes.

Mike on April 4, 2012 at 3:50 PM ·

I just fear for all those drivers with one more thing in front of their faces.

ScienceNerd on April 4, 2012 at 4:07 PM ·

Oh, and they may not make you look like Robocop, but they certainly make you look like Geordi La Forge after he got punched in the face and half his visor broke.

ScienceNerd on April 4, 2012 at 4:15 PM ·

Anyone who wears these while driving should be flayed. And you know that within 2 years, at least 1/4 of drivers in Seattle will be wearing them.

ScrawnyKayaker on April 4, 2012 at 4:24 PM ·

If that ad was supposed to make this new trinket of consumer technology look cool, it failed miserably. What a dorky way to go about your life.

Irena on April 4, 2012 at 4:32 PM ·

I look forward to the subsequent increase in stories about people getting killed or maimed while not paying attention to their surroundings. Yay technology!

suddenlyorcas on April 4, 2012 at 4:37 PM ·

Drunk driving with these on is going to be SO FUN.

gloomy gus on April 4, 2012 at 4:51 PM ·

@5:

I was thinking more like these.

My only question is: Do these come in progressives?

COMTE on April 4, 2012 at 5:04 PM ·

I want the option that can draw targets around people's heads and print "TARGET ACQUIRED" at the bottom.

mlb on April 4, 2012 at 6:17 PM ·

They need to have a health bar, ammo count, and radar showing where all my enemies are.

devinderry on April 4, 2012 at 6:23 PM ·

I wonder if this guy was a douche before he got the glasses, or if the glasses turned him into one.

Free Lunch on April 4, 2012 at 6:39 PM ·

Sexting win. Everything else: -0.

whomever whilst have me on April 4, 2012 at 7:58 PM ·

I'll be surprised if book stores still exist by the time Hipster McUkelele has magic glasses.

Kidiculous on April 4, 2012 at 8:24 PM ·

Oh my god.

You're all OLD.

:(

balderdash on April 4, 2012 at 9:00 PM ·

Um, how the hell did he click OK or Answer? I understand the voice controls and augmented reality camera, but how did he respond to simple pop ups without using his voice? Are there buttons on the side or something, or a clicker in your pocket? Does it have an accerometer and you shake your left nut for OK right for cancel?

brandon on April 4, 2012 at 9:14 PM ·

Just what I need, Twitter IN MY FUCKING EYEBALLS.

Greg on April 4, 2012 at 9:31 PM ·

@46, I don't know if these particular glasses have it, but devices like this could and eventually will - indeed, devices that have existed for a while now like Stephen Hawking's speech prosthetic already do - use visual tracking. That is, they track where your eyes are focusing, and use that as a cursor.

balderdash on April 4, 2012 at 10:25 PM ·