
Google Glass Teardown - sas
http://catwig.com/google-glass-teardown
======
dreeves
"Although functional, the experience was subpar, because the head proximity
sensor was very unreliable when next to a lens."

I turned off my proximity sensor (that's an option in settings -- "On-Head
Detection") because the false positives (like turning on or off because my
finger covered the sensor briefly) were more annoying than having to turn it
on and off with the power button.

So unless there's more use for the proximity sensor I'd say this is a small
price to pay if you want to attach google glass to your regular glasses.

One possible use for the proximity sensor, though, is wink detection:
[https://github.com/kaze0/winky](https://github.com/kaze0/winky)

On the other hand, there's a dedicated button for taking a picture so winking
as an input method I think would only be useful in situations where you don't
want to use either your hands or your voice. And there may well be such
situations.

~~~
gcb0
people haven't learned from microsoft office clipper!

Everyone rather have control than implied ominous prediction.

i hate that i can't press a button on my phone and switch from
landscape/portrait modes. rotation sensor is silly most of the time.

------
6ren
It uses an old OMAP4430, also in the Samsung Galaxy 2:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMAP#OMAP_4](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMAP#OMAP_4)

As chips get faster, wearable computing will benefit more than smartphones,
because (eg) an iPhone 5 is more powerful than a smartphone can utilize (and
more powerful than even a desktop needs to be, for most mainstream tasks.)

~~~
miahi
The chip is taken from the specs, you cannot see it in the photos.

~~~
lgeek
I think the memory is mounted on top of the SoC as a package on package.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_on_package](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_on_package)

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deadfall
Great, now put it back together. I am the worst at reassembly of electronics I
would have wasted +-$1,500.

~~~
sas
I put it back together and it works fine! Only, it has suffered some
irreversible cosmetic damage..

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Samuel_Michon
Ideal for those who always dreamed of becoming a spy (or Stasi informant).
$1500 gets you a stealthy camera with NSA uplink.

~~~
necubi
Stealthy? Have you actually _seen_ somebody wearing glass? It's the most
noticeable thing about them. During IO there were a bunch of Glass wearers
wandering around Moscone and people couldn't stop staring (myself included).

You'd be much better off with something like this:
[http://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Camera-Watch-Video-
Recorder...](http://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Camera-Watch-Video-
Recorder/dp/B009EOX2YY/ref=sr_1_2?s=photo&ie=UTF8&qid=1371014663&sr=1-2).

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Sure, everyone can see they’re wearing glasses. However, outside of our little
tech circle, most people don’t know that those glasses contain a camera, mic,
and location tracker. And even if a Glass-wearer gets called out, they can
deny that they were recording or taking pictures (unlike if you point a camera
watch at someone).

~~~
snogglethorpe
You could do much better by getting rid of the HUD entirely and embedding just
a camera lens/sensor, which can be really small, into some normal glasses ...
for spy pictures you don't need perfect composition ... 😓

------
raldi
So based on the teardown, anyone want to predict what the MSRP will be?

~~~
tempgoogleglass
499$ Glass is the new iPad.

~~~
hkmurakami
All kidding aside, Glass will go head to head with iWatch or whatever else
wearable devices that the various companies come out with.

~~~
Wingman4l7
A watch computer != a HUD.

A watch could never do augmented reality overlays -- heck, even a phone can do
those better than a watch ever could. IMO that's like saying the iPad will go
head to head with laptops -- it's an apples-to-oranges comparison.

~~~
danellis
Glass can't do AR overlays either, unless you only wanted to overlay a small
area in the upper right of your vision.

~~~
Wingman4l7
It's still a step up from holding your smartphone at arms length in front of
your face. You have to start somewhere =)

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dangoldin
Very well presented and designed too. Thanks for sharing!

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asmithmd1
I see a chip marked SIRF - does it have GPS?

~~~
thejosh
I hope so, as this will enable Google Maps-like functionality.

~~~
tempgoogleglass
Yes it already has inbuilt GPS unit. Source: I own one

~~~
danellis
Then why does it need the MyGlass app running for GPS?

~~~
miahi
Probably for AGPS and a better positioning using both GPS chips and other
positioning sensors (cell towers, wifi). The Glass GPS antenna is tiny, it can
take ages to synchronize without aid.

~~~
danellis
"Ages" must mean more than half an hour inside a car, then. If I don't have
the MyGlass app running on my phone, the location accuracy is so limited that
I can only assume it's based on WiFi.

But what do you mean "without aid"? Even without MyGlass running, Glass still
has WiFi-based location and an Internet connection (tethering is separate from
MyGlass) -- isn't that sufficient for AGPS?

------
dm2
What are the QR codes used for?

I parsed two of them and came up with "|224010712|01294" and "0200014672"

~~~
DanBC
As a complete guess: Much electronics manufacturing requires items to have
individual (or batch) numbers for quality control.

When items fail test you can investigate the batch to find and eliminate
problems of manufacture.

Sometimes this is good and effective and it works. You see that batch #3762387
failed, and that they all used a component from a delivery, so you look at the
other batches using that component and they fail too.

Sometimes, however, it's just a paperwork exercise. It's frustrating for
everyone trying to do the work, and the results are hopeless for anything
because people are just faking the paperwork, or the paperwork is garbage. The
company is only doing all of this to get a logo for their letterhead, and they
must have that logo to do business with some other companies.

In the UK some of these systems (ISO900x; BS5750; etc) are sometimes seen as
expensive makework nonsense.

Let me know if you ever need to find flaws in someone's paperwork because
there are a few things where it's trivially easy to trip them up once you know
what to look for.

~~~
dm2
The quality control and tracking reasons makes sense. It would allow for
faster and more automated identifying of parts.

"Let me know if you ever need to find flaws in someone's paperwork because
there are a few things where it's trivially easy to trip them up once you know
what to look for."

I'm interested in this, can you give some more details?

~~~
DanBC
Electronic companies use ElectroStatic Discharge (ESD) protection. Often this
is the form of a conductive wrist strap connected (via a safety resistor) to
ground. Operators are usually required to check that this strap works using a
test station. They then have to sign a sheet.

The real function of this: You want to know if Bob has a faulty strap, so that
if a batch of product is failing, and you see that Bob is the common element,
you can check Bob's paperwork. When you see that Bob had a faulty wrist strap
on the 14th of June you have found the possible cause of the faults, and you
have some acton you can take.

Several things actually hapen: The wrist strap tests are offered as "Pass" or
"fail". No-one likes saying they have failed a test. People think the purpose
is just to get a working strap, so if it fails they'll do some fiddling,
wiggling the wire until it passes, or licking their wrist. These temporary
measures fail when they're back at the bench, but the paperwork doesn't
reflect that. And people often forget to do the test, so they'll just sign off
a bunch of days when they do remember.

Thus, when you visit a factory you can gauge the understanding of QA
procedures by looking at these kinds of paperwork. You'll see a sheet full of
signatures. That looks great, until you realise that this factory has almost
zero absenteeism, and people rarely take holidays, and sometimes people have
tested their wrist-straps on public holidays when the factory was closed.

When you have a barcode printed on a device it's hard to lose track of the
numbers, but sometimes route-cards are just bits of paper attached to a box.
Ask people how they can be assured that the devices in that box belong to that
route-card.

Paperwork is often designed poorly, and is onerous to do. It's often kludged
in from above, rather than reflecting the actual job. Give people extra work,
while pressuring them to get product out, and they will take shortcuts. That's
often the paperwork. Often just asking people about the paperwork, in a
sympathetic voice ("Oh wow, all these forms, eh? Which are the useful ones,
and which ones are a bit annoying?") will get remarkable answers.

Framing language is handy. Ask people using solder paste (screen printing
circuit boards with paste prior to surface mount pick and place) about "waste"
\- they'll say they don't waste anything. Because no-one likes to waste stuff.
But actually, paste has a life, and waste is part of production. A good answer
would be "We like to keep the paste clean for production, so once it gets old
we move it through to jobs with less-fine pitch components, or we use it for
rework, or we use it for training. I guess you could call that waste. At the
end of life we carefully dispose of it to recyclers, along with our other lead
dross and tin / copper snippings" but people will tend to say "we don't waste
anything" and you can ask them "so, you re-use that paste? It goes back into
the pot, and you use it again?" and they'll say "yep".

Some of these are trick questions and don't really tell you much about actual
production. You just get to know that the QA logo is just paperwork exercise.

If it's any reassurance the QA I experienced for ground-side aviation stuff
was _much_ better - it was rigorous and detailed and investigative and we did
it all properly, and the auditing was very very good.

------
jcbmllgn
Well this just makes me want Glass even more - I wouldn't be able to resist
taking it apart!

------
contingencies
In public surveillance terms, this is basically the equivalent of gluing your
camera to your temple. The Snowcrash quote is pertinent. Glassholes will be
excluded from free spaces.

~~~
DanBC
I don't get why glass is so different from ubiquitous smart phone cameras or
(in the UK) CCTV.

Parents already have problems taking photographs of their children at school
events[1] and people are regularly harassed and arrested because they are
taking photographs in public. Most people seem to think this is too extreme,
but I get the impression that they wouldn't mind if it was happening to glass
users.

As far as public surveillance goes there are much worse situations than actual
people wearing (currently) expensive hardware wandering around. It's cheaper
and better to mount CCTV everywhere; and it's good for the operators to have
hidden[2] low[3] level cameras.

[1] Although I agree with Louis CK about this - don't video the kids, watch
them. The resolution on the kid is much better than on that little phone
screen.

[2] To avoid vandalism.

[3] Face height, not on a tall pole.

~~~
galactus
The difference between Google Glass and smartphones is that with Google Glass
it is much more difficult to know if someone is recording you.

~~~
pezh0re
Well, yes and no. They'll have to basically be staring at you for the duration
of the video - which is somewhat normal in one-on-one conversations, but
sticks out much more in group settings.

------
Amadou
You'd think Star would be a little bit gunshy about wearable electronics. I
kid, Star if you are reading this, I'm kidding!

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joe_bleau
Down for me due to a Cloudflare error: "DNS Points to Prohibited IP".

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driverdan
Well done. Nice site design and beautiful high res images.

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eisen
Can anyone spot where the TI Omap 4 processor is in this?

~~~
lelandbatey
Yep, it's right here: [http://www.catwig.com/google-glass-
teardown/teardown/mainboa...](http://www.catwig.com/google-glass-
teardown/teardown/mainboard-cpuside.jpg)

Of the three largest chips, it's the furthest to the right (in case the large
Texas shape didn't tip you off ;) ).

~~~
miahi
That's a TWL6030 power management chip, used for charging and powering the
board from the battery. There are no side photos, but sometimes there is a
trick you can do with the OMAP: put it under the RAM. It can provide pins for
the RAM to be soldered on.

~~~
jevinskie
Yup, the BeagleBoards do this.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_on_package](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_on_package)

------
suyash
You just open sourced Google's IP related to Hardware Design of Glass. Now
just waiting for cheap knockoff's from China flooding the Walmart's of the
world or flooding eBay catalogs.

~~~
dannyr
Hardware is going to be easy to copy.

Google services (search, maps, etc)? Good luck to the imitators.

~~~
vincentkriek
They could just use the software that is on Glass now. If the hardware is
exactly the same it could work.

