What’s 5×8 inches, a little over two pounds, and can charge your iPhone while also cooking your bacon? The BioLite CampStove, of course.
For just $129 you can purchase this first-world camping accessory that lets you stay connected to the modern world while also allowing you to stay green.
“Using BioLite’s patent-pending thermoelectric technology, BioLite Stoves convert heat to electricity that powers a fan to make the fire ultra-efficient. Extra electricity can be used to charge small electronics like mobile phones and LED lights,” says the company.
According to BioLite, the CampStove needs about 1.6oz of wood to boil one liter of water – and that will take about 4.5 minutes depending on the fire’s intensity. For an iPhone 4S, the device can provide an hour of talk time in 20 minutes of charging.
Camping +1.
Apparently, camping isn’t the only scenario where this gadget could come in handy.
“The CampStove isn’t just for camping; it’s great to have on hand when the power goes out in a storm or other natural disasters. You’ll be able to cook and keep electronics charged while power lines are down,” says BioLite.
With Hurricane Sandy serving as a reminder that Mother Nature is one undiscriminating, unforgiving mama, it never hurts to have more options out there for alternative power.
As smartphones become even more ubiquitous in our society, it’s becoming more likely that you’ll be walking down the street with your mobile device in your hand, rather than your keys. With this in mind, one company has decided to move personal protection from your keyring to your iPhone.
Pepper spray. Yes, that satanic blast of habanero pepper that will set anyone’s mucus membranes on fire is now available on your Apple device. Spraytect has developed the Pepper Spray Phone Case so you can fend off your assaulter without dropping that important call or botching a tweet.
The Spraytect case comes in black, white, turquoise, and pink, and will fit the iPhone 4 and 4S (more phones currently being worked on, according to the company). It employs a 3-step firing process which they say is “simple to use even in the most stressful situations,” but also includes safety mechanisms to avoid accidental deployment.
This spicy mobile protection will run you $39.95. Your order will include one real canister and test cartridges, so you can practice not shooting yourself in the face with it.
Researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a flexible battery, which is capturing some media attention, and could be used to make electronic devices more bendable.
The important thing to note is that when the battery is bent, it does not interfere with the flow of electricity.
High-performance flexible power sources have gained attention, as they enable the realization of next-generation bendable, implantable, and wearable electronic systems. Although the rechargeable lithium-ion battery (LIB) has been regarded as a strong candidate for a high-performance flexible energy source, compliant electrodes for bendable LIBs are restricted to only a few materials, and their performance has not been sufficient for them to be applied to flexible consumer electronics including rollable displays. In this paper, we present a flexible thin-film LIB developed using the universal transfer approach, which enables the realization of diverse flexible LIBs regardless of electrode chemistry. Moreover, it can form high-temperature (HT) annealed electrodes on polymer substrates for high-performance LIBs. The bendable LIB is then integrated with a flexible light-emitting diode (LED), which makes an all-in-one flexible electronic system. The outstanding battery performance is explored and well supported by finite element analysis (FEA) simulation.
While there are certainly already flexible electronics already in existence, such a battery could remove some of the restrictions of even these, enabling more actual area of the devices to be flexible.
Skype and Logitech have revealed the new Logitech TV Cam HD, providing a new product to make it easier for people to have HD Skype video calls from the living room.
“Skype’s own research indicates that 40% of video calls are already taking place in the living room and that most video calls are made to connect with close friends and family, the new Logitech TV Cam HD gives you yet another option to bring Skype into your living rooms,” says Skype’s Bob Rosin.
“We wanted to make video calling as convenient as possible for the entire family,” he adds.
The Logitech TV Cam HD brings Skype to any HDTV with an HDMI input. With Skype on your TV screen, conversations are now even more convenient, relaxed and simple, and everyone in the family can easily join in on the fun – right from the comfort of the couch.”
Have a look:
The device comes with wide-angle HD video, so you can fit everyone in the room onto the screen easily, HD 720p, Logitech Fluid Crystal technology and Carl Zeiss optics. Skype says this makes for “sharp video and rich colors – even in low light – and clear sound in real-world conditions.”
There’s built-in Skype and Wi-Fi connectivity, of course. There’s no software to install. You can receive Skype with the TV off, as the camera has a built-in ringer and LED to let you know when someone’s calling.
