
Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Glasses by Year’s End - mtigas
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/google-to-sell-terminator-style-glasses-by-years-end/
======
mechanical_fish
Great, soon it won't be enough to block browser cookies. I'll have to avoid
glancing at _actual cookies_ lest my search results start filling up with
Snackwells coupons and special offers from the local gym.

~~~
alexgartrell
Man, you've been around here for two years longer than I have. You know that
there's no value added by blatant sarcasm. If you're actually afraid that
Google will use your captured images to serve you unwanted ads (and, btw,
revolutionize computer vision in the process), then say exactly that. Crackin'
wise about snackwells isn't getting anyone anywhere.

~~~
staringispolite
Is sarcasm always unwanted here? I actually chuckled at the beginning until it
turned too serious toward the end.

There was a great TEDx talk on the (well-executed) use of humor, and satire in
particular, to get points across when they would otherwise be disregarded, or
to make bland points more viral:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_bliss_comedy_is_translation.h...](http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_bliss_comedy_is_translation.html)

I don't see a reason to discourage sarcasm out-of-hand, or any other form of
humor. Based on the merits of the individual comment, sure.

~~~
alexgartrell
I would never claim that sarcasm is _always_ unwanted, but it's probably used
an order of magnitude or two more frequently than is useful.

The problem is part of a larger one, people seem to be generally more
interested in pithy, memorable one liners than in starting a discussion -- the
easiest way to do this is to say something vitriolically sarcastic. People who
agree with you will up-vote you, and you'll get some measure of affirmation
from that.

The issue with that approach is that Hacker News should be a place where
discussion flourishes. If the parent had said something to the effect of "This
presents a troublesome, albeit interesting, avenue for further data
aggregation, which could be used to target ads or sold to third parties," it
would have likely kicked off an interesting discussion (both about the
feasibility of such data aggregation (computer vision, mobile aggregation,
etc.) and the societal costs of allowing such aggregation).

Instead, he went for the funny one-hitter, which framed the debate in such a
way (by suggesting that it was inevitable and going to be used for evil) that
anyone with even a slightly differing opinion is prevented from saying
anything.

I don't mean to single out mechanical_fish specifically, many people here are
guilty of this, but it essentially makes Hacker News more of an
announcement/sharing forum (like twitter) than a discussion forum, which was
one of the things that attracted me (and I'm sure many others) to it in the
first place.

So I guess my larger point is that we should be more mindful of this stuff.
It's more important to frame a relevant discussion than it is to "be right,"
and we should embrace that by posing interesting questions and answering them
deliberately (being careful to stick to facts and being careful with the
speculation, which easily morphs into FUD).

~~~
mquander
For the record, _"This presents a troublesome, albeit interesting, avenue for
further data aggregation, which could be used to target ads or sold to third
parties"_ is a lousy comment too. The problem is not the form, it's the
content. What do you mean, it's _"troublesome, albeit interesting?"_ That is
totally devoid of insight.

The reason I read a comment thread is because I want to find things that
experts have to say. If grellas has some comment about the applicability of
privacy law to the monitoring of someone's immediate surroundings, then great,
let's hear it. But if I don't walk away from the comment having learned
something, I would rather it not be there.

------
pshc
Not saying this is what they're selling, but: Real-time overlays are still
impractical, right? My intuition is--without a really high speed camera and
high fidelity environmental cues--the overlay will have a lag and high
uncertainty wrt where you're actually looking... or has the state of the art
moved on? Or are their labs advancing the state of the art?

Any idea how they're making the screen usable at that focal length? Don't VR
headsets usually need optics much more bulky than sunglasses for comfortable
viewing?

Anyway, even if it's smartphone-like functionality in a more convenient form
factor, I'm looking forward to being an early adopter.

~~~
sbierwagen
The Nintendo 3DS does AR overlays with mostly tolerable lag, though I wouldn't
want to be looking at the world through it:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkbWZiZ01G0>

~~~
Ralith
It needs an easily pattern-matched reference point, though.

~~~
sbierwagen
[http://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2012/01/16/capturing-
accura...](http://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2012/01/16/capturing-accurate-
camera-poses)

------
Steko
From the linked previous post about wearables:

[http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/wearing-your-
comput...](http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/wearing-your-computer-on-
your-sleeve/)

"Kids will play virtual games with their friends, where they meet in a park
and run around chasing virtual creatures for points."

Lucky kids. I suddenly feel like Old Man Luddite because I grew up playing
with sticks and crap.

Related:

[http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/01/the-5-best-toys-of-
all-...](http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/01/the-5-best-toys-of-all-time/)

