While there’s been no end of speculation about Google’s Project Glass, nobody’s actually had chance to try the technology out independently—until now. The Wall Street Journal’s Spencer Ante was lucky enough to try a pair of the glasses out for 10 minutes, and his verdict is mixed. More »
It’s about time someone got the chance to test-drive Google’s $1,500 smart-glasses independently, without any rose-colored lenses getting in the way. The Wall Street Journal‘s Spencer E. Ante just became that lucky person — he played with prototype specs for 10 minutes and described them as a “wearable smartphone” that weighs just “a few ounces” and is smoothly controlled by voice commands. Saying “OK, Glass” brought up a menu in front of his right eye that made it “easy” to record stills or video, although unfortunately the device wasn’t quite ready to show off any phone, messaging or navigation functions.
Overall, Ante acknowledged the “long-term potential” of Project Glass, but in its current form he found the HUD to be “disorienting” and “uncomfortable” — partly because he instinctively kept closing his left eye to make it all work. Clearly Google still has some work to do if the device is to make a better first impression, but no doubt there’s also room for acclimatization on the wearer’s part. If the military can get along with this type of eyewear, then hopefully so can everyone else.
Filed under: Displays, Wearables
WSJ gets early, slightly uncomfortable look at Google’s Project Glass originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 03:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
There’s really no denying the fact that Google Glass has made a splash with the technophiles of the world, but so far, the campaign surrounding Google Glass has been mostly hype and not nearly enough talk. The Wall Street Journal got to spend some time with Google Glass recently, and thankfully gave us some new details about next year’s headset. Needless to say, Google Glass has quite a few things going for it, but at this early stage in development, some key components are still absent.
Of course we know that Google Glass is meant to give us hands-free smartphone functionality, but The Wall Street Journal‘s write-up goes a little bit deeper than that. That tiny little screen you see on the right side of the glasses houses the heads-up display, which is navigated through voice commands. The heads up display offers a number of different options, from using the camera to record video and take pictures to opening up Google Maps. The author of the story, Spencer Ante, says that the expensive pair of specs weighs only a few ounces, has a built-in battery that has taken up residence in one of the arms, and features two microphones to pick up your voice commands.
While that all sounds exciting, unfortunately Google didn’t have most of the big features up and running when Ante got to test them out. The ability to snap a picture was there, as was time-lapse functionality, allowing users to snap a new picture every few seconds. Other than that, however, it seems that Google Glass is still very much in the prototype phase, as other other features like Google Maps and calling hadn’t been implemented yet.
The idea is certainly solid, but at the moment, it seems that Google hasn’t implemented enough features to be able to recommend picking up a pair of the $1,500 glasses. Google Glass is currently scheduled for an early 2013 launch, and you can bet that by the time headsets become available for purchase, they’ll be much more fleshed out than they are now. Stay tuned, because we’ll undoubtedly be hearing more about Google Glass soon.
Google Glasses expand beyond wearable camera is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Welcome back to Monday, folks. We’re in the final stretch before Apple’s big event kicks off, and with just a couple of days left before everything goes down, the iPhone 5 is making a splash in a big way. The (hopefully) incoming handset was given the title of “biggest upgrade in consumer electronics history” by one enthusiastic analyst today. T-Mobile is offering an “Unlocked and Unlimited” deal for the iPhone even though it doesn’t carry the device itself, and we got word today that Apple suppliers have started shipping new 13.3-inch MacBook Pros with Retina Display and a new line of all-in-one iMacs.
In other news, it turns out that AntiSec may not have stolen all of those Apple UDIDs from the FBI like the group originally claimed, and the LG Escape was leaked shortly before being confirmed by the company. Toys R Us has a new tablet on offer, and it’s aimed directly at your children, while TTP is looking to give Google Glass a run for its money with some new specs of its own. Speaking of Google Glass, the headsets made an appearance at Fashion Week, with designer Diane von Furstenberg sending her models onto the runway while wearing them.
The FBI has rolled out a $1 billion facial tracking initiative, and it seems that GoDaddy’s network of hosted websites has been taken down by a lone hacker associated with Anonymous. Google says that 180 “fiberhoods” qualify for Google Fiber service after a lengthy preliminary sign-up period, and a new Samsung Galaxy Note II leak suggests that the new phablet will be launching at Verizon. The founder of The Pirate Bay has been deported to Cambodia, while Samsung’s hopes for a 13-megapixel camera in the Galaxy Note II were dashed when LG bought up most of the stock from suppliers.
