Google glasses coming soon.

February 24, 2012 7:30 AM

Google glasses coming soon.
posted by Meatbomb (109 comments total)

(via)
posted by Meatbomb at 7:31 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

If you're not jacked in, you're not alive.
posted by yellowbinder at 7:32 AM on February 24

If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party.

SOLD.
posted by ShutterBun at 7:34 AM on February 24 [24 favorites]

What’s next? Perhaps throngs of people in thick-framed sunglasses lurching down the streets, cocking and twisting their heads like extras in a zombie movie.

ENOUGH ABOUT DUBSTEP
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:35 AM on February 24 [34 favorites]

Do they come with a "Kick Me" sign or do you have to make your own?
posted by tommasz at 7:35 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party.

"Google goggles, Google goggles,
We remember, we accept you,
Google goggles, Google goggles,
One of us, one of us!"
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:36 AM on February 24 [9 favorites]

If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party.

(eyes widen behind goggles)

"We... had sex? There's video?"
posted by naju at 7:40 AM on February 24 [5 favorites]

No. Thank you, but no.
posted by Iridic at 7:40 AM on February 24

I'm in, but only if they make a faint Gordon Freeman "yes!" sound anytime you eat something or take medicine.
posted by jbickers at 7:40 AM on February 24 [4 favorites]

I have come here to make a 'They Live' joke and chew bubblegum. And I am all out of bubblegum.
posted by littlerobothead at 7:41 AM on February 24 [35 favorites]

Imagine augmented reality glasses that project pleasant images of landscape and kittens over all billboards and advertising posters.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:41 AM on February 24 [9 favorites]

Here's a neat preview screenshot.
posted by theodolite at 7:42 AM on February 24 [13 favorites]

The prototype.
posted by Skeptic at 7:42 AM on February 24 [3 favorites]

If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party.

Somehow I don't think the human race would responsibly use the ability to pull up strangers' Facebook info via facial recognition. Imagine, if you will, going from shitty pick-up lines in the bar scene to "hey baby, my magic glasses tell me that you like Nicki Minaj, badminton, graduating from college in 2006 and going on vacation to the Bahamas last June. I like those things too."
posted by griphus at 7:44 AM on February 24 [4 favorites]

Right, I can see where this is going. External memory storage, additional perceptual filters,

..and then some punk jacks them and you forget who you are.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:44 AM on February 24 [5 favorites]

The prototype.

I think you mean this.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:44 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Augmented reality glasses provided by the one of fnord the largest vendors of ad space, you say? What could possibly go wrong?
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:46 AM on February 24 [9 favorites]

I think you mean this.

Oh no, I don't. Resistance is futile.
posted by Skeptic at 7:47 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

The nerds have truly taken over.
posted by swift at 7:48 AM on February 24

“In addition to privacy, it’s also going to change real-world advertising, where companies can virtually place ads over other people’s ads,” he said. “I’m really interested in seeing how the government can successfully regulate augmented reality in this sense. They are not really going to know what people are seeing behind those glasses.”

The future makes me sad. I'm going to need to be able to run Linux on these and some really nice ad blocking software.
posted by Stagger Lee at 7:49 AM on February 24 [3 favorites]

And then comes:

• MicroSoftContactLenses
• "Apple of My Eye" Laser iSurgery
• Amazon one-blink purchases
posted by Kabanos at 7:49 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]

The googles! They do NOTHING!
posted by rmd1023 at 7:49 AM on February 24 [4 favorites]

I hear PB is secretly working on some MeFi Glasses. Whenever you lay eyes on your partner, they'll remind you to DTMFA.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:50 AM on February 24 [8 favorites]

Somehow I don't think the human race would responsibly use the ability to pull up strangers' Facebook info via facial recognition.

