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Google Glass Specs Hit the Web
Nerval's Lobster writes "Google has issued the specifications for its spectacles. The search-engine giant's Google Glass, an augmented-reality headset that allows wearers to view information on a tiny screen embedded in one of the lenses, features a camera capable of snapping 5-megapixel photos and 720p video. That aforementioned screen, in the words of Google's just-released specs sheet, "is the equivalent of a 25-inch high definition screen from eight feet away." Google Glass is compatible with any Bluetooth-capable phone. Its MyGlass app, which enables SMS messaging and GPS, requires a companion device running Android 4.0.3 (the "Ice Cream Sandwich" build) or higher. Google claims the battery will provide a "full day of typical use," although the company warned in the specs sheet that certain functions—most notably video recording and Hangouts—could drain the battery faster. Despite those neat features, Google Glass also raises some thorny questions about surveillance culture, and whether people really want whole crowds recording every moment of our collective lives. But those are the sort of conundrums that will only become more clear when Google Glass is actually released sometime later this year."
i still can't figure out the point in spending $1500 on a pair of glasses when i don't even wear glasses
frustrated by the fact that I as do many geeks already wear glasses.
Good people go to bed earlier.
How much radiation is this thing shooting directly into my head?
It's bad enough that our governments and corporations are spying on us.
Now we're voluntarily spying on each other.
Read the UI guidelines. The display resolution is 640x360.
What does their app do to my phone battery life? Who doesn't wear glasses in the rain (it can't get wet?) Why/what does this actually bring in utility to my life? I think this will actually be adopted by a few, but not mainstreamed in the immediate future. (Think Segway)
Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally wo
A common idea for autmented reality is to put some kind of tracking on the glasses so that the annotations can be overlaid on the world.
Go find a 25" screen and stand 8 feet away from it. Hold out yout hands at arms length and form a box just surrounding the screen. The FoV is tiny. Imagine viewing the world through such a little portal. Finding anything wull involve a lot of manual scanning with your head. Not fun.
The thing is with AR is that the augmented reality, the more interesting autmentations will be overlaid in this manner.
Also, AR is really a bit of a solution in search of some problems at the moment. About the most compelling thing seems to be advertising, but it's a mechanism which requiers users to buy and use a system which is basically only good for ads.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Imagine once there out for a while and people learn how to mod Linux and put it on there? Imagine tons of developers creating free and open source software for it. With Augmented Reality we can do a lot more then "take pictures". Its a step in a whole new direction, or that's how I see it.
Resolution the same as a 25" HDTV at eight feet? That's... awful. Really, try it. Back eight feet away from your monitor and what can you see? This is like going to back to the glory days of VHS tapes. Um.... no thanks.
Specs! I get it!
Long signatures suck.
...I'm told it's better than chocolate.
My, my, my... I thought we were passed all that.
If I could completely change out the software on this to make it report to me instead of Google it might be useful...still a bit dorky to wear in public though. I'm sure the next hardware model could be made to look like regular glasses.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
weren't douchy enough...
Nobodies Prefect
Tidbits for Techs Technology Blog
I want a Google Glass type device, only without a camera. I don't want to record everything around me & put it on the intertubes.
I want the exact opposite - I want the Internet available to me all the time. Maybe with a voice interface, maybe with a remote input device. (Mouse/trackpoint/other I keep in my pocket?)
That's where the real creative engineering will come in. A socially acceptable, non-creepy, input device. Teeth clacking? Facial muscle movement? Low volume sub-vocal/humming?
If it were actually an overlay and not just a tiny little screen you have to divert your attention away from shit to use. I could have got a tiny little wearable screen back in the '90's. Two decades of technological progress and their kit is barely more advanced than some a grad student threw together in the pre-windows era! Until Google's doing TerminatorVision(tm), I'm not interested!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
All welcome the real-world gargoyle. Bluetooth headsets weren't enough...
...
...
.' ..."