~~~
cullenking
The funny thing is, kids already do this without special glasses...

~~~
ajuc
Now poor kids will buy fake virtual glasses to look cool running around.

------
SoftwareMaven
I am horrible at remembering names. The day these things can do facial
recognition againt my address book, Facebook, and LinkedIn profiles and pop up
a little box with the person I'm looking at's name is the day I will never go
without glasses again.

~~~
barefoot
That would be amazing, and really useful at tech conferences.

One could imagine something like Klout running in the background and telling
you who's important, who has similar interest to you, etc... The social
implications are mind blowing.

~~~
xxbondsxx
That's a big idea... Although I would feel a bit bad bringing the online
social hierarchy / totem pole into the real world. We already care _too_ much
about Klout and Karma scores, the last thing we need is twitter gods parting
the seas at tech conferences.

~~~
egypturnash
At long last, I can see how much Whuffie people have!

------
msg
Here are some high-quality sf books you can use to imagine the possibilities
of this technology.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Light>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbows_End>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_State>

~~~
jfoutz
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash>

~~~
mattstreet
Are you referring to how awesome the AR seems to be in snow crash, or the
horrible brain viruses they were vulnerable to.

------
sbierwagen
Huh, two days ago Gabe Newell was talking about Valve maybe going into the
hardware business to do wearable displays:

[http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/valves-
gabe...](http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/valves-gabe-newell-
talks-wearable-computers-rewarding-players-and-whether-w)

Well timed.

------
gfodor
My biggest concern is if this is executed poorly it could undermine future
attempts to bring wearable computing to the mainstream. It still feels a bit
early for this to work well. Google can pull off the technical challenges,
surely, but the usability hurdles here are outside of their comfort zone.

~~~
DanI-S
The article makes it sound like this is more an 'opt in through purchase'
experiment rather than a serious product launch - perhaps that is to mitigate
this particular concern.

~~~
seancron
I remembering reading somewhere that they might actually test this like they
did with Chromebooks (Cr-48) and distribute them to people to get feedback.

------
rkaplan
Does anyone see this actually catching on in the next five years and becoming
something more than a gimmick?

I'm as excited about the prospect of viewing the world through a HUD as the
next guy, but I can't imagine these glasses looking sleek in the slightest,
and they will likely be rather bulky.

But beyond ugliness, it seems to me that someone would rather pull out their
smartphone than put on a pair of HUD glasses for any given use case for this
product. Augmented reality is "cool" but I've never used an AR app more than
two days after I downloaded it.

I think for it to catch on, this technology would have to be baked into
glasses that are designed to be worn all the time, not just put on when
needed. People aren't going to carry around AR glasses in their back pocket
with their phones and wallets. So a place to start might be enhancing the
glasses used by people with vision trouble, rather than creating a whole new
glasses product.

~~~
city41
I can think of two markets that this may do well in: motorcyclists and
runners.

Motorcycle HUDs have existed for quite some time now, but more competition
especially from someone as big as Google will inject some much needed
innovation.

I can also see this being popular with running enthusiasts. During my races I
wear a paper band around my wrist with my ideal times for each mile, and then
have my GPS watch set to show instantaneous pace. A race involves constantly
looking between watch, paper printout and your surroundings. If I had a HUD, I
might even enjoy the race a bit :) (that was slightly sarcastic)

------
orofino
I've been waiting for this for a long time. I wear glasses currently and have
always felt that some kind of overlay could provide tremendous value.

From simple reminders, augmenting my environment with meta data, or giving
access to real time updates about almost anything the possibilities are almost
endless.

Batteries are going to truly be the limiting factor IMO. Forget plastics, the
future is batteries. I assume version 1 of the product will require some kind
of external battery pack, I'd think it was certainly worth it if the tech is
what it should be.

~~~
downx3
I was thinking as a glasses wearer - that I'd be excluded from the product.

Have you tried to wear 3D glasses over your existing pair?

I wonder how lightweight they'll be, especially if you factor in batteries.

~~~
yew
If they're lightweight enough you could have the lenses replaced and just wear
the digital pair. That's what I'm planning on looking into, once the
technology matures a little.

------
shalmanese
Have Google figured out a way to solve the accomodation/vergence problems
inherent in screen based 3D displays
([http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=6402...](http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=64028))?
Because if not, these things are going to suffer from the same dismal failure
that every other 3D display product has over the last 30 years.

~~~
jfoutz
It's not clear they're going for a 3d experience. My guess is it's just a hud
without eye tracking. A camera for labeling the world a'la virtual light would
be cool, but still laggy. Does not matter. I would insert the picture of a
kitten with the text "want" but this is not reddit.

~~~
shalmanese
It needs to be 3D to pitch text. Hold a piece of text 3 inches away from your
eyeball and try reading it. Then imagine how painful it would be to have that
there 8 hours a day.

~~~
jfoutz
I disagree. Every single consumer 3d tech is a fixed focal length. Neither the
3d tv, nor the movie screen changes distance. there's nothing special in the
glasses to change distance, it's simply blocking out images from one eye.

I think you mean something like the image needs to appear some distance away
from the eye. Yes, i agree with that. There are old solutions to that problem.

You could show each eye a different image, and get a depth effect... but that
has all of the problems you pointed out.

------
BadassFractal
Exciting news! Just yesterday I was watching John Carmack's interview from
2011's QuakeCon and at the end he mentioned that he was going to soon start
playing with display glasses to see if anything interesting would come out of
it (for id, I imagine).

Driverless car, now digital glasses. I'm positively impressed that Google
keeps pushing the envelope in all these different fields.

~~~
ramses0
[https://twitter.com/#!/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1716253541617008...](https://twitter.com/#!/ID_AA_Carmack/status/171625354161700866)

"""A HMD without head tracking is counter-productive – the view feels like it
swims opposite every tiny head motion."""

This guy knows his pixels. :-) Tweet was just this week, I believe. He's had a
few others w.r.t. head tracking, FOV / display issues with fancy new displays.
Definitely interesting to see his challenges.

~~~
BadassFractal
That's awesome, really exciting to know that he actually started experimenting
with the tech.

------
dfranke
Relevant: <http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1994-10-12/>

------
reader5000
This is potentially awesome for two reasons:

1\. I can lay in bed and read an ebook without having to hold a device.

2\. Google can parse any situation I may be in and recommend the optimal
action based on its data of every single other human on earth.

~~~
groby_b
In combination, it will recommend that you finally get out of bed and do
something productive ;)

~~~
rudiger
i saved this, becuase thw imagry of a man sitting jyst his boxrs and a virtyal
realitu device, contraposed by your commebt of a man not _doing_ anything but
sittinf on the bed!

~~~
buu700
Are you high, perchance?

~~~
natrius
No, he's just having difficulties typing from his glasses.

------
ck2
Even the smallest smartphone chipsets still need big batteries, I suspect it's
going to be a pocket device with a wire or bluetooth of some kind going to the
glasses.

Still an amazingly aggressive technology product.

~~~
Lewisham
I hadn't considered the battery aspect. Having a wire would kill this in the
consumer market. Bluetooth to a central pack... Maybe.

~~~
dandelany
Unless I've missed a big recent announcement, wireless energy transfer, even
over a short distance like pocket-to-glasses, is a long way off from being
feasible. My money is on a tiny battery built into the glasses themselves, and
a screen/CPU optimized for using miniscule amounts of energy. The problem is
that wireless _data_ transfer still requires quite a bit of power, so they
will either need to do lots of optimization to only transfer data when
absolutely necessary (and turn the transceiver off the rest of the time), or
come up with a system in which the glasses talk to a central device in your
pocket using a low-energy data transfer scheme, and the central device talks
to the network over WiFi/3G.