It’s also helpful to know that the device can store up to 20 Skype accounts.
It will run you about $200, and will be available this month in the U.S. (September for Europe).
Japan’s Suidobashi Heavy Industry has created this monster. It’s a 13-foot tall robot that shoots water bottles like rockets, comes with twin BB-shooting gatling guns, runs on gasoline and a diesel engine, and can be controlled with a phone or facial expressions.
Yep.
The company warns, “‘Kuratas’ is an art piece. It is not a normal vehicle, so it doesn’t guarantee you safety and comfort. However, it makes your dream of becoming a robot pilot comes true.” (sic)
Check out this demo:
Kuratas runs on a next generation robot operating system called V-Sido, according to the video. You can operate the robot with a phone via 3G if you pay the $1.3 million it will cost you.
It goes about 10 kilometers per hour, and can be driven in low and high positions.
Yellow Jacket has created an iPhone case that doubles as a stun gun. According to a promo video for the product, you may use this to avoid: robbery, assault, rape and murder.
Sounds like a solid idea.
“Here at Yellow Jacket, we know from first-hand experience what is needed in a violent situation to escape danger,” the company says on its site. “We have designed our iPhone 4 stun gun case to be easily deployable with one hand. In less than two seconds, both safety mechanisms can be deactivated and the Yellow Jacket stun gun is ready for action. Compare this to a regular stun gun which can take five to ten seconds to find and deploy.”
“Our iPhone stun gun case is capable of stopping an aggressive attacker,” Yellow Jacket says. “The 650K volt of electricity flows from the electrodes and into the assailant upon contact providing a potential victim with the opportunity to escape danger. Unlike other phone cases, the Yellow Jacket iPhone 4 case gives you the ability to defend yourself.”
“The effects of Yellow Jacket are loud, painful and disorienting,” says co-founder Seth Froom. “We developed the Yellow Jacket to be able to take down a fully grown, aggressive, adult male.”
For now, it’s just available for the iPhone 4 and 4S, but Android versions are on the way.
If you’ve been feverishly toiling at that blog you really hope to option off for a movie deal in the near future, Blogger has introduced three new tools to help you catch the ears and eyes of a larger audience. After all, your blog might be better suited for a Korean period piece film instead of a mid-summer Hollywood blockbuster/romcom starring Sylvester Stallone.
The first and perhaps most useful of the new tools is a Google Translate gadget you can affix to your blog. You likely compose your blog in one language or, if you’re a polyglot, maybe you dabble around in multi-lingual posts to add an air of mystery to your fine words. At any rate, there’s always a chance that someone may not read the language you wrote your post in, but fret no longer. Now they won’t have to miss out on your dizzying command of your language because if you add the Google Translate gadget to your page, your blog can be automatically translated into any of over 50 languages that Translate supports.
Then again, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where someone who doesn’t speak your language would not only come across your blog but also have the overwhelming desire to read it since, due to the language barrier, that visitor presumably has no idea what you’re blogging about.
Moving along, the second and third new gadgets that are now available on Blogger are pretty similar to the Blog List, which keeps track of the other blogs that you enjoy and recommend – I believe the nomenclature for such a list is “blog roll.” The first of the two, Link List, is described as such: “Add a collection of your favorite sites, blogs, or web pages.” Given you already have a feature to keep track of and promote blogs and other sites with Blog List, this one feels slightly redundant. However, maybe you have a high demand for organization and want to keep your blog roll separate from lists with non-blog sites, like the Washington Post or the BBC.
With the final addition to the Blogger inventory of tools, List allows you to simply type up some things (…) about what you like, such as your favorite books or foods or, really, anything you want. It’s just a text list, so you can do whatever you want with it. Throw a recipe in there. List your favorite parts of the periodic table. Recount the first names of all your exes. Do you see the extraordinary possibilities contained with this one? Given that this is kind of what you’ve already been doing on your blog, this seems a little redundant, too, but maybe you can use it as a quick reference list for your readers, especially now that you’re going to be building up your international audience.
Google got a lot of people thinking when it unveiled Project Glass and its promo video showing how Google glasses of the future could work. It was cool. Plain and simple.