Just think of all the ad revenue you could generate!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:50 AM on February 24

So I guess Rockstar will adapt this to allow you to shoot everything you see. Or possibly undress everyone.
posted by Liquidwolf at 7:52 AM on February 24

What a horrific idea. I'm all bummed out now.
posted by agregoli at 7:53 AM on February 24

Reality distortion field of vision..
posted by obscurator at 7:54 AM on February 24

I recall going to a VR presentation put on by The Robot Group way back in '89 or '90. It all seemed impossibly utopian at the time, and impossibly futuristic. I suppose commercialization was where I should have expected this sort of thing to go.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:56 AM on February 24

Beware. Augmented Reality can lead to killer ghosts.
posted by rikschell at 7:57 AM on February 24

If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party.

I'm feeling lucky?
posted by oulipian at 7:57 AM on February 24 [6 favorites]

On second thought, I'm not sure that the world is ready for my live reenactment of They Live.
posted by Stagger Lee at 7:57 AM on February 24

Can I buy just the hardware and install my own software? I'm not too interested in Google logging every single thing I see.
posted by DU at 7:59 AM on February 24 [8 favorites]

I'm really excited about this technology. When I was a the MIT Media Lab in the late 90s a few of the graduate students were wearing computer screens continually in their field of vision, the wearable computing group (notably Thad Starner and Brad Rhodes). Once you got past the awkward hardware it was incredibly useful, having Internet and notes and data all present all the time.

The closest thing in common experience is that moment when you're at dinner with friends and someone whips out their cell phone to check Wikipedia or TV Tropes or whatever. Only that's incredibly annoying, because the cell phone is intrusive and awkward and anti-social. A subtle UI for information access at all times will be incredibly useful and I'm hopeful hardware has improved enough to build a viable consumer product.
posted by Nelson at 7:59 AM on February 24 [4 favorites]

Several years ago, my middle school class visited a lab that was working on virtual reality goggles of some kind. They had this little maze for you to walk around in, just a few sheets of grey cubicle wall, basically. I walked in, saw it, nothing too amazing, then they put the headpiece on me and sent me back in. I saw a similarly-shaped space, only wider and paved with brick rather than grey felt. Then I turned a corner and saw a giant, gaping hole in the ground.

Obviously, I knew it was fake, and it didn't even look all that realistic- I mean this was like ten years ago, probably. But it was terrifying. TERRIFYING! I stood at the edge of that pit and looked in, and the guys running the goggles tried to get me to step into it, and even though I knew that absolutely nothing would happen, I absolutely refused.

Imagine what malicious and skilled people could do with these things. Make a virtual tiger jump out at you? I couldn't swear I wouldn't jump into traffic to avoid it. I'd like to THINK I wouldn't, that I'd be smarter than that, but instinct is a powerful thing. And what about the opposite of what I experienced- what if someone figured out how to make a surface full of holes look solid?
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:00 AM on February 24 [4 favorites]

Also, is it just me, or are these 'holy fuck it's the future' moments coming faster and faster in the past year or two?
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:01 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]

Here's a leaked photo of the Samsung Galaxy Goggles.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 8:03 AM on February 24 [12 favorites]

Watching people navigate through cities on their smart phones, other than increased convenience, for many (if not most) people, I'm not really sure how much different this would be than the reality we already have.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:04 AM on February 24

This will of course give hipsters an excuse to buy ever bigger ugly-ass shades.
posted by jonmc at 8:04 AM on February 24

Fuck everything about wearable tech.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:09 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]

look, just show me where my goo-filled pod is, i may as well jump in now
posted by facetious at 8:09 AM on February 24 [11 favorites]

This will of course give hipsters an excuse to buy ever bigger ugly-ass shades.

Pfft, if they need an excuse they're not trying hard enough. Or possibly trying too hard. Either way, really.
posted by griphus at 8:10 AM on February 24

Let me goggle that for you.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:12 AM on February 24 [3 favorites]

The sky above the port was the color of chrome, tuned to a dead AdWord.
posted by davebush at 8:14 AM on February 24 [20 favorites]

I am cautiously enthusiastic. For people who already wear glasses it will be a nice bonus to have AR built in. Also nobody will ever know that I am looking at pictures of cats.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:14 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]

> Let me goggle that for you.