Sony is launching the first installment in its new Wonderbook series in November, and today is the day that the Steam Big Picture Beta comes to televisions everywhere. Bethesda’s Pete Hines doesn’t see the need for a new generation of consoles just yet, some scientists are now thinking that Mars was too hot to support life in the past, and Nielsen has discovered that the number of teenagers who own a smartphone is on the rise, climbing faster than any other age group.
Finally tonight, we have a few original articles for you to check out. Chris Davies examines the LTE situation with the incoming iPhone 5, while Chris Burns makes the distinction between tablets and laptops when it comes to work and play. Finally tonight, we have a hands-on with the upcoming LG Intuition, so if you want a phablet-like device that isn’t the Galaxy Note II, you might want to take a look at that. Enjoy the rest of your evening, everyone!
SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: September 10, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Wearables competition for Google’s Glass continues to surface, with a UK-based research team revealing its more discrete take on the head-mounted augmented reality display. The Technology Partnership (TTP) has embedded a micro-projector in one arm of a pair of ostensibly normal-looking glasses, the Guardian reports, beaming an image via a mirror onto a special reflective pattern etched into the lenses and straight into the wearer’s eye.
The end result is a digital picture directly overlaid on top of the real-world view, a different approach to Google’s strategy with Project Glass, where the floating display is set up slightly, and out of the wearer’s usual eye-line. TTP’s version promises a more persistent integration, and requires no change of gaze by the user themselves.
Or, at least, that’s what the end result will be when the prototype gets its next upgrade. Right now, the headset can only show a monochrome, 640 x 480 image, not a moving video, but the hardware to do that is expected to be ready within the next “few weeks.”
While overlaying content onto the surrounding environment potentially looks more impressive, it does open the door to more complex issues for whatever software is driving the headset. Precisely lining up computer-generated graphics with the real-world becomes essential, for instance, a problem Google’s first-gen Glass seemingly bypasses.
Arguably more useful is TTP’s approach to head-mounted display control. Google has been experimenting with a combination of side-mounted touchpad controls and voice-recognition, as well as flirting with object recognition, but TTP has opted for a more straightforward system which tracks eye movement.
Rather than existing pupil-tracking approaches, however, which were discounted for being “relatively computationally expensive,” their implementation relies on electrodes mounted at the temples of the headset, and which measures eye-movement in the muscles there. The electrical signals in those muscles can be crunched to figure out which way the eyes are looking, and that translated into UI interaction.
Project-based systems aren’t new – Lumus has a similar approach with its AR eyepiece – but no single company has managed to corner the fledgling wearables market so far. TTP will not be manufacturing its display or eye-tracking technology, but instead hopes to license it to third-parties; the company is apparently “talking to at least one California-based company” though no names have been mentioned.
TTP augmented reality glasses prototype takes on Google Glass is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Tech and fashion might make for strange bedfellows, but this does not mean that they are like oil and water – fundamentally unable to gel. The Google Glass which was revealed in further detail this June was spotted in New York city yesterday, with designer Diane von Furstenberg debuting her spring 2013 collection alongside Google’s futuristic eyewear.
This is definitely one of the more interesting collaborations that Google has indulged in for their Google Glass, and it is interesting to note that the $1,500 glasses were not there just for cosmetic purposes, but rather, being used to record behind-the-scenes video footage in order to make up a short movie that focuses on von Furstenberg’s creative process.
von Furstenberg released a statement, saying, “I am so excited to introduce Glass to the fashion world and use this revolutionary technology to give everyone a unique perspective into fashion.” Where else do you think that Google Glass will be able to make an impact?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: ‘Private updates’ on pre-orders headed for Google Glass ‘explorers’ , Google Glass will reach consumer in 2014 says Google Co-Founder,
Google‘s smart glasses project has hit the catwalk, with designer Diane von Furstenberg sending models backstage and on the runway wearing Google Glass headsets. Intended to “capture the DVF creative process from entirely new perspectives,” the partnership saw models, make-up artists, stylists, and the designer herself don different colors of the Glass wearable in preparation for the New York Fashion Week show. The eventual results will be combined into a short film, but already there’s a preview gallery available.
In fact, the Glass headsets were posting select images to the DVF Google+ account throughout the show, with various backstage shots of models getting ready (or looking at each others’ bizarre eyewear in apparent bemusement) and then strutting down the runway. The final film – titled “DVF through Glass” – will be released this Thursday, September 13.
“Beauty, style and comfort are as important to Glass as the latest technology” Google co-founder Sergey Brin said of the partnership. “We are delighted to bring Glass to the runway together with DVF.”
It’s not the first eye-catching stunt Google has employed to bring greater attention to Project Glass. The company staged an incredible skydiving entrance for the wearables at Google IO earlier this year, sending Glass-sporting stuