How people might misuse Google Glass

A video has been posted online that echoes concerns about the introduction of Google Glass, the web giant’s augmented reality spectacles.

10:12AM GMT 08 Mar 2013

The video shows a man on a first date using a version Google Glass to find out information about the person he is talking to, take photos of her, and even watching sport when he is bored with the conversation.

Whilst the video is clearly a spoof, it chimes with worries about wearable technology that can shoot video, take pictures and broadcast whatever the user sees.

The glasses, which are due to go on sale towards the end of this year, contain a battery, a tiny computer, a camera and a wireless link.

They give the wearer a “heads up display” which they can activate using simple voice or finger commands.

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US blogger Mark Hurst, writing on Creativegood.com, says: “Anywhere you go in public – any store, any sidewalk, any bus or subway – you’re liable to be recorded.”

He continues: “Now add in facial recognition and the identity database that Google is building within Google Plus …[and] the speech-to-text software that Google already employs … any audio in a video could, technically speaking, be converted to text, tagged to the individual who spoke it, and made fully searchable within Google’s search index.”

Joshua Topolsky, an technology journalist who is one of the few to have tried out Google Glass, wrote on TheVerge.com about how he wore them as he was followed by a film crew into Starbucks. Staff asked the crew to stop filming, but he “kept the Glass's video recorder going, all the way through."

Google co-founder Sergey Brin clearly doesn’t share these concerns, instead predicting that the glasses will give people a new, more natural way of interacting with each other digitally.

Sergey Brin on the New York subway wearing Google Glass

He recently told the Technology, Education and Design (TED) conference in Los Angeles that using the glasses was preferable to walking around hunched over a smartphone.

“Is this the way you’re meant to interact with other people,” he asked. “It’s kind of emasculating. Is this what you’re meant to do with your body?”

Augmented Reality SHOES?!? Wowzers! What's next??

Google brings augmented reality to footwear

Google has high hopes for augmented reality, and as the company becomes more entangled in the technology it is becoming more ambitious with its use. The company has shown a strong interest in the concept of wearable augmented realitysystems. Currently, the company’s most well known foray into wearable AR systems in Google Glass, but last week Google began showing off a new product from its Art, Copy, and Code project. The project itself is meant to highlight technologies and products that are capable of grabbing the attention of consumers. So far, augmented reality has been one of the major focuses for the project.

High-tech shoes provide feedback to wearers

Early last week, Google showed off a pair of high-tech shoes: A pair of Adidas with a microcontroller equipped with accelerometers and gyroscopes. The shoes are meant to provide the wearer with a wide range of feedback, offering data concerning the wearer’s physical activity, or lack thereof. This information is provided through a speaker imbedded in the shoe’s tongue. Beyond the shoe’s fancy gadgetry is its ability to adopt a personality.

Shoes can adopt personality

Google claims that its high-tech shoes can formulate a personality based on the nature of its product and how it is being used. Those that lead an athletic lifestyle will imprint an athletic personality onto the shoes, which will provide audio support concerning a wearer’s activates. Those that don’t partake in gratuitous physical activity will imprint a more passive personality on to the shoes, which will express discontent when used in extensive physical activities.

Google draws attention to overlooked aspect of augmented reality

Google’s shoes represent a relatively overlooked concept in augmented reality; that is enhancing the real world through the use of interactive and adaptive technologies. Most augmented reality is seen as digital displays that are superimposed over the physical world, but the technology allows for more than just visual stimulus. Google’s shoes draw attention to another aspect of augmented reality that has nothing to do with vision, but everything to do with technology and personality. Google does not intend to make any entry into the shoe business, however, and its high-tech footwear exist only to draw attention to the capabilities of augmented reality technology.

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4. Google nearing completion of new augmented reality eyeglasses
5. Do-it-yourself augmented reality glasses shed some light on Google’s Project Glass

Google's glasses make sound through skull vibrations!