Of course as they often aren’t, things aren’t really that simple. It was a concept video, and few truly know what Google’s glasses in their current state can really do, or even how close Google really is to the currently fictional reality portrayed in the video. Experts in the field of augmented reality have expressed a fair amount of doubt, though there is still plenty of excitement coming from them as well.
AR technology concept broker/analyst Marianne Lindsell tells WebProNews, “Like the ‘Stark HUD’ concept (produced as far I can see as a sort of teaser for the Iron Man II film) I do suspect that the Google Project Glass video has a strong ‘Hollywood’ element.”
“I would guess that Google are both testing the market and managing expectation,” she says. “However also like Stark HUD, there has clearly been some use of technology in the production – and in the case of Project Glass, the tech/Hollywood ratio is I suspect much higher, if less than 100%.”
“The least realistic parts of the Google Glass video clip in my opinion are the field of view (a large FOV is needed – but can such a small device provide it?), the brightness (possibly – but there are some good techs out there), instant responsiveness, and to some extent the (presumption of?) excellent registration (which many AR concepts depend on, but Google have cleverly side-stepped in the clip by largely avoiding such concepts).”
“Focusing at an appropriate distance is possible (I have seen it), – but not in such a tiny piece of hardware (yet!),” she adds. “Even good registration is possible in some situations, – but any specs will be at the mercy of smartphone-like inertial and magnetic sensors (compasses are notorious), unless it can take its cues from the surroundings by image recognition and analysis (which some techs already do surprisingly well).”
Some Things To Consider
Lindsell highlighted some very interesting points about the Google Glasses in a comment she left on another WebProNews article. I’ll repost that comment here:
The glasses -concept- is definitely possible (as is the head tracking). I have seen a number of products that convince me of that – but the sleek designer package probably isn’t (yet).
There are usability thresholds in many areas that such a product will need to meet to be truly useful:
1) Field of View – the Google Glass product seems way to small to provide a useable FOV (no-one is yet aiming high enough here)
2) Brightness – a huge dynamic range is needed, – think about readibility on a sunny day – and brightness takes power
3) Exit pupil – an optical engineering parameter that needs to rate highly or the slightest jiggle of the glasses on your face will rob you of the display
4) Focus – optics will be needed to focus the display at a useable distance
5) Transparency – too opaque and the readouts block out your view (mind that lamp post!) – too transparent and you can’t make out what the marker is saying
6) Zonation and format – you probably -never- want any readouts to appear within your central view area – designing them to appear in the optimum place on the periphery is vital. No large windows please! – prefer conformal indications and markers.
7) Probably more important than all of the above will be the off/standby switch – the default position should be standby – with a quick and easy way to switch ‘on’ while required
Responsiveness and Registration – such a device will be -very- sensitive to delays. A note for OS suppliers!
9) Driving – special case – needs an even more safety-oriented (and accredited) design – but by no means impossible – think HUDs in fast jets
When someone, let’s assume Google for now, first clears all of the above hurdles, then we may have a useable product, although you may not be as keen on it when you see how big the packaging is.
I’m not quick to believe that Google’s sleek, small package is possible. Even then, I am assuming that the device will need to be connected to your smartphone.
Of course it’s always possible that the Google device uses a laser to project the display using one of the eyepieces. That -might- allow a smaller packaging.
The concept of course remains valid, and the gauntlet is well and truly thrown down to all major players, to overcome the challenges.
As for all the different things such a product would be useful for, – I submit that we have only scratched the surface of AR as a whole.
Who would have imagined the WWW when first connecting two computers together (with due credit to Mr Berners-Lee).
AR is a whole new way of teaming technology with people. For that, the technology needs to be -really- people-friendly!
“Many of these parameters will have a threshold level the tech must achieve in order to be useable and acceptable to the consumer market,” Lindsell told us in an email. “ I am not about to nail my colours to the mast on exactly where to call these levels, but suffice to say that whilst many products out there have some way to go, some of them are, as far as I can see, showing signs that they may get there. This is why I think there may be some real tech behind the Google Glass Project. What we don’t know of course is how far along Google are yet. I think the clue is that it is far enough for them to test the market and attempt to manage expectation.”
“Probably not,” she says. “Of course there are a few universities (and even Microsoft) actively researching electronic display contact lenses, but it is still early days yet. There are significant hurdles in terms of how to power them, and even greater ones in terms of how to focus the image at a suitable distance.”