Done.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:14 AM on February 24

Yes, there are pretty big privacy, marketing, etc. issues with this kind of tech, but AR glasses/contact lenses really make computing and the internet a seamless, fully-integrated part of reality.


That said, I'm still gonna jailbreak mine.
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 8:22 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

The cool thing is that Snow Crash predicted the future. The lame thing is that none of us are gonna be Hiro or YT; we're all just gonna be Lagos.
posted by NoraReed at 8:22 AM on February 24 [11 favorites]

Forget about Snow Crash. The first thing this makes me think of is car crash. Yeah, nevermind. Nobody would be stupid enough to wear these while driving. Right? Right?
posted by Splunge at 8:26 AM on February 24

Forget about Snow Crash. The first thing this makes me think of is car crash. Yeah, nevermind. Nobody would be stupid enough to wear these while driving. Right? Right?

Well let's see if there are any comparable examples. Using a cell phone while driving is four times as dangerous as driving drunk? I wouldn't have thought people would still be... Okay! Phew! It was outlawed in a bunch of states. Good thing people stopped -

...wait, they're still texting, except, looking at the phone while it's on their lap? So cops don't see?

Good god!

Idiots!
posted by entropone at 8:31 AM on February 24

Once you got past the awkward hardware it was incredibly useful, having Internet and notes and data all present all the time.

Having a smartphone handy to find nearby businesses, check their hours, get directions, look up useless trivia, etc. is definitely super handy but the idea of moving that kind of information and interaction to a display that's in front of your eyes pretty much every waking hour (and showing me ads based on my geo-location and whatever I'm looking at at any given moment) makes me a more than a little twitchy.

The faster we catch up to William Gibson & Neal Stephenson's near futures, the more convinced I am that I belong someplace like Dovetail in The Diamond Age.
posted by usonian at 8:31 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]

They have not seen the Google glasses. Few people have, because they are being built in the Google X offices, a secretive laboratory near Google's main Mountain View, Calif., campus where engineers and scientists are also working on robots and space elevators

Space elevators plural? Must be a big office.
posted by memebake at 8:31 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Also, is it just me, or are these 'holy fuck it's the future' moments coming faster and faster in the past year or two?

That's just the impending singularity. No need for concern.
posted by bonehead at 8:32 AM on February 24 [6 favorites]

I wonder what will happen with those of us who wear glasses just as a regular thing. I mean, I don't even do facebook, so I can't imagine that I'll be buying these, but will it just increase the pressure to get lasik? Probably.

In Samuel Delany's Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, which was published in the eighties, everyone had access to a sort of internet as a neural interface. But because he's Samuel Delany and it was the eighties, this was imagined as a sort of ad-free, socialist, universally available thing and thus convenient rather than horrible.

Admittedly, ads probably aren't too much less reliable than a lot of stuff on the internets, and there's the whole question of narrative anyway, but I still think I'm going to be moving to the woods and living in solitude until I get eaten by a bear or something.
posted by Frowner at 8:33 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

The dreaded Cyclops Gang, a cult that has each replaced their eyes with a techno-monocle called “The Third Eye” that lets them see sound.
posted by Akeem at 8:35 AM on February 24

showbiz_liz: "Imagine what malicious and skilled people could do with these things."

Fortunately, people have been imaginging how augmented reality might go wrong for a while now. You could invisibly kidnap a CEO under house arrest and interrogate him at gunpoint in front of the weather reporter, replacing your face with a cool animated logo.

Falling into holes, lured by a false landscape is briefly imagined in Fractale, although in Clain's case he doesn't have the option of easily turning off his implanted terminal and is kinda screwed.
posted by pwnguin at 8:40 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

As an entertainment device or as an enhancement to hallucinogenic drug trips or as a protocol for hypnotherapy this is a great great great idea.