Following quotes from Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson:
Gargoyles represent the embarrassing side of the Central Intelligence Corporation. Instead of using laptops, they wear their computers on their bodies, broken up into separate modules that hang on the waist, on the back, on the headset. They serve as human surveillance devices, recording everything that happens around them. Nothing looks stupider; these getups are the modern-day equivalent of the slide-rule scabbard or the calculator pouch on the belt, marking the user as belonging to a class that is at once above and far below human society. They are a boon to Hiro because they embody the worst stereotype of the CIC stringer. They draw all the attention. The payoff for this self-imposed ostracism is that you can be in the Metaverse all the time, and gather intelligence all the time.
Gargoyles are no fun to talk to. They never finish a sentence. They are adrift
in a laser-drawn world, scanning retinas in all directions, doing background
checks on everyone within a thousand yards, seeing everything in visual light,
infrared, millimeter. wave radar, and ultrasound all at once. You think
they're talking to you, but they're actually poring over the credit record of
some stranger on the other side of the room, or identifying the make and model
of airplanes flying overhead. For all he knows, Lagos is standing there
measuring the length of Hiro's cock through his trousers while they pretend to
make conversation.
"Where the hell are you, Hiro?"
"Walking down a street in L.A."
"How can you be goggled in if you're walking down a street?" Then the terrible
reality sinks in: "Oh, my God, you didn't turn into a gargoyle, did you?"
"Well," Hiro says. He is hesitant, embarrassed, like it hadn't occurred to him
yet that this was what he was doing. "It's not exactly like being a gargoyle.
Remember when you gave me shit about spending all my money on computer stuff?"
"Yeah."
"I decided I wasn't spending enough. So I got a beltpack machine. Smallest
ever made, I'm walking down the street with this thing strapped to my belly.
It's really cool."
"You're a gargoyle."
"Yeah, but it's not like having all this clunky shit strapped all over your
body. .
"You're a gargoyle.
Yes, god forbid surveillance in the hands of the people, where it could do the most good to protect them from the actions of the authorities, becomes ubiquitous. Leave the public surveillance to the professionals who are there to protect us for our own good!
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
The display is up and off to the side of the user's vision. You can glance up at it, but heads-up displays (yes, like the ones in the original concept video) aren't an option. You have to intentionally look at the thing.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
While unchecked government surveillance is also bad, at least I know who they are and I trust the federal government a lot more than some guy on the street who is bound by nothing more than his morals or lack thereof.
I don't want to be inadvertently featured in YouTube videos, nor my kids, my wife. I keep a very low profile online. I have no LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, no paid-for websites, email, nothing. I have intentionally cultivated this low profile. I'm not paranoid, but I have worked in IT security for some time and I know what companies do with information. I don't want anyone profiting from me without me getting at least half the money. Hence I block ALL ads, all web beacons, I disallow all HTTP referers, even if this means no one gets paid for click throughs. It's a violation of my privacy. I have RIGHT not to be tracked by companies. I could care less if the government knows what I do, but I don't want companies profiting from me being the "product".
You (metaphorically) need to read Scott Adam's blog entry on privacy illusions in relation to government. Trust me, you have far more to fear from companies.
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_privacy_illusion/
Is Glass indestructible?
Can I use Glass while operating a jackhammer?
Is it OK to go scuba diving with Glass?
https://support.google.com/glass/answer/3064131?hl=en&ref_topic=3063354
Keep in mind the professional paid to watch CCTV is oftentimes bound by nothing more than his morals (or lack thereof) *and* is legally protected from prosecution in all but the most egregious violations because he is a professional. Police have some of the strongest protections - they can make very poor decisions, and even should that result in death of a citizen, they often can't be prosecuted directly unless it is first shown they acted with malice. Carelessness, a lack of foresight, or a cavalier "meh" attitude toward civil rights - all things the department can be sued for resulting in a payout of tax dollars and new training, but not things which will cause a person to see the inside of a jail cell.
These are not the people I trust more than some guy on the street. I trust them exactly as much as I would trust some guy on the street if I knew he was paid to enforce the rule of law through a means continuum stretching from attitude through teams of armored paramilitary backup, and who thinks his maximum personal risk if he makes a mistake is looking for a new job doing the same thing in a different county.
For a lot less money you could get a Looxcie 2 or Looxcie HD.
It fits and looks like a bluetooth headset, and you can use it for calls as well. My only issue is the red light that turns on to indicate it's recording.
because it's bad for our eyes. But did we listen? Noooo...
THANK YOU! I was starting to think that slashdot readers couldn't think for themselves. Augmented reality apps is where Google glass will really shine.
We'll never make it.......oh! we made it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWf3iJjqYCM&list=FL7kKrE4eTs17mQl7eyvJIOg
"I don't want to be inadvertently featured in YouTube videos, nor my kids, my wife"
Then stay out of public places. Or invest in hoodies and burkas. You do not, in the US at least, have a right to privacy when in public. Google glass will not make much difference in this respect anyway. With the prevalence of cell phone cameras, if you do something stupid/goofy/whatever odds are you'll end up there anyway.
While I agree that commercial entities pose a much greater danger to our privacy than the government (especially when they start sharing data with third party data brokers!) I don't think Google Glass is going to make much difference in this regard. Commercial companies are more interested in data that allows them to make money in one way or another. The only thing of real interest that Google could gain from this that they could not, if they wanted, already gain from any android device (and why people aren't focused on that I have no idea) would be product exposure data. Things like who you interact with and who you know they could just as easily get from existing sources.
It does, however, have the potential to have a big impact on the way public officials and law enforcement behave. When the idea that cameras are focused on them at virtually all times and they are so common there is not much they can do about it (unlike today when some still think they can) then that is going to be a game changer.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
So, at the rate that tech is expanding, what would be the time frame for google glass technology to be permanently implanted in our brain via a wireless computer chip. Full time interaction with the internet, with of course full time tracking/monitoring all we see, access, and think. We'll all be walking versions of "My Favorite Martian", sans the 'visible' antenna. Less than 100 years away? 20 years away? The future looks both extremely cool and very frightening to me at the same time.
I know I am not the only one wondering when the borg thumbnail for google glass will be created. For God sake, I've had to stare at an assimilated Bill Gates thumbnail for years. Just saying...
my mom posts on slashdot.
Your lack of trust in the guy on street vs. the government is what brings police states into existence. Nevermind the fact that all of the worst atrocities in history have been committed by governments, not corporations, and definitely not lone wolf single individuals acting on their own volition. You mollify yourself with fictions about how you "know who they are" (which is complete bullshit especially regarding undercover LE and spooks) and probably imagine they are accountable in some way. Pay no attention to the constant denial of FOIA requests which only rises year after year. Pay no attention to how the justice system frequently covers itself, refusing to hear cases when they think it might overturn laws ('oh no a good test case... quick, say the plaintiff doesn't have standing!') or burn the wrong elites, and/or refusing to hear appeals. Moving more and more cases into civil courts to lower evidenciary standards and avoid jury nullification. And don't forget, it's the government that has a monopoly on force. And you're afraid of people who want to sell you some crap they think you want because of other crap you happened to look at? I'll be sure to let all the piles of skeletons in mass graves know what they should have really been concerned about.
Corporations fleece. Government fleeces too, then imprisons or kills anybody who makes trouble.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
Say goodbye to corrupt politicians and crime and mafia.
Expect blowback from politicians because of this, perhaps couched in memetically-active soothe-terms, like "privacy". Don't let the worms squirm out of it!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
" I'm not paranoid" yes you are, what you mean to say is that you are not delusional paranoid. Which, based on your post, is also false.
Isn't all paranoia delusional? I thought it stopped being paranoia if everyone actually was out to get you.