“Producing a picture matrix with sufficient resolution, over a sufficiently wide FOV is also a major challenge, and although I can’t speak for ‘hidden’ projects, I am not aware that we are even within sight of the right ball park yet (apologies for mixed metaphors),” she continues. “But then there again – electronic focus is possible (I have seen it) – though not in a miniature package. Contact lenses –may- seem like they would help with the FOV and form factor problems, but in reality I think they would have to solve those problems, in miniature, first. I think the jury is out on when contact lenses may be able to deliver AR (though I’m thinking 10 years+), although I might predict that in the interim electronic (non-AR) contact lenses may find use as a health sensor.”
We may not know how much of what has been presented in Project Glass is really feasible at this point, but Google’s promo video has clearly generated a lot of enthusiasm. We asked Lindsell if she expects a lot of excitement and involvement from developers as a result.
“I think this is where Google have really scored,” she says. “People sit up and listen when Google speak. It is my firm hope that they will be able to market an attractive product before this interest dies down. And here’s the rub – truly useable AR specs will require –a lot- of engineering, and this needs funding, which means market interest. There’s a chicken and egg situation here – the market is only interested in what is realistically possible (hence your own interest I suspect), – but even organisations with the ability to fund development need to prove there is a strong demand to release those funds, as well as a sense that the end product is truly feasible.”
“There may be some hope,” she adds. “ I have seen demonstrations of many existing AR specs technologies first hand (including Vuzix, Laster, Trivisio, BAe Systems and a few others) and although I have yet to see a single system meet what I might call a people-friendly acceptability factor, I have seen the current state of development of some of the component technologies.”
“This why I think that AR specs will be possible,” she says. “What I am far less sure about, is the final form factor – but even here let’s not rush to judgement, as prototype devices are certain to be clunky and unpalatable, whereas there has been significant R&D and the final package may be acceptable (even if not quite as tiny as Project Glass). How far Google have really got with this, is anyone’s guess, but if they don’t have something up their sleeve, it would have been very brave of them to put about the Project Glass video clip, with such a tiny device – especially for Sergey Brin to be seen wearing them so openly.”
“If there is a secret here my guess would be laser projection (not onto the retina – which would require eye tracking, but creating a virtual image using the eyepiece lens) or possibly a cunning use of novel LED tech (there continues to be much R&D here – think blue LEDs and Shuji Nakamura – there was a wonderful Sci Am article about it a couple of years back),” she says. “By the way – that was the one big elephant in the room I forgot to mention in my earlier list – style. Obviously crucial to the market, and for that reason I would take the Oakley announcement very seriously, although I suspect they would do much better to team up.”
“So yes, I think Google have created a lot of interest – and I just hope they can maintain it long enough to release product,” says Lindsell. “Does Apple have something in the works? My guess would be yes – but it would be ultra hush hush, and I doubt if they will declare it until they are ready, in spite of Google’s announcement. Will they be working harder now in the background, – very probably yes.”
It may be Google that has generated this wave of excitement related to the possibilities of augmented reality, but there are plenty of others working in the space, and it’s entirely possible that we’ll see even more interesting products coming from elsewhere.
“I see many AR technologies emerging,” Lindsell tells us. “From location-based to marker-based services, image recognition and interpretation, object tracking (now in 3D – see metaio), facial recognition (not just face tracking), zoning, fencing, pre and post-visualisation/transformation, on-the-spot translation, sophisticated auditory cues and environments, use of haptics (early days here – much potential), sensory substitution, crowd sourcing in near real time, and even the use of VR in registration with sensor media to provide context. And there are so many ideas that people have yet to have – so much potential in AR yet to be realised. But there are key enabler technologies required first.”
“One of these is the AR specs,” she continues. “I think we are barely scratching the surface of how we might use AR. I really think that AR is the business end of a generational process of taking IT out of the office and conforming it to the user as ‘wearable tech’ that is constantly available to the user.”
“Think of everything that IT enables us to do now,” Lindsell concludes. “Computing was originally seen as wartime code-breaker technology. The cold war space race then helped it come of age (think chicken and egg again) because we needed help with the complexities of pre-launch checks for the hugely complex moon-rockets. Ever since there has been a march towards ? (no-one knows quite what!). All we know is that is that we use IT as an extension of ourselves – almost like add-on modules to help our brains (and occasionally other parts of us). So the real question is one of human and cultural evolution, what would we like some help with, and how can we increase our reach to get it?”