As a computer interface device which expedites me getting my e-mail out and my metafilter comments in this is some drugged up shit.
posted by bukvich at 8:42 AM on February 24

In a more serious vein is the almost certain possibility of privacy issues... Google could hypothetically match the person’s face and tell people how many friends they share in common on social networks.

Really? That's the best you could come up with, for privacy issues?

This is a serious failure of imagination, Nick Bilton. But my glasses tell me that you're an INTP, so I guess we can't expect too much thinking outside the box, can we? Not with that kind of GPA, either. But man you're photogenic when someone breaks out a can of Reddi-Whip! And wherever did you and your editor get those great furry manacles?
posted by gurple at 8:44 AM on February 24

Oh, boy! Just what I need! The chance to be walking SEO bait!
posted by Spatch at 8:44 AM on February 24

MCMikeNamara: "Watching people navigate through cities on their smart phones, other than increased convenience, for many (if not most) people, I'm not really sure how much different this would be than the reality we already have."

You don't have to look down (and lose awareness/focus of your surroundings as much as you would by looking down).

That said, about 5 years ago I was all over this kind of shit. I had fantasized about scanning a page for a specific phrase, and having OCR overlay a highlighted region. How many times have you been like "Damn, I know it's here somewhere"... The computer would find it and point it - Real Life Text Search.

But 5 years ago was a different time and era, and now I find myself becoming more and more of a technology hater and distrust the corps that make this shit with each passing day. So I'll pass. By the time it came to a price I'd be willing to pay it would be way too late anyways...
posted by symbioid at 8:49 AM on February 24

Given my cat's propensity for lying on my chest when I use the laptop in bed, blocking my screen, I wouldn't mind having a glasses-projected monitor in that situation.
posted by jscalzi at 8:50 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]

YES. As we're ramping up computer power, it's becoming obvious that the interfaces we use are incredibly limiting. Sitting in front of screens, typing on keyboards at a fraction of the speed our brains work while our computers sit there waiting for our commands is stupidly wasteful.

Better output, more flexibly tied into our environment; awesome. Next, better input, that's not limited by something as archaic as typing speed (and I say this at over 100wpm).

A couple of tech-generations to work out the bugs, and I'm all over it.

Damn, I love the future.
posted by MrVisible at 8:53 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

"Once you got past the awkward hardware it was incredibly useful, having Internet and notes and data all present all the time."

"Jim, how's work been? Jim? Jim, are you ok? You guys I think something is wrong with Jim."

"Oh, sorry guys, I was just getting a little Metafilter reading in."
posted by Defenestrator at 8:56 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Miami University in Oxford, Ohio

I had to read that sentence three times to get a handle on it.

And of course: Put the glasses on!
posted by mediated self at 8:58 AM on February 24

My idea for a useful invention was a cell phone holder that works like one of those harmonica holders, so all the kids at UT could jam their phones up in their faces, while still having two hands free to carry books and flip me off while trundling out into traffic.

I'm hopelessly out of tune with the future.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:58 AM on February 24

"Having Internet and notes and data all present all the time."

Sounds like a nightmare, personally, and has scary implications for society. I know that sounds like fearmongering, but I'm afraid people will stop living in the real world completely.
posted by agregoli at 9:00 AM on February 24

There is so much interesting social technology coming from weird thinkers. Augmented reality fashion shows, physical gloves (PDF) that make computer "handshaking" more interactive, and British Professor of Cybernetics Kevin Warwick got physically wired in 2002. Amal Graafstra got two RDIF implants in 2005, for a more basic computer augmentation.

And then there's the domestic Robocop video from 2010. Google Goggles 3.0?
posted by filthy light thief at 9:00 AM on February 24

"People flailing their arms in midair as they play those games is a potentially humorous outcome of the virtual reality glasses."