(On second thought, maybe that's what you meant by "bluetooth to a central
pack")

~~~
hamburgersushi
Theoretically it doesn't NEED a backlight, and it only needs to display on the
(presumably) LED display.

Something along the lines of <http://croakies.com/> might be reasonable.

With no wires, it's going to be a battery that also has glass on the front.
What IS the feasible distance for induction? Even the copin displays require
5v.

------
notatoad
i find this very hard to believe. it seems obvious to me that smartphones and
tablets have completely filled the niche invented by the HUD glasses of
yesteryear's science fiction. they will never be popular, because they are too
invasive. people like to be able to put the internet in their pocket and take
it out again when they need it.

i wouldn't be surprised if google has a bunch of engineers working on the
technology that could be used in HUD glasses, but i would be very, very
surprised to see anything ever come to market. google will not enter the
hardware market with such a risky product.

~~~
jhickner
They'll never be popular? I think the main impediment to wearable computing
has been how socially awkward it is. If someone actually came up with a
discrete, well-designed glasses-based computer, I think it would be immensely
popular.

AR won't really come into it's own until such a platform exists. Holding a
phone in front of your face is just too awkward.

\- read any language

\- never forget names

\- navigational aids (obviously)

\- identify any bird, plant, etc.

\- a whole raft of products just geared around augmenting the museum
experience

\- look at a printed equation and see it solved

\- look at a printed question and see it answered (within certain constraints
obviously)

\- look at binary, hexidecimal, etc. and see it converted to decimal

\- look at a color and see pantone and hex color codes

\- read existing printed books, but with access to immediate dictionary
lookup, references, etc.

I could go on and on... if this ever hits, the ramifications will be
extraordinary.

~~~
RodgerTheGreat
Your second-to-last point seems like a wonderfully simple, life-changing
application- you can negate many of the problems of colorblindness by
textually identifying the colors of objects and selectively enhancing the
contrast between objects. (Perhaps overlaying textures or something?)

------
jfoutz
I can't imagine them not looking hideous, but i want them. i've wanted them
for pretty much two decades now. I'm sure they will suck. I will happily give
google a pile of money for the few weeks of usage i'm guaranteed to get out of
them. It's just a bonus if they're actually useful.

------
libraryatnight
I wonder if this will eventually intersect with the gamification trends. This
article had me imagining a crude augmented reality MMO, routine tasks are
assigned point values and so are items for purchase. Walking through the store
you could see that Sara Lee white bread nets you 100xp, paying your mortgage
on time, Bank of America has awarded you 1000xp. A look at someone and the HUD
displays their level and point value along with their various badges. Of
course check-ins will be automatic.

I doubt this iteration will be very advanced, but the article definitely made
me think.

~~~
radarsat1
This guy has something to say about that kind of thing:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real...](http://www.ted.com/talks/jesse_schell_when_games_invade_real_life.html)

Worth listening to, it gets kind of scary toward the end.

------
robin_reala
I”m really surprised that no-one’s talking up the accessibility benefits of
something like this. Imagine a version for blind users that dumped the screen
in favour of a headset and mic. A little voice recognition and your glasses
could tell you where you are, what you’re facing, and even do basic hazard
avoidance. That sounds invaluable.

Actually, it sounds like the 90s kids show Knightmare :)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciIfcYwI6Ps>

------
derrida
How do I opt out of all face recognition? I have a right that my personal life
not be exploited for advertising by a large company.

~~~
dredmorbius
There's always the paper bag solution.

Most scanners to date have been moderately vulnerable to blocking devices.
Say, a backscatter laser of some sort. And if personal identifiers are based
on you carrying a broadcast device (e.g.: an info-leaking phone), one simple
solution is ... don't do that.

I suspect that both the technology and its countermeasures will first be
utilized by government (and corporate) "security forces".

Hrm ... related query: is it possible to build a simple device which would
short out RFID scanners? If it becomes trivial enough to destroy the readers,
then ubiquitous, obnoxious uses might at least become more expensive.

