Slashdot Mirror
Google Glass: Future of Movies Or Monkey Cam 2.0?
theodp writes "When it comes to Google's futuristic Glass goggles, people seem to fall into two camps. On the one hand, you have people like NY Times Arts critic Mike Hale, who goes gaga over how fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg put Google glasses on models who walked in her recent Fashion Week show, enabling them to capture video from their point of view as they walked the runway. 'For a preview of how we all may be making movies in a few years,' Hale breathlessly writes, 'take a look at DVF Through Glass .' On the other hand, you have folks like NY Times commenter JokerDanny, who says he's seen this Google Glass movie before. 'David Letterman used to call this Monkey-Cam,' quips JD, referring to the mid-1980's Late Night bits in which Letterman mounted a camera on Zippy the Chimp, enabling the monkey to capture video from his point of view as he roamed the studio. Thanks to the magic of YouTube Doubler, here's a head-to-head comparison of POV video shot by Zippy in 1986 — the year Larry Page and Sergey Brin celebrated their 13th birthdays — to that taken by a DVF model in 2012."
It's not either, but it is going to be one of those things from sci-fi that'll end up everywhere in our lives (like cellphones).
In a decade or two, they'll cell them in drugstores like prepaid phones.
The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
It's like cheap video cams brought filmmaking to the masses Google Glasses will mean anyone can act like an idiot and provide a first person view of the disaster. There's already been some intensely cool helmet cam videos but that's because it's mostly pros or semi pros using them. Like with cheap video cameras we didn't see a rash of Citizen Kanes we saw mostly films that shouldn't have been made. We're likely to see something closer to Strange Days. It'll be guys getting laid and failed attempts to jump between buildings where you'll watch the POV all the way to the ground. I'd like to think people would sick of it after the first hundred bicycle riders face planting into walls but morbid curiosity never seems to die.
David Pogue: Google Glass and the Future of Technology
Spencer Ante: Hype and Hope: Test Driving Google's New Glasses
In my opinion, Google Glass is one of the absolute most awesome new pieces of tech to come about in years. I look forward to this technology with great anticipation.
I find myself not getting too excited about tech recently, this is the only thing that has even remotely piqued my curiosity and I'm hooked.
I think it is something to get excited about.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_s_xK_MMwLjM/S1lrwFb9hmI/AAAAAAAAAQM/WcaUe8l7dGM/s400/googoo.jpg
Table-ized A.I.
I didn't make it through the doubled-up video, but both were kind of boring. I guess I was wondering how they felt, being trained to show off for an audience like that, but then you can't feel too sorry for models. The chimp looked like it was having fun, though.
Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
It would be one thing if the Glasses were simply a camera, but it's more than that. It will be the first mass market wearable computer. Overlays will provide notifications in the form of navigation prompts, restuarant reviews, contact information, descriptions of art, and much more.
Not as interesting as chicken cam. Apes have poor image stabilization properties.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UytSNlHw8J8
Microsoft's answer to Google Glass, as modeled by Count Homer.
Overlays will provide notifications in the form of navigation prompts, restuarant reviews, contact information, descriptions of art, and much more.
In other words, things you could have done with your smartphone instead of wearing annoying glasses all the time.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's probably the future of movies and Monkey Cam. I weep for the future.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
I think Google Glasses are more of a short-term gimmick and proof-of-concept than anything else. But one of the guys Google just hired (away from our university, as a matter of fact) is Babak Parviz - who's been working towards what could probably be called "Google Contacts".
The tech's nowhere near ready; but I think the idea of an unobtrusive HUD on a contact lens would be far more likely to garner widespread adoption than Glasses ever will.
On a side note - all this focus on the "camera" functionality is mostly missing the point. What's cool about the concept isn't the ability to take portable movies - we can already do that. It's the information right in front of your eyeballs that's the future.
#DeleteChrome
Some True POV pr0n, instead of the came mounted of foreheads or someone else filming from over/side.
They're have been a ton of movies shot in the first person, and they are horrible. You have to be a fucking retard to spout te gibberish coming from this fuck head's mouth. Actually I take that back, retarded people are far more productive in society than this fucktard.
This is going to be amazing in sports. Not just to the viewer at home (which itself will be fascinating), but also all the real time in game possibilities that might open up.
If you strap a camera to your head that's what you would see walking as well.
The brain is an amazing thing because it sure does NOT look like that to us as we are walking...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
And how exactly would your smartphone go about providing similar types of overlays?
By holding it up, see any augmented reality app ever.
Would you hold it up in front of your face 24/7?
Hell no, because I do not WANT overlays 24x7. That's the thing; the amount of time I care about seeing data in front of me is significantly lower than 24x7. The benefit then for me to wear even the lightest of glasses is far outweighed by the annoyance of wearing said glasses, when I can easily get all of the same data from something like a smartphone, or looking down at the sleeve of my SmartShirt (tm) for example.
And that's another thing to consider. Why glasses? There are lots of other surfaces on your person 24x7 too, why not them? Why not the evolution of the smartphone into clothes, or into a wrist strap or even wrist implant? Glasses will be an anachronism soon anyway when we can really repair all ocular degeneration; I just do not see them being the true vehicle for data in the future.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It will be the first mass market wearable computer.
Totally disagree. The iPod Touch /iPhone is already that. You can easily have it on you all the time you would glasses, including jogging. I don't see why it doesn't count in the same way or have the same level of importance, just because it's not on your head.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Who cares about video. I mean, yeah fine, it can record video, great, great great.
But if the Project Glass video is any indication of what we're going to be seeing out of these, video is about on par with the colours it comes in, in terms of importance of features.
Keep on knockin'
https://robbiecrash.me
I'd rather see a monkey with a VHC cam than anything any of my friends do ever, lol. They're just not as interesting as a roller skating monkey. Not even close actually.
How will most of the world see you when you wear a visible, wearable computer? Like wearing an over-size watch or a gender-bending shirt. If you're a hottie it'll look quirky. If you're not, you'll just look like a dork.
.. the answer is still "No", apparently.
No, Google Glass is neither the Future of Movies nor Monkey Cam 2.0? This is just an example of uncreative minds failing to see the potential that's apparent to engineers and other creative minds at Google. Of course, that's no guarantee they will succeed with this product, but I think we'll see a couple of big things within the next couple of years where people will say that "it started with Google Glass".
And addressing the specific question: the camera mounted on Zippy was not bad technology; the problem was that it was mounted on a chimp. If you give Google Glass to an able cinematographer, I'm sure you'll be able to get something worthwhile. Runway models and fashion designers don't count as able cinematographers, just like the pictures you shoot with that SLR don't even get close to a Capra.
While the videos were intersting (POV of other people helps being empathetic) I suddenly realized what an utter waste of time that so-called "fashion week" is. Als what gets pushed as fashion is just so utterly ugly.
I wonder when this kind of stuff gets forbidden due to global warming and energy saving (seriously!).
The POV genre of adult entertainment is pretty much made for it. Beyond that, though, it's a novelty.
With ubiquitous cameras it may be possible for victims of group stalking or webcam spying to capture their tormentors behaving badly. This is a bigger problem than currently acknowledged. It is easy to spy on people nowadays, but much harder to capture the experience of being laughed at by strangers after having private moments published on the net.
This won't be the future of movies (unless you count movies about this tech like Strange Days), but the future of Americas Funniest Home Videos. We are already see this trend with cars, some countries require dash cams for insurance purpose and thus we have a rise of all kinds of car videos on the net. Head mountable cameras like the GoPro also already do the same thing for sports and recreational activities.
But anyway, I consider all those to be side effects, that will not be why people are wearing those cameras, it's just stuff that will happen when people wear those cameras. Real reason to wear those will probably be as memory enhancers and just like for cars as insurance, a theft might have a much harder time getting away when he is filmed by dozens of glasses on the street and the eye whiteness of the future might also be one with glasses on his head. With glasses you can start recording your life 24/7 non-stop, it will no longer be about making a picture, but simply about tagging a moment in the recording of your life. 99.99% of that footage will of course always useless and never be watched again (who has the time to rewatch their life after all?), but the remaining 0.01% could turn out quite useful if the right software to search it is provided.
Another interesting application for those glasses could be Telepresence, if you have multiple people wearing those glasses, it could be possible to link them up and then you see a life video feed of what is happening somewhere else. Could be quite useful in some situations to jump into somebodies head that way and guide them through some problem.
Yep, the product managers at ADT Security are probably brainstorming on ways to squeeze $30 a month out of people wearing ADT Security Glasses [TM]. Can't wait for the commercials!
I don't think any Glass demo could have been more utterly pointless than this.
Literally if you gave a hobo on the street a pair of those glasses it would be more compelling than this demo. Yay, congrats, you know how to walk up and down on a piece of level floor while wearing something unwearable. I can't help but think that this is the point where Google gets *completely* lost in their own hype.
My sig is too lon
Do you 'wear' your car keys too?
I would say yes, if I had them ALL the time. I hang them up when I get home.
The cell phone I have with me ALL the time. Even at home.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So you cant see the difference between data in an overlay and something you have to carry and look at?
There is very little difference. I can call up my "overlay" any time in an instant, the same as any mounted screen. The headgear simply makes it slightly easier to remain active in front of you.
It's only a difference of convenience, and that is slight. It's not a difference of functionality. There is nothing you can do with the head mounted display I cannot also do with my iPhone (or Android, or WP7) device in nearly the same period of time.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
there were plenty of smart phones before that that should "get credit".
I agree, that's just what I had. Any phone with a continuous data connection and the ability to run arbitrary applications should "get credit" as well, as long as it was something people could and did have with them all the time they way we do modern cell phones.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I think that's a bit silly. How can you tell he was writing "breathlessly"? spin that top!
Yet another rational excuse not to carry a tracking device on my person. I use a camera for photographs- kinda old-fashioned, I prefer simplicity.