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The New Google Glass Is All Business

Posted by samzenpus on from the check-it-out dept.

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."

25 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Isn't HoloLens way more useful for this? by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    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.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Isn't HoloLens way more useful for this? by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      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 power.

      Microsoft Holo actually looks like there might be a usage case for it. Glass not so much.

    2. Re: Isn't HoloLens way more useful for this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hololens also has a very tiny visible area. The pretend PR videos were just that, Pretend.

  2. That's a good sign. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

    I'm guessing that their decision to pitch rev. 2 at the 'people who propped up the blackberry holster market' demographic suggests that the Glass team was not entirely successful at coming up with a version that isn't socially alienating and ridiculous looking?

  3. Fine with me by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

    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.

    --

    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  4. Does it still record everybody around it? by smoothnorman · · Score: 1

    That is the quintessential creepy aspect: if you are around someone wearing them, then your image, your speech, possibly the image of any object you're holding (e.g. credit card) becomes the property and use of a corporation. So, just like someone walking around with an leaf-blower full of anthrax, many of us don't want to be around anyone wearing one.

    1. Re:Does it still record everybody around it? by frnic · · Score: 1

      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.

    2. Re:Does it still record everybody around it? by smoothnorman · · Score: 2

      exactly! there are private places where the panopticon have been (perforce) put in place. therefore, it should be everywhere public, and in every coffee shop and preschool, and anyone that doesn't like that, is foolish because others have already got used to that in their private places.

    3. Re:Does it still record everybody around it? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      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.

    4. Re:Does it still record everybody around it? by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      Kind of like your cell phone?

      You're really stretching the definition of "kind of" there, bub.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    5. Re:Does it still record everybody around it? by stephanruby · · Score: 1

      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.

    6. Re:Does it still record everybody around it? by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      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).

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  5. As someone who does structural inspections... by Overzeetop · · Score: 2

    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...

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    1. Re:As someone who does structural inspections... by Harlequin80 · · Score: 1

      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.

    2. Re: As someone who does structural inspections... by weilawei · · Score: 1

      Deleting posts (outright censorship) would ensure Slashdot goes in the toilet. As long as they don't, there's still a chance.

    3. Re:As someone who does structural inspections... by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      For that application, I'd be more excited about Project Tango. 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.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  6. Re:Hello welcome to your job and Creepy R US. by Qzukk · · Score: 1

    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.

    --
    If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
  7. Re:It's creepier. Much creepier. by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    Lower cost option for Comic Store Guy: An iPhone in his shirt pocket, with just the lens peeking out.

  8. The Segway problem by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, 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.

    1. Re:The Segway problem by Kjella · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    2. Re:The Segway problem by Dagger2 · · Score: 1

      Something like the iBot, 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.)

  9. Re:It's creepier. Much creepier. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That is an awfully specific scenario. How long have you worked in a comic store?

  10. Dash/action cam replacement by aNonnyMouseCowered · · Score: 1

    The new business Glass looks like the more mobile replacement for the dash/action cams beloved by extreme sports enthusiasts and Russians, if the device is made rugged. The police force could also be a target market, although I'm not sure Google would want the "police state" association. (This might prove useful in settling police abuse cases though.)

  11. Still only in the top right? by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 1

    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?

    --
    A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
  12. Left-eyed this time? by LaughingRadish · · Score: 1

    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"?