A couple weeks ago, Google captured the imaginations of many with a slick promo video for Project Glass, a futuristic pair of Google glasses that put the capabilities of a smartphone directly into your field of vision. Though Google has been very clear about the video being more concept than reality, in terms of what the glasses can actually do at this stage, the glasses are real. Even Google co-founder Sergey Brin has been wearing them out.
The glasses have been both mocked and praised a great deal since the video was released. There have been numerous parody videos made, but also some more concerning skepticism from augmented reality experts.
We wanted to get some more takes from experts in the field about just how realistic Project Glass, as we’ve seen it presented, really is. We intend to talk to others, but we started with Ogmento President and co-founder Brian Selzer. We talked to him last year about how augmented reality + location = “the holy grail for marketers”. Ogmento itself is an augmented reality gaming company trying to change the way consumers interact with their smartpnones. When we last talked to Selzer, Ogmento had released an iPhone game centered around Paranormal Activity.
First off, we might as well include Google’s original video, in the off chance you haven’t seen it by now. If you’ve seen it, continue on.
“The Project Glass video highlights the use of a HUD eyewear system to showcase data that can be acquired utilizing today’s smartphone technologies (GPS, speech recognition, etc),” he says. “From that standpoint, the technology and information displayed on the screen is certainly possible in a short period of time. The quality and performance of the HUD user experience itself is another matter though, and certainly worthy of a bit of skepticism. It’s coming though.”
“I was not very impressed with the UI/UX design in the Project Glass video,” he adds. “There is a fine line between useful and dangerous, or appealing and annoying. Sometimes less is more.”
The following videos show some potential dangers and annoyances:
“The navigational example worked pretty well, but some of the other examples fell a bit short in answering the question of ‘why’, and will leave a lot of people scratching their heads,” says Selzer.
“Once we start to bring true computer vision into the mix, and the display screen serves up data related more to the people, places and things around us (not just gps), it will become much more interesting, relevant, and perhaps a bit more clear why HUD technology can be so exciting at the mass-market level,” he says.
We recently looked at a presentation given earlier this year by one of the Google Glass engineers. He talked about the possibilities of contact lenses, which could basically act in similar ways to the glasses:
In his presentation, he shared a slide highlighting some key areas that could be impacted: gaming, virtual reality, augmented reality, interfacing with mobile, super vision, night vision, multi-focal electronic contact lenses, and “…” which would represent an infinite number of possibilities I presume.
Speaking of Google contact lenses, we asked Selzer if this would make things more plausible.
“Companies are definitely looking at contact lenses as a solution to help solve issues such as simultaneous focus,” he tells us. “I’m doubtful this is the best solution for mass-market consumption though. I can see this approach being adopted by the military, and perhaps a small group of hardcore gamers, super gadget geeks, etc…”
Personally, I can’t stand having things in my eye, so I tend to agree with the skepticism about mainstream appeal, although, admittedly, the cool factor (if truly cool) could get some of us to reconsider.
I think it’s clear that Google’s Project Glass promo has ignited some major interest in augmented reality technology. We asked Selzer if he expects a lot more developers to get involved with the technology because of the glasses.
“Google was early to step into the AR ring with their Google Goggles computer vision technology,” says Selzer. Google Goggles, if you’re unfamiliar, is a technology that lets users take pictures of things with their phones and get search results based on the image.
“Now with Project Glass it seems they are confirming their commitment to the AR space,” Selzer adds. “They are in a great position to pioneer here, so the fact that Google is now showcasing HUD technology is exciting.”
Some are speculating that Google could show off the glasses at Google I/O, the company’s annual developers conference, which takes place in June. If that turns out to be the case, it should at least get a lot of developers thinking about the possibilities, even if APIs aren’t released to help fuel the creativity.
“Today’s AR is typically a short-burst experience due to having to hold your mobile device up in front of your eyes,” he says. “Optimal or prolonged AR simply begs to be experienced with glasses. Once we have a wearable hands-free solution that works well, the AR industry will see even more growth. For developers looking to stay ahead of the pack, AR is truly an exciting space right now. It’s still very early, and we’re just getting started.”