Another humorous outcome will be all the other people watching videos of these flailing game players being tazed by confused cops.
posted by orme at 9:00 AM on February 24

"If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party."

Holy fuck, were going to be living in a world of "The Entire History of You" (Black Mirror)
posted by Blasdelb at 9:00 AM on February 24

(I botched the link to Amal's page. Here it is.)
posted by filthy light thief at 9:01 AM on February 24

My idea for a useful invention was a cell phone holder that works like one of those harmonica holders, so all the kids at UT could jam their phones up in their faces, while still having two hands free to carry books and flip me off while trundling out into traffic.

To be honest I've always thought that building a lot of the smartphone technology into watches would be a good idea (I know I'd be interested in something like this). You'd probably have to increase the size of the face, but I could easily see something like this becoming "fashionable" if done right.

I'm thinking goggles like this will be seen as nerdy until somebody figures out how to put the technology into Ray-Bans.
posted by Defenestrator at 9:03 AM on February 24

Its been obvious things were heading this way for a long time. I'm kinda surprised by the number of people in this thread that find this tech perturbing or worrysome. We've been on this path for a while - what did they expect to happen? And this is just a stepping stone to direct neural links.
posted by memebake at 9:05 AM on February 24

Imagine augmented reality glasses that project pleasant images of landscape and kittens over all billboards and advertising posters.

Steve Mann did this with EyeTap a decade or so ago. I remember a demo video in which all ads were replaced with video of waterfalls.
posted by phrontist at 9:05 AM on February 24

> To be honest I've always thought that building a lot of the smartphone technology into watches would be a good idea

There's a Motorola version on the market now. It doesn't have provision for a SIM, but someone has already hacked it for full Android. Kind of small, though.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:07 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Having Internet and notes and data all present all the time

Also, it's going to be pretty sweet when your boss expects you to be on call every waking moment...just "for emergencies", of course, but it will be like checking your email when you're out sick - you'd better treat everything as an emergency or you're not a team player.
posted by Frowner at 9:07 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

The head-gesture thing has got to be a stepping stone. An interface that requires you to make socially awkward head movements won't last long. Seems like the next step is a subtle keyboard built into a partial glove or a trinket you keep in your pocket or something, wirelessly connected to the glasses.
posted by gurple at 9:11 AM on February 24

Good thing these things are going to be optional. Right?
posted by jabberjaw at 9:15 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]

To be honest I've always thought that building a lot of the smartphone technology into watches would be a good idea (I know I'd be interested in something like this). You'd probably have to increase the size of the face, but I could easily see something like this becoming "fashionable" if done right.

I know it's made by Apple, but people are modding iPod Nanos to do this (example).
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:19 AM on February 24

Seems like the next step is a subtle keyboard built into a partial glove or a trinket you keep in your pocket or something, wirelessly connected to the glasses.

They should just get one of those Subvocal Communication/Handwavey Bullshit thingies from the new Deus Ex game.
posted by Copronymus at 9:22 AM on February 24

Thinking about this more, it is high time to CafePress up a bunch of Tshirts with QR codes that make Goatse.cx autoload.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 9:53 AM on February 24 [5 favorites]

I like how the lede in the article is "Early adopters sure do look ridiculous, huh?"

I mean, they do. At least until everyone else catches up. But count on the NYT to skip over "this could be amazing" and "this could be dystopianly awful" and go straight to "this could cause mild social awkwardness if you live in a wealthy, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood."

Fuck you, spellcheck. "Dystopianly" is too a word.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:59 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

I like how the lede in the article is "Early adopters sure do look ridiculous, huh?"

I am curious that this article avoids a common theme of early tech adoption/innovation, which is "how do you use this new device to consume pornography"?

Because, you know, that's what Google Goggles are gonna be really good for.
posted by chavenet at 10:09 AM on February 24

>And this is just a stepping stone to direct neural links.

