
Google co-founder Sergey Brin spotted wearing Project Glass prototype IRL - jasondc
http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/06/google-project-glass-sergey-brin/
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forgotusername
You'd have thought the company would be capable of subtler PR than pimping an
AR headset at a blindness awareness event.

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hyperbovine
Blindness is defined as worse than 20/400 with the best correction possible.
At the low end of the scale you could probably still focus on an HUD. Even
with only the ability to sense light from dark I could see these being useful.

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freehunter
You know, now you've got me wondering. If glasses like this could be put into
an area where a legally blind person could focus, could it show a video feed
of what's ahead and allow them to see clearer?

Or am I misunderstanding just how bad "worse than 20/400" is?

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fl3tch
If a HUD could focus it, then why couldn't corrective glasses?

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freehunter
Glasses focus the light into your eye, still relying on your eye to focus on
distance. The HUD in my example would flatten the distance and show a 2D
picture in front of your eye at a point where you can naturally focus.

Like I said, I don't know if this is possible.

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nightpool
Am I the only one who wants these only to write new software for them? Voice-
controlled is nice and flashy, but I doubt would suffice for any "real" work.
I, personally, like the idea of gloves and a windowed interface on HUDs, the
kind of gloves that let you tap your fingers to do certain actions, along with
some identifier for tracking so you could "click" on the screen. I was also
thinking about looking into a 3d windowed interface, relative to your glasses,
but detachable into the enviroment so you could put you virtual keyboard on
your desk and go get coffee; when you came back, it'd still be there.

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DasIch
I really hope we can remove the gloves and use image recognition instead.

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nightpool
The reason I like the gloves is it provides you with the 8 click-like
functions, more if you use more then two fingers, and you don't even have to
have it in the field of vision of the camera to use it, letting you keep your
hands by your sides and maybe use eye-tracking for "mousing"

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zephjc
Gloves would be a '90s throw-back solution when the Google Glass device should
be using the camera to detect your finger/hand positions.

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experiment0
This is exciting. It shows how different Google is to Microsoft and other
companies that produce these "future product" videos. Google appears to have
made real world progress, rather than just a great marketing video. I can't
wait to find out what functionality these early prototypes have!

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theon144
Hey, don't bad-mouth Microsoft out of all giant tech companies. Have you seen
what Microsoft Research has been putting out? (Not to mention they finally
brought 3D scanning/mo-cap into the consumer price range)

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fatjokes
not really. i know they publish a lot of good papers though. the only
exception is kinect. that was a game-changer.

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laconian
MSR developed the idea further, but Kinect originally came from an
acquisition.

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benologist
Summary spam.

[https://plus.google.com/u/0/111091089527727420853/posts/EuMZ...](https://plus.google.com/u/0/111091089527727420853/posts/EuMZWxrWtQa)

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zrgiu_
How do these work ? Do they project on the lens, or on your retina ? Is there
any possibility these might be good for people who already wear glasses?

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jahewson
Neither, there are no lenses, really we should call this a "headset" rather
than "glasses". There's a small rectangular glass screen which is projected on
to. Seems like there would be no problem wearing contact lenses with them but
not glasses.

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hastur
1) Scoble wrote Brin's glasses had lenses.

2) If it were just the tiny rectangle, wouldn't they be very inconvenient? I
mean, I would have to look up constantly, instead of having image projected on
my field of view. Pretty tiresome in the longer run. Plus, the "screen" would
be too tiny, even this close to the eye.

I know the demo video was just CG, but it did suggest that the image would be
projected across the whole field of view. (Well, the "main" part at least -
i.e. whatever your typical glasses cover.)

So I'm really hoping this tiny rectangle is just a reflector / prism that
projects the picture on glass lenses or the eye itself. Otherwise it's just
not good enough.

(And I disagree this would obstruct your normal vision. The projected image
would be semi transparent and it would affect just one eye.)

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Symmetry
Well, I didn't see anything in the article where Scroble mentioned whether
they had glass lenses or not, but did you look at the pictures in the article?
There were very clearly no lenses.

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koeselitz
It's not in the article, but in the comments on Robert Scroble's G+ post, he
does indeed state that they had lenses. Which, yes, is very odd, since I can't
see any lenses either.

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tommi
For all we know those might've been regular glasses without any functionality.

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tspiteri
There was a blueish light flashing on Brin's eyes.

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wickedchicken
Maybe he had a little too much spice that night?

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ktizo
He who controls the spice...

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swalsh
I'm pretty excited for these glasses, but I'm curious. Is there any
speculation on the potential damage this could do to an individuals vision?

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WiseWeasel
I can only speculate on the damage to your social life.

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swalsh
I got out of the office at 11pm last night, and I moved to the other side of
the charles river.... so, not much to damage :D

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lessallan
Anyone seen the spoof? <http://youtu.be/5vrxfiXU5lo>

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ericdarnell
Yeah, it's quite violent. But I loved it.

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po
He wore this at a "Dining in the Dark charity event for the Foundation
Fighting Blindness" event? Does anyone think that seems a bit… insensitive? I
mean I guess they have audio as well but is version 1.0 going to be blind-
accessible?

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Tyrannosaurs
Do you stop using your eyes around blind people just to avoid being
insensitive?

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mcrider
Yes, if its a charity event for blind people and the most media attention this
event gets is for a product that is possibly the coolest thing to ever happen
to your eyeballs.

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melling
I find your lack of imagination disturbing. I guess it's kind of vogue to be a
politically correct whiner these days. Plus, it has been quite a few years
since Star Trek Next Gen has been on so let me help you here. Let's say we are
both blind and we have a pair of glasses like these with a camera, a computer,
some image recognition, perhaps even the ability to read. Now, we're blind so
none of this technology is useful to us right? Siri, please help this HN
reader.

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melling
Ugh, I got downvoted for my sarcasm. It also seems like the original message
to which I replied was changed so I guess my message was received, but my
reply does seem out of place.

Anyway, if you're bind, your lenses will be opaque and you'll be using audio,
and maybe ... just Google Jordy on Star. This type of device will change your
life if you're blind. You could "read" HN, for example.

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villagefool
In the image he looks like a borg.

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nirvana
This was a big thing in the 1990s. A lot of people walked around with heads up
displays attached to their glasses. I'm sure technology has gotten smaller,
but I've not seen anything indicating that google has made a break thru. The
google promo video is very much like the kinds of promo videos people made in
the 1990s.

Here's a picture of what they looked like back then:
<http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/349371/enlarge>

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dpark
> _A lot of people walked around with heads up displays attached to their
> glasses._

No they did not. You make it sound like this was a popular trend. Wearing an
awkward head-mounted display connected to a crappy laptop was something only a
few super-geeks with disposable money did.

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vladekm
Yes. Share your location, check in, record everything. Enjoy your yoke. Big
brother is watching, idiots.

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VikingCoder
You use the internet?

You use a credit card?

You pay taxes?

You have a driver's license or state ID?

You have a social security number?

You have a mortgage, or pay rent?

Your birth was recorded with a birth certificate?

You went to a public school?

You have a credit rating?

You use a bank?

You use customer loyalty cards from vendors?

You use email?

You walk on streets with security cameras on them?

You have an employer?

You have a CELL PHONE?!?!

GET OFF THE GRID, MAN!

You don't need to share your location, you don't need to check in, you don't
need to record everything - your location is already known, and everything is
already recorded. Unless you've already rejected all of the technologies I've
listed above, objecting to this new one is pretty absurd.

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fl3tch
To be fair, that data is distributed across many entities. What people worry
about is any single company aggregating too much data. Google can get all your
searches, email, some purchases (through Wallet), social connections and
interests, phone calls, voice mails and location data. Now they could
literally record everything you see. I think that's why some people might be
reticent about using this.

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jrockway
Let's say you had all that information about me. What would you do with it?

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glanch
Sell it to the highest bidder!

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jrockway
Who would then do what?

I'll start: given my credit card transaction log, thieves could show up at my
apartment and steal my Amazon packages before one of my neighbors brings them
inside.

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bestes
These Google links have become worse than Flash for me. I would really rather
just read the article and look at the pics and not have to "sign in" and
everything that entails.

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Tichy
The article is on Engadget, not on Google.

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lazugod
Then Google should pick better people to leak their products to.