Even as that may be the case, we’re already seeing some pretty interesting implementations of AR:
“When it comes to augmented reality advancements, both hardware and software continue to evolve at a decent pace,” Selzer says. “Mobile devices, cameras, sensors, display screens.. all continue to advance towards an AR-enabled world.”
“Many companies are investing in the space,” he adds. “Microsoft’s Kinect utilizes a 3D depth-sensing camera that allows for a very rich understanding of the environment. One can imagine some exciting scenarios when this camera technology is brought to mobile devices… we will be able to ‘see’ the world in a whole new way.”
As a matter of fact, we recently looked at a concept video from Microsoft in which they show some pretty interesting ideas, using Kinect.
“Sony’s SmartAR technology shows great promise for large-space AR experiences,” he says. “Qualcomm is leading the way for mobile developers to get their hands on some great computer vision software and start to experiment. Apple has some interesting patents in the space, and it’s only a matter of time before they wow us. Overall, there continues to be exciting advancements in AR as more and more large companies and professionals focus in this space.”
“We will run to stay fit by collecting Pac-Man pellets along the actual road, or by racing to avoid a pack of zombies,” he says.
Sounds a lot better than Wii fit:
“We will look at the landscape around us and understand its history and significance instantly,” says Selzer.
Google would have a major edge up in that department with things like Google Earth, Google Maps, Street View, Sketchup, etc. APIs, would be the key though. With developers turned loose on this stuff, I wonder how many people would spend more time in alternate realities than in the reality we currently reside in.
“We will never forget the name of that person in our social network again when we run into them at a party,” he says. “The Google glasses video just scratches the surface of such potential. We’re just getting started here.”
“Today, we love our smartphone devices — so much so, we bump into each other because we are glued to the screens and forget to look where we’re going,” Selzer adds. “Tomorrow we will love our wearable devices — seamlessly integrated, allowing us to look up and still remain connected.”
Hopefully it goes better than some of the Project Glass parodies we looked at above.
“The coolest gadgets will be the ones that are invisible, or a part of our everyday attire,” Selzer concludes. “Just a natural part of us as we go about our lives.”
Google certainly isn’t the only one working on wearable technology, by any means. Look at what Oakley’s doing. There are rumors that Apple and Valve may be working together on something. Expect to see more of this kind of stuff emerging in the near future. Next year’s Consumer Electronics Show should be an interesting one.
What do you think about the Google Glasses? Augmented reality in general? Let us know in the comments.
For someone who is genuinely awful at all sorts of mathematics and calculations, the intellectually-stimulating QAMA calculator is a little intimidating. When I sit down with one of these devices, I need answers, and I need them now. Unfortunately for those hoping for an easy ride, this particular calculator only coughs up the answer when you’ve presented it with a reasonable estimate. If you’re close, then it’ll reveal its secret. If not, well, it’s back to the proverbial drawing board. That’s what we get for not studying, right?
The logic behind the calculator makes perfect sense. Instead of allowing students and the mathematically challenged to simply punch in number and reap the rewards, it forces you to use your brain. A foreign concept, I know. But it encourages people to actually learn about the equations they’re attempting to calculate, as opposed to simply allowing the tiny machine to do all of the hard work for you. Teachers will rejoice, students will weep.
How do you obtain one of these “revolutionary” calculators? Swing by the official website. Unfortunately, as of this writing, the site doesn’t seem to have any sort of ordering information available. If you’re curious to see the device in action, take a look at the video below.
The Project Glass parody videos are just not stopping. Luckily, I’ve been able to gain some bit of amusement out of each one so far, so I guess it hasn’t jumped the shark quite yet, though I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.
While not quite to the extent of the last one, this one is a free with the language as well. It does end with the user unzipping his pants as he gets ready for a ChatRoulette session. Nothing too graphic though.
This one’s also funny because the glasses often misinterpret the user’s commands, which voice search users can certainly identify with.
I’m a bit surprised there isn’t an Apple-based parody on this list yet, though again, I’m sure that’s only a matter of time as well. Which parody is your favorite?
The Project Glass parody videos continue to make their way to YouTube. This is the first one I’ve seen, which could be rated R for language, which is used to bring yet another take on the humor, setting it apart from the rest.
