Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Computerized glasses?



“Nothing.” Sharon focused once more on the names of stores and roads that floated by in the field of vision of her new glasses. “Are these like those prototype glasses Google is working on?”

And then a little later, the sound in them is explained to Sharon:

“Your glasses are also stereo speakers, specifically they are located in the temple arms.”
However, she suffers from sensory overload after wearing them for a while:
Sharon had her glasses off to rest her eyes from the multitude of words that hovered over the buildings, streets, and stores in the area.    
Now back to real life. "Google Glass" is the prototype that Google has been working on for quite some time. 


(Google Glass logo)

This Wikipedia article has a good summary of the research and development. This is where the state of the project stands currently:
According to Google, Project Glass was ready to "graduate" from Google Labs, the experimental phase of the project.[BBC reference]
The device is currently not available for sale, but Google remains committed to developing the next model. 

The main concerns that have been raised about Google Glass relates to privacy, since they are...and new models will continue to be...capable of recording video and sound. I'm not going to discuss that here, since some of the characters in my novel  had violated a great deal of privacy by hacking into people's personal computers and into some of the most powerful computers in the world, by this point in the story (I may discuss that particular subject in a future post).

As I wrote my novel and tried to imagine what wearing glasses like these would be like, it occurred to me how distracting it could become if too much information was visible in one's field of vision. After a while, I added the feature of my fictional version of the glasses having voice control to turn off some of the features. 

Nevertheless, the problem remains one of distraction. Walking could be problematic if one is reading information off of their glasses. True multi-taskers are rare, and we've all experienced what it's like talking to someone who's on facebook or texting and not REALLY listening...

Questions I still have about Google Glass:

  1. Is the text and imagery that's projected onto the glass always in focus for the wearer? For example, if their eyes focus on something a few inches away and then suddenly on the sunset, does the focus of the projected imagery remain clear and readable?
  2. Are there already apps for Google Glass that allow names of locations to "hover" over them as the wearer physically approaches these places?
  3. (a fun question) Can interactive games be designed that would allow projected animations on the glass "react" to things the viewer sees in his or her field of vision?