By now the spectacles capable of streaming and surfing are well documented. Unfortunately, though, the device is already being mocked in many reports.
Impressive by all technological measurements, Google Glass provides a live link to the internet via glasses. For all intents and purposes, it’s the kind of product folk back in the 1960s would have predicted someone inventing by the 2010s. The problem is, they also expected us to have airborne cars, and room-sized consoles performing tasks we can now do on a mobile phone.
Proof that prophecies from the past are, more often than not, either impractical or impossible, in the case of Google’s latest toy you can’t help but wonder if it’s not both. On the one hand, current studies suggest only one in ten Americans would even consider giving them a try, mostly because of the impractical design. Meanwhile, it’s impossible not to look at little weird when wearing them, as this video proves…
Of course there’s a lot to be praised in the equipment. The glide of a hand can open up an world of augmented reality, wherein everything we see can be tagged, uploaded, sorted, bookmarked, categorised and noted. But how will face-to-face encounters fare when we don’t really know what app the other person is looking at us through?
With facial recognition software now a reality for this device, users will be able to take photos of anyone for future reference. Call it a memory aid or method of identification, news of this functionality broke after various questions had already been raised over Glass and invasion of privacy. Not least those posed by the U.S. Congress in a letter asking for details on safeguards to protect the average person from such potential intrusions. To say the firm is treading a fine line would be an understatement.
Then again, wearable technology is certainly being lauded as the future, albeit pundits can’t seem to decide on what form the final breakthrough will take. Already Google has a few fingers in the proverbial pie, with its subsidiary company Motorola working on a new smart watch, well ahead of any iWatch, and no doubt using some of the lessons learned in the development of its now-discontinued, Android-enabled MOTOACTV timepiece. As technology fans, we’re eager to see how this area develops, although sure it will be a long, long time before we have to make a decision on whether to opt in or out of the glasshole club.