Socio-political tension over wealth stratification will seem trivial next to the socio-political tension generated by cognitive enhancement; rage against the Big Boss and Big Brother won't hold a candle to resentment against Artificial Big Brain.
posted by darth_tedious at 10:12 AM on February 24

If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party.


I had some snazzy 3D goggles in the 90s, but found that nobody would invite me to parties.
posted by Stagger Lee at 10:13 AM on February 24

sure, why not combine this with some kind of stylographic analysis of the way your head moves and which colors grab your attention or some fucking thing so they can literally assemble the ads as you watch without the intervention of human creators

i mean why beat around the bush, just straight up leap into the flaming maw of hell
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 10:19 AM on February 24 [3 favorites]

Google monocles. retro.
posted by bleary at 10:19 AM on February 24

The futures so bright, I gotta wear shades.

Seriously, I've been waiting for this tech for years. Ever since that ibm add with the guy and the "wearable computer" vaporware that was supposed to be just around the corner. Finally, finally it is happening.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 10:31 AM on February 24

Is it going to lag at least 3 versions behind the latest version of Android, like every new Android device that gets released to the public?
posted by emelenjr at 10:38 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Oh crap, this is the future. I was promised that in the future there would be time machines! Which I really want now, so I can run away from the future.
posted by madcaptenor at 10:41 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]

I am curious that this article avoids a common theme of early tech adoption/innovation, which is "how do you use this new device to consume pornography"?

Waiting in line at the DMV just got a lot more interesting, at the very least.
posted by naju at 10:59 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

They're a cool first step to an AR enhanced world and if they take off I'll likely try them in a generation or three. I'm guessing eventually they'll become a peripheral for smartphones rather than a stand alone device. It strikes me that packing all that processing power into a pair of glasses adds extra, unnecessary weight to something perched on the bridge of the nose. Most users of toys like these are already carrying a relatively powerful little computer around in their pockets that could drive the whole experience. Does bluetooth have the bandwidth to drive the graphics on AR goggles?
posted by Lighthammer at 11:07 AM on February 24

If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party.

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posted by Winnemac at 12:13 PM on February 24 [8 favorites]

That said, about 5 years ago I was all over this kind of shit. I had fantasized about scanning a page for a specific phrase, and having OCR overlay a highlighted region. How many times have you been like "Damn, I know it's here somewhere"... The computer would find it and point it - Real Life Text Search.

Man I'll know I'm in the future when I can GREP a dead tree.
posted by Mitheral at 12:17 PM on February 24 [2 favorites]

I have been wanting something like this for a long time. However, for it to work like I'd really like it to, it will have to have a very high resolution camera, very high speed internet, and a great microphone array and fan-freaking-tastic conversation recognition so it can tag things based on what it hears you/others talking about.
posted by wierdo at 12:43 PM on February 24

MSPaint-assisted interface mockup.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 12:52 PM on February 24 [4 favorites]

Buy it. Root it. Hack it.

Cyanogen.

If I had these... I would always be ~]# █
posted by PROD_TPSL at 1:58 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]

You don't have to look down (and lose awareness/focus of your surroundings as much as you would by looking down).

But you would have to lose focus to see information on display glasses. I don't just mean metaphorically, I mean literally you have to lose focus on distant objects in order to refocus your eyeballs on closer ones. Worse, you almost certainly can't focus on objects at a distance as close to your eyes as glasses are. Hold your finger an inch away from your eyeball; can you make out your fingerprint?
posted by roystgnr at 2:08 PM on February 24

"THIS IS YOUR GOD" "OBEY" "CONSUME" "NO INDEPENDENT THOUGHT" (etc.)

"We got one that can SEE!"

(I suppose ads for bubblegum are right out.)
posted by Philofacts at 2:55 PM on February 24

Worse, you almost certainly can't focus on objects at a distance as close to your eyes as glasses are. Hold your finger an inch away from your eyeball; can you make out your fingerprint?