It’s really more a parody of the video rather than of the technology.
We know the glasses exist. Co-founder Sergey Brin was photographed wearing them at a dinner party. But the possibility of them existing the way they do in Google’s video may be a different story.
For the record, Google has not really presented the whole thing as much more than a concept at this point. The video itself has “One Day…” in the title.
The Verge spoke with Brin after the party, and according to the report, Brin said they’re very much in the early prototype stage, that “right now you really just see it reboot,” and to “give us time”.
It seems at the very least, they’re nowhere near what the video depicts at this time.
Wired has a very interesting report, talking to some Augmented Reality experts, however, who cast some doubt about whether it’s even possible for Google to emulate what actually takes place in the video. Roberto Baldwin reports:
However, according to Pranav Mistry, an MIT Media Lab researcher and one of the inventors of the SixthSense wearable computing system, “The small screen seen in the photos cannot give the experience the video is showing.”
Blair MacIntyre, director of the Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech, concurs: “You could not do AR with a display like this. The small field of view, and placement off to the side, would result in an experience where the content is rarely on the display and hard to discover and interact with. But it’s a fine size and structure for a small head-up display.”
Mistry does point out that the Project Glass demo is a concept video. But MacIntyre believes Google may have set the bar too high for itself. “In one simple fake video,” MacIntyre told Wired, “Google has created a level of over-hype and over-expectation that their hardware cannot possibly live up to.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Google created hype that it didn’t live up to. That’s for sure (Buzz and Wave come immediately to mind), though on the other hand, they are responsible for this.
Being a prototype, it’s entirely possible that the glasses will look nothing like they do in the promo. In fact, it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that a contact lens version of Project Glass could make an appearance one day.
As Martin LaMonica at CNET points out, one of the engineers on the Project Glass team, Babak Parviz, has experience in Augmented Reality and contact lenses.
In fact, Parviz recently gave a fascinating presentation about contact lenses, that you need to watch.
Think about that for a minute. Would you put a Google product, physically in your eye?
More and more parodies of Google’s Project Glass promo video are surfacing. Many of them are pointing out the potential for bodily harm, though so far, from the ones I’ve seen, they’ve mostly done a good job at still being different enough from one another to be worth watching.
In this one, we see a guy burn himself with coffee, receive constant reminders of everything that sucks about his day, and ultimately get hit by a car.
All the while, the glasses alert him of the obvious: “it’s cloudy” when he looks at the cloudy sky, for example. When he looks at the clock, it shows him the time digitally.
This parody highlighted another potential reality (though greatly exaggerated, I hope) where ads appear throughout the Project Glass experience.
Parody videos about Project Glass have been coming out of the woodwork. Some of them are disturbingly realistic. They include things like people running into telephone poles or falling off balconies and whatnot.
Some may find this one startlingly realistic as well, but for other reasons:
In case the title didn’t give it away, it’s all about Google sprinkling ads all over the interface, giving the user constant exposure to ad campaigns. Advertisers would likely salivate over this. Perhaps Project Glass will one day become a real money maker for Google.
I wouldn’t expect any ads at launch. We’re still waiting for ads to make their way to Google+.
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel even got in on the fun. Kimmel’s version also pokes fun at the probability of injury, and shows some knock offs (pictured above):
Google has captured the imaginations (and cynicism) of many this week, with the unveiling of Project Glass, it’s futuristic glasses that give the user access to the virtual world. Google’s promo video was a concept video, but they do exist, even if they’re not ready for prime time. Google co-founder Sergey Brin was photographed wearing them at a charity dinner.
We already saw one parody video, painting a funny, but realistic picture of what life may be like if these become popular:
Now there’s another parody, showing the Windows version of Project Glass (via Mitesh Shah):
Google co-founder Sergey Brin went out to a charity dinner aimed at raising money for the Foundation Fighting Blindness, and he was wearing the Project Glass glasses.
This is, according to tech blogger Robert Scoble, who says he was at the dinner with photographer Thomas Hawk. Scoble posted some pics taken by Hawk on his Google+ page.
When I first got here I spotted Google co-founder +Sergey Brin. He was wearing THOSE GLASSES!
He quickly told me it is a prototype. I saw a bluish light flashing off of his right eyeball. I could only guess that my Google+ profile flashed up, or maybe some PR voice said “stay quiet” or something like that.