Google's hotly anticipated new glasses- which will wearers to summon up maps and other useful data on a screen in the lens- will create sound by sending vibrations directly through the wearer's skull, it has been revealed.

The features are included in documents filed with American regulators, and show how the futuristic specs will use "bone conduction", which sends vibrations to the inner ear through the skull instead of speakers.

Though not a new kind of technology- Panasonic exhibited prototype bone conduction headphones at this year's Consumer Electronics Show- the process is yet to be widely adopted.

One of its advantage is that it allows listeners to hear the noise in the environment too.

The Federal Communication Commission this week approved the web giant's patent for Google Glass, including "integral vibrating element that provides audio to the user via contact with the user's head".

Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, is leading the development, and last month he was pictured testing Google Glass on the New York subway.

The glasses also boast Wifi and Bluetooth connectivity, and a small screen that appears in the wearer's normal field of vision. A tiny, voice-operated computer inside Google Glass runs the Android mobile operating system.

It is planned that wearers will be able to summon up maps and other useful data from the web straight on to their lenses.

The first complete Google Glass hardware will be sent to developers who have paid $1,500 to help refine the technology.

Google has said it hopes to introduce Google Glass commercially in 2014.

Google Glass Graces the Runway at New York Fashion Week

September 9, 2012

 

A model wearing Google Glass backstage at Diane von Furstenberg’s show in Lincoln Center.

Google Glass and Google co-founder Sergey Brin made a surprise appearance at New York Fashion WeekSunday afternoon.

Models walked down the runway at Diane von Furstenberg’s Spring/Summer 2013 collection show wearing Glass, the upcoming headset/eyewear device that Google is developing. The augmented reality-enhanced glasses have many smartphone-like functions: users can take pictures, record video, receive messages and check calendars, among other things.

The bands of each pair were modified to complement the collection’s palette of corals, blues, whites and grays. It was the first time Glass had ever appeared on a runway.

Models recorded video using Google Glass, which will be compiled into a short film.

At least one model turned on Glass’s video-recording function to capture her view of the runway (see above). Furstenberg and other members of DVF’s team also donned glasses during show preparations. That footage will be released in a short film, “DVF through Glass,” on DVF’s Google+ page Thursday, a DVF spokesperson said.

At the show’s conclusion, a Glass-clad Fustenberg and Yvan Mispelaere, creative director of DVF, took a celebratory lap down the runway. Halfway down the left aisle, Furstenberg reached over to Sergey Brin, who was sitting front row. He joined Furstenberg and Mispelaere for the rest of the walk amid wide applause.

AUGMENTED REALITY and THE FUTURE OF GOOGLE #ARSSN

Project Glass Is The Future Of Google

by Peter Ha

Over the last few years one could easily say that Google had lost their way. They were no longer known for search. Somehow they’d turned into a company that acquired a series of nonsensical entities, launched half baked products that eventually hit the dead pool or just got into some really weird shit.

 The future of google is GLASS!

But last year that all started to change as the company announced that it would focus on its core products. Hindsight always being 20/20 it all makes sense. It’s like anything else, really. Spitball as many ideas as you possibly can just to see what sticks. And so whether it was by design or not, Project Glass is the future of Google. Not as a product that will make them billions of dollars but what it means for Google as a company and its future.

“The charter of Google X is to take bold risks and push the edges of technology beyond what they’ve been to where the future might be,” Sergey Brin told a small group of reporters duing demo of Project Glass. “We want you to be less of a slave to your devices. It’s been really liberating and I’m really excited to share it with all of you.”

Brin noted that Project Glass is what Google believes could be the next form factor of computing. As it stands now, many of us are willingly beholden to our smartphones with all the web browsing, twittering, pathing, instagramming and whatever else consuming most of our time. Human interaction has all but faded away. The fact that people play the “stacking game” is comical and cute but a sign of how infatuated we are with technology. Glass has the potential to buck that trend by “keeping people in the moment,” said Steve Lee, Product Manager for Glass. Brin also mentioned that Glass shouldn’t be used to fill idle time or to browse the web and that your phone or tablet perfectly fits those needs.

Dorky as they might look, Glass signals the first glimpse of how to integrate such invasive and important technology into our lives in a more seamless way. Isabelle Olsson, the industrial design guru on the team, says the design of Glass ensures “you can look into people’s eyes.” During my brief time with Sergey’s Glass, I can say that the display didn’t hinder my ability to see or look around. The display disappeared until I needed to see what was being shown. I might never have to pull my phone out again to reply to a text, get directions or snap a photo. So, yeah, I’ll deal with looking like a dork but don’t be surprised to see Glass integrated with existing glasses. Brin did mention that Google has been in talks with eyeglass makers and the like.

#PROJECTGLASS #EXPLOREREDITIONWhile the hardware is still in prototype phase, I overheard Brin say that he’s experienced up to six hours of juice off a single charge. But that can and will likely change based on usage (uploading photos, capturing video, etc.). Photos, for instance, will be stored locally and can by synced with the cloud later. Both Lee and Brin said that they’re working hard to optimize what data is being transmitted and stored both on the device and in the cloud to alleviate any battery woes. There may be settings that allow users to control the content being shared until you’re within reach of Wi-Fi or when you’ve plugged in your Glasses for the night. Babak Parviz, a contributor to Project Glass, said a previous build allowed him to query a voice search for the capital of China broadening his own knowledge base to everything that’s available on the Web.

I asked what actually worked on Glass now and Brin politely skirted the question by saying that they’re testing and implementing various features with each build to see what sticks. Facial recognition, while discussed and experimented with, doesn’t sound like it’s been compelling enough that the team wants to immediately integrate it.

Here’s what you won’t see in Glass: advertising. Brin stated pretty vehemently that they have no plans to integrate advertising into Glass and that the only plan is to simply sell the hardware, which will be “significantly” cheaper than the $1,500 Explorer Editions that were announced today. The Glass team says they’re focused on the quality of the experience and not making it as cheap as possible. (Thank gawd.)

Core Google apps like Gmail and Plus (Hangouts) are being tested now along with Android apps. What isn’t clear is whether or not the Android and Google apps teams are working with the team at Glass and vice versa.

So what was the reason for today’s announcement of the $1,500 Explorer Edition of Project Glass? It’s actually a slight pivot from what they’ve done in the past. For once, the typical Google way of pushing out half-done products might work to their advantage. Parviz, Lee and Brin emphasized how important it will be to involve the developer community to further push the platform before Glass becomes available to consumers some time next year. Speaking of ship dates, Brin says the consumer version will ship within a year of when the Explorer Editions ship. Developers will have access to a cloud-based API that is “pretty far along.”

Does this mean Google wants to compete with Microsoft or Apple toe-to-toe? No. Google will always be the weird kid in the corner who sporadically does something mindblowing. They’re not thinking about what’s going on now but what might happen in the distant future. Everything they’ve done up until now seems like a tiny spec of something larger and greater. The late Ray Bradbury said it best: “Life is trying things to see if they work.” And that appears to be what Google is doing.

Google Glasses (Shipping End 2012) & ARSSN - The perfect match!

Once the Android SDK's are in place and the #ARSSN nodes have been worked on these Google glasses will fit the AR platform perfectly. #projectglass #ARSSN #ISM

 

New Facebook Updates

A bunch of system wide updates occurred today.  The biggest, and most obvious change is in the site's graphics.  The friend lists are larger, and have a nice text overlay.  Taking a page from Google's book, Facebook's coding is simple, yet under the hood, extremely complex.  I'm personally not a fan of the design on my large displays, but on smart phones, and iOS and Droid phones reap all the reward.  I wonder what main platform or device(s) they could be gearing their anticipated audience to be viewing their pages toward?  Hmmm?