The very-long-term future of mobile human/computer interaction is ultimately some kind of implant that can feed your visual system directly, since people want more and more information but a 30" screen won't fit into a phone.
But along the road to that science-fiction future we're going to go through a lot of external projection devices like Google Glass, since they can give you (eventually) that big display without the big form-factor.
The problem with Glass is that it comes from Google who are pushing its social and camera/augmented reality features, and nobody likes the idea of dorky-looking people wearing dorky glasses pushing a camera in their face all the time, and so there is a good chance that this will stigmatize all similar devices for years to come, at least until a device can be made unobtrusive (and probably without a camera, or at least with a big red "recording" light to make people comfortable).
Or I guess we may somehow become comfortable with the idea that cameras are just everywhere and you always have to assume you're being recorded from multiple angles at all times.
Glass will be similar to the Segway which never really caught on partly because it's too dorky and draws too much attention to the user to the point that they feel too self-conscious to leave the house with it.
G.
Freedom of privacy in public was never a freedom to begin with.
Freedom to store your own experiences into memory has always been a natural freedom that only death or brain damage could take away from you. Now this natural freedom is being augmented with technology.
Strategy1: Don't do things you want kept secret in public. This is not anything new. You will just have a higher chance of getting noticed if you are doing something particularly interesting than in the past.
Strategy2: Develop thicker skin to the idea that you have no privacy in public, and just live your life. If you are not committing crimes, then the worst that can happen is that someone has a picture of your underwear or something. This isn't embarrassing unless you allow it to embarrass you. Keep in mind that everyone else's underwear will be showing too, and the novelty of seeing someone's underwear will likely wear off in the future. Look at how scandalous it was to see someone's ankles in the past. Obviously people can see more private things than your underwear, but this is just a metaphor and the same principle applies.
What does this actually bring in utility to my life?
"We don't know yet, but buy one, and you'll figure it out. We promise!"
It is in no way shape or form intended to provide any type of AR whatsoever. It saves you the trouble to rummage through your pockets, take out your cell phone and hold it to eye level. The demo videos on Google have been confirmed to be fairly accurate by journos who actually had the chance to try the glasses.
The screen is just inside your peripheral view so you will have to lift your eye up to see what's going on. Chances are you will have to turn the screen on first, by slowly lifting your head or touching the touch thingie at its side.
Most of the comments here are wild speculation based on rumor, very little research, confirmation bias and baseless idiocy. Demo videos, writeups and preliminary reviews have been floating around the net for a couple of months.
20 minutes into the future
As much as I object to an "Opt Out" mentality, we could make this easier, by ensuring that all Google Glass users adhere to the "Obscuring" policy (does not exist yet).
Basically if you're in a coffee shop and wearing your Google Glass, anyone in that shop who is signed into Google would get an alert that they are in proximity to Glass, and could then "opt out" of monitoring video and audio. The Google Glass wearer's device would then just blur our the faces of those who have opted out (easy, Google already does it for Maps), and subtract the audio from those users (harder to do, me thinks).
Anyone using Glass with an active monitoring device in-play (video, audio) SHOULD be notifying the people around them that they're actively recording them. Not only is this illegal in most states, if you're in on private property (i.e. Panera, Starbucks, coffee shop, McDonalds, etc.), you can be ejected and asked to leave.
Additionally, if someone near you objects to you recording them, or their surroundings with your Glass device and asks you to stop recording, you have to comply, or you can be slapped with fines and arrest for "Unauthorized Recording" (i.e. recording laws of the state in question). You can't record someone nor take photos of them without their consent. Do people do it? Sure, but if everyone starts wearing Glass, you'll see more people banned from public spaces (i.e. private property businesses) for doing so.
Also, since you can't use these devices anywhere near government buildings, public transportation systems (trains, planes, airports, bus stations, bridges, highways), it's really going to be a pain to take the device on and off hundreds of times a day.
As one of my colleagues once said: "This is an example of a good idea, poorly implemented."