I've been wondering about this. Don't similar heads-ups already exist? If so, does anyone know how they get around this problem? Is it a matter of sending the display over a lens that projects the pixels directly onto your retina, or somesuch?
posted by lostburner at 4:14 PM on February 24

Worse, you almost certainly can't focus on objects at a distance as close to your eyes as glasses are.

Ah, but what if the image on the glasses is exactly the right kind of blurred so that it appears focused when your eyes are relaxed? Granted, this will require som additional processing of the images, and a seriously high resolution screen, but nothing that the technomages at Google X can't solve.
posted by Spiegel at 4:16 PM on February 24

Thinking about this more, it is high time to CafePress up a bunch of Tshirts with QR codes that make Goatse.cx autoload.

Now that you've said that, I am seriously tempted to make stickers of varying sizes with QR codes that route to goatse.cx and redecorate some posters.

Were I more evil, it would be really easy to do the same to, say, an advertisement for Bank of America...
posted by JDHarper at 4:22 PM on February 24 [2 favorites]

I'm not entirely clear how the hell the video display works. They say it works by projecting an image into your field of vision using wave guides or something. There are already versions of this technology on the market. Check out vuzix and lumus.

Even if google gets the first pass at this there will be other companies interested in this space. Gabe Newell recently said he might be interested in tacking wearable computers as well.

I have been waiting for this for 15 years, ever since I got on the old wearable mailing list. I think it is going to be great.
posted by Ad hominem at 4:36 PM on February 24

Next up: google beer goggles.
posted by klausness at 4:39 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Glasses like these are the subject of the rather good anime series Dennou Coil[tvtropes].
posted by LogicalDash at 5:37 PM on February 24

I'm not entirely clear how the hell the video display works. They say it works by projecting an image into your field of vision using wave guides or something. There are already versions of this technology on the market. Check out vuzix and lumus.

See, those look dumb. Smart phones took off not only because of the handiness of them but also because smart phones began to look cool. These will not be "the future" in the sense that everyone has a pair until they make them fashionable looking somehow.

But of course, before there was an iPhone there was the Newton.
posted by Defenestrator at 5:45 PM on February 24

It'll be a while, if ever*, before we get to this. (YouTube available only in US or via VPN server based there.) IMDB.

(*Since brains and computers are not in the same category, despite certain AI misconceptions.)
posted by Philofacts at 7:27 PM on February 24

But you would have to lose focus to see information on display glasses. I don't just mean metaphorically, I mean literally you have to lose focus on distant objects in order to refocus your eyeballs on closer ones.

Stuff on the glasses is typically projected such that it's in focus when your eye is focusing at infinity. Face-mounted displays like this have been around for decades.
posted by hattifattener at 9:26 PM on February 24

I'm prone to migraines. No way will I wear these until other migraine-sufferers wear them and promise me they don't induce migraines.
posted by IndigoRain at 2:09 PM on February 25

Gibson has said something along the lines of his biggest miscalculation in Neuromancer being (in addition to a lack of mobile phones) that cyberspace is something that you dive in to, when increasingly it's becoming something that you're always in. If you have a small mobile Internet device that's always pushing and pulling information about you/to you, then do you ever really disconnect from the Internet? Your smart phone is a way to get information from the outside world, but it's also the metadata aggregator that collects and sends your information to others (others being gigantic databases of advertising statistics). Do we really want to add a device to that which is based around an always-on camera? The extremetech article about this makes a good point: how do you opt out of being recorded by the person who incidentally looks at your face as you pass on the street? I used to be pretty excited about augmented reality, and the extrusion of cyberspace onto the real, but lately I'm not so sure.
posted by codacorolla at 11:05 AM on March 2 [1 favorite]

(*Since brains and computers are not in the same category, despite certain AI misconceptions.)

Categories are arbitrarily defined by people for their own purposes. So you're quite correct, but the misconceptions aren't relevant to that, and you aren't saying anything about the qualities or capabilities of computers or brains.
posted by LogicalDash at 10:04 AM on March 7