The New Google Glass Is All Business 45
An anonymous reader writes: Google scrapped an early version of its smart glasses in January, but has developed another model just for businesses. The company hopes to get this newest version of Glass in the hands of healthcare, manufacturing and energy industry professionals by this fall. Recode reports: "The new model can fold up like a traditional pair of glasses and is more rugged for outdoor use. However, unlike most other smart glasses, it still sports a small screen to the upper right of the user's vision, rather than displaying an image in the center of one's view like the ODG R7 or Microsoft HoloLens."
Isn't HoloLens way more useful for this? (Score:2)
Glass, it seems to me, is inherently far more limited than actual VR systems like the HoloLens. With the HoloLens you could choose where to put the small square of information you can see, plus of course there are all of the options of overlaying more info on top of physical objects you can computationally recognize...
I guess one big draw would be battery life, Glass you would think would be a lot better in that regard than the HoloLens.
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Having used the original Glass I wouldn't bother using it again while it was still a small picture in the corner unless it somehow dramatically improved in ways I cannot even imagine.
I know there is all the privacy freakout stuff, particularly on slashdot, but the reason glass failed the first time was they were basically useless. If you are the type of person who needs a HUD to read your text messages you probably have a smart watch. The camera was crap, the interface was painful and it had no processing
Re: Isn't HoloLens way more useful for this? (Score:2, Informative)
Hololens also has a very tiny visible area. The pretend PR videos were just that, Pretend.
That's a good sign. (Score:3)
Fine with me (Score:2)
Work is about the only place I'd want to have these, anyway. No more privacy issues and that's exactly the place where pop-up information is handy. All I ask is they make these things big and ugly to discourage wearing them out in the public.
Does it still record everybody around it? (Score:2)
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And every secure facility I ever worked in had video surveillance built in, so I don't see how glass is more creepy than that.
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Lower cost option for Comic Store Guy: An iPhone in his shirt pocket, with just the lens peeking out.
Re:It's creepier. Much creepier. (Score:5, Insightful)
That is an awfully specific scenario. How long have you worked in a comic store?
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And every secure facility I ever worked in had video surveillance built in, so I don't see how glass is more creepy than that.
GG should be much less creepy, since it does not, and can not, continuously record. Most of the complaints about GG came from people that didn't actually understand what it was.
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The difference is that Glass can cross-reference what you do at that secure facility with what you do at home, your shopping habits, and your political opinions (if you express them on the Internet... and if you use it at all, you almost certainly do at least indirectly).
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Kind of like your cell phone?
You're really stretching the definition of "kind of" there, bub.
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No, only your cell phone can record everybody around it. Cell phones are the real problem since anyone can pretend they're talking to someone or playing with their device, and actually recording you instead even when they're not facing you.
The Google Glass, on the other, will blink its camera light when it's recording you and it will heat up so much after 40 minutes of recording things that it will burn the side of your head and drain all its battery.
As someone who does structural inspections... (Score:3)
I'm kind of interested in this. I've know that Glass could have applications to the work I do every day. Even if not for me, then for a remote employee or contractor who could send back real-time data from a site for review and analysis. Or even for reference materials or two way conversations live in the field.
I'd prefer to use it as part of my plan to take over the world and destroy the Kingsmen in the process but, as they say, baby steps...
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Deleting posts (outright censorship) would ensure Slashdot goes in the toilet. As long as they don't, there's still a chance.
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There would have to be a pretty big step up in resolution for use in that type of environment and I'm not convinced a high-res camera on a stick wouldn't be a hell of a lot more effective.
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For that application, I'd be more excited about Project Tango [google.com]. I'm not sure exactly how good it is, but that type of technology has the potential to be used to (for example) detect the deflection of failing structural members, etc.
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Which is why I've tied a monitor to the ceiling, playing a video of what my screen looks like while I'm working, and have my google glasses propped up on top of my head looking up.
The Segway problem (Score:5, Insightful)
The hapless Segway would have been hero technology had it first been marketed to those handicapped who can stand but not walk. It would be intermediate tech between fully mobile and chairs, which take you out of the eye-contact world of the normally upright.
In the same way, Glass could have been introduced as a niche product for stock traders and surgeons who need some HUD information in their peripheral vision while performing a task that they want others to look in on. Instead of sneering at Glass, hipsters would be vying to get their hands on "surgeon glasses" to impress their dates.
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The hapless Segway would have been hero technology had it first been marketed to those handicapped who can stand but not walk. It would be intermediate tech between fully mobile and chairs, which take you out of the eye-contact world of the normally upright.
And who exactly might that be? Anyone with a bad hip or knee wouldn't want to stand any significant amount of time. Nor the morbidly obese. And those with balance or support problems probably can't use a Segway at all, they'd still need their walker. Amputees would still prefer prosthetics that cloak their handicap better. Sure they're faster and less tiresome, but I can't really think of any condition where you're unable to stand/walk short distances and still able to use a Segway.
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Something like the iBot [msu.edu], a wheelchair that could pop up onto (and balance on) two wheels to bring you to standing eye height? Developed by the guy who would later make the Segway?
(Unfortunately, insurance companies declared it "not medically necessary" and refused to pay for it, so nobody has ever heard of it and it ended up failing.)
Dash/action cam replacement (Score:2)
Still only in the top right? (Score:2)
So what you're saying is you're selling a useless overpriced miniature screen that's been outdated for over a decade instead of a genuine augmented reality product?
Left-eyed this time? (Score:2)
I see no mention of whether or not a left-eyed version will be available or if it can be switched to serve whichever eye the user wants. How about that and provisions for using along with a normal set of eyeglasses. I'd rather not have to have to get another set of lenses just for a Glass.
By the way, do any of you remember the 1992 compute and console game "Flashback"?