~~~
derrida
I don't think you are getting rid of RFID, they are too cheap and low-tech to
get rid of. I hear Aluminium foil does the trick.

~~~
dredmorbius
RFID has its uses.

It's also got its abuses.

The tags are cheap. The scanners somewhat less so (especially when you add the
labor cost of repair/replacement).

I'm not talking about killing in-store scanners and the like. However if I was
aware of privacy-stealing roaming scanners in places they had no business to
be in ... well. Raising the cost of data acquisition might be an entertaining
hobby.

------
theBobMcCormick
Sounds like a more generalized, urban version of the Mod Live ski goggles
(<http://www.reconinstruments.com/products/mod>). The Mod Live googles look
amazing, but pretty bulky (plus, I don't ski). If the Google glasses end up
being half as cool I'd definitely be interested.

------
sopooneo
Is this article implying the glasses will work like a HUD, with the image
displayed on a transparent surface that you can also see through? Or is it an
opaque screen off to the side? Or it couldn't possibly be an opaque screen
over your eyes that redisplays what you would have seen behind it?

------
JabavuAdams
I wonder what the field of view is? That's been my main problem with HMDs in
the past. Maybe now I'll finally be able to build my wearable computer from
COTS components.

Exercise: taking the hardware as a given, what would you do with it, what
software do you need?

Steve Mann: 20 years ahead of the curve.

------
jakeonthemove
If this is true and if the display is good enough to let you browse websites,
then it's awesome!

------
jobu
If anyone hasn't read Daemon & FreedomTM by Daniel Suarez I highly suggest it.
His use of tech like this in the novels was pretty well thought out. Can't
wait until Google uses these to integrate a MMORPG with RL.

------
mbeswetherick
Google is pretty ballsy.

After their Safari tracking system fiasco they announce this: the ultimate
form of tracking. It shouldn't come as a surprise that Google would make this
considering the rest of their products.

I love Google and their products, but I feel this takes it over the line. At
what point will Google be satisfied with the amount of information they're
able to collect? Maybe the world will become some strange Utopia where
products like these glasses are acceptable and Google made the right call, but
Google should take a step back and realize they're making technology for
humans, not robots.

If this trend continues I bet we'll see Google Children roaming our street.
Ok, that's pretty hyperbolic but you get my point.

~~~
coopdog
Opt out?

They're just giving you more choice, not less ala apple

------
granitepail
I definitely checked the date a few times, but this makes an awful lot of
sense given Google's position. At this point it's really just hardware to
bridge the accessibility gap.

------
joshontheweb
But can they look good? Those oakleys linked to are awful. If they look stupid
then I doubt they will work... Until apple steps in and does it right, that is
;)

------
mrbill
The first thing that came to mind is Manfred Macx in _Accelerando_, and how
hopelessly lost he is _without_ his AR goggles.

------
hesdeadjim
All I have to say is: please, please, please let this actually happen and work
even 50% as well as my imagination wants it to.

------
tehdanish
The article implies they are a completely separate Android device. Why not
just interface with Android / iOS devices?

------
rasur
Cue the inevitable "what happened to Steve Mann's EyeTap glasses" comment. Now
there was an opportunity 'missed'.

------
bootload
_"... One Google employee said the glasses would tap into a number of Google
software products that are currently available and in use today, but will
display the information in an augmented reality view ..."_

wonder how many Steve Mann patents they are using? ~
<http://www.eecg.toronto.edu/~mann/>

------
lucian1900
I think it should just use my Android phone. Why yet another Android device on
me?

------
TechNewb
Will they be prescription glasses? They should team with Warby Parker.

------
neworbit
I am definitely going to write a "THEY LIVE" plugin

------
staringispolite
And Google Goggles is already taken. WHY?!

------
ctdonath
William Gibson, "Virtual Light".

'nuff said.

------
berntb
How is the reading experience? Can you get 80 chars into it?

I hope there isn't a good one hand keyboard interface (chording?) so you can
write email/code while bicycling/driving/etc -- with my simultaneous capacity,
it would be my death...

------
wavephorm
Yeah so everything I look at is going to go through Google's servers, and be
processed and display Google ads constantly no matter where I'm looking. Yeah
right. Google is flat-out lunatic if they think consumers want this level of
invasion into their lives. They're taking the Orwellian computing idea, big
brother always on everywhere, to the absolute extreme here.

------
rabidsnail
Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Next Time They Start Getting Bad Press

------
Steko
Pro: Because it's Android we can hack an awesome DBZ power level widget into
the HUD.

Con: The glasses hit you up to join G+ every 30 seconds.

~~~
moe
Con: Your entire viewport lags by 10-200ms with random jitter.

~~~
Steko
Pro: Candy eating robot mascots.

Con: You show your friend the cool notification bar and they say "looks like
they just took it from iOS 5"

Achievement Unlocked: _Alpha & Omega: have the highest and lowest rated
comment in a top rated thread_.