But the glasses are real. Very light looking. Most of the people around us had no idea that these glasses are pretty special.
Sergey’s wife and 23andMe Co-Founder Anne Wojcicki was at the dinner receiving an award from the Foundation.
Good news Canon. Sergey says he is in fact upgrading from a 5D Mark II to the 5D Mark III, but he’s also getting a Nikon D800 too, so it will be interesting to see which one he ends up liking more.
Brin’s last Google+ post was an introduction to Project Glass, in which he shared the promo video, and said, “I’m very excited to share with you a little bit about another project I have been working on — Project Glass. We believe that by bringing technology closer, we can get it more out of the way.”
Google unveiled Project Glass on Wednesday. It’s still in the concept/testing stage, but it’s a pair of futuristic glasses that puts the virtual world directly into your eyeballs. If you haven’t seen Google’s video yet, watch it before you go any further:
Now that it’s had a little more time to sink in, people have all kinds of ideas and opinions about what this is and what it could be.
Here are some comments on Google’s Google+ post about Project Glass:
Ben Smith – I must get this as soon as possible. I’m going to try to not freak out for the rest of the day at how cool this is.
Donovan Westenburg – i’d love to have glasses like these. would miss my phone though. wonder if it will work with the phone using bluetooth
Garrett Manley – I think this if this became a reality, it would revolutionize the way the mobile industry is developing. A device like this “Project Glass” is something that I have been dreaming about for quite some time, and I know I’m not alone in this dream.
RC Concepcion – This is awesome. feature wise.. the promo highights so much of what I’d love to see out of the daily social life.. If portions of that make it into tech.. that be awesome.. Will totally be looking into what to add..
Nathan Harig – Man, I could see a lot of use here for those of us in the emergency services… having data like this in realtime handsfree would be a huge asset.
John Gruber wrote on the Daring Fireball blog, “Google’s transition into the new Microsoft is now complete: fancy-pants sci-fi concept video to promote stunningly awkward augmented reality glasses.”
1. I fail to see how wearing this technology on your face means it’s out of the way.
2. There’s some incredible Orwellian doublespeak at work here, e.g., technology that “helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment.” As far as I can tell, it doesn’t help you to explore your world at all. It helps Google to explore your world. And this notion of “your” world. What does that even mean? I think Google has flat out given up on the idea of connecting people, and instead, has decided to help them curate their lives, and to play to the collective bloated ego, started replacing “life” with “world.”
And I’m glad that Google Glass will help to put me back in the moment that it took me out of.
@granulac Meredith GranI can’t wait for Project Glass to exist so a bunch of mutants can yelp “WHERE’S THE MUSIC SECTION” to no one in a bookstore1 hour ago via web · Reply · Retweet · Favorite · powered by @socialditto
@granulac Meredith Granmore incredible Project Glass features: realtime Instragram filter, homeless person detection/avoidance, Put a Hat On Everyone?1 hour ago via web · Reply · Retweet · Favorite · powered by @socialditto
On Wednesday, Google revealed Project Glass, which is a pair of glasses that give the user smartphone-like capabilities within their field of vision (not to be confused with Google Goggles, which lets you search the web by taking pictures).
Here’s the video that demonstrates them:
Pretty cool, right?
The technology is still being worked on, and it’s unlikely that you’ll own a pair anytime in the immediate future, but hopefully they’ll be available in the foreseeable future.
I guess that depends on your perspective though. If you think about how people are already walking around using their phones, not paying attention to the world around them, these could end up causing similar problems.
When I first wrote about Project Glass, I suggested that it was probably what the future would look like, but the following video from TomScott.com (via TheNextWeb) is really more likely an accurate picture:
Google unveiled something awesome today, or at least the concept of something awesome. We’ve been hearing about the Google glasses for a while now, but now there’s a video:
On the Project Glass Google+ Page, Google says, “We think technology should work for you—to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t. A group of us from Google[x] started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment. We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input. So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do.”
Let’s remember, this is technology that is being worked on. You’re not going to be wearing these Google glasses anytime soon. But I can’t wait to see what they’re capable of when they become real. Hopefully they’re a little more impressive than Nintendo’s Virtual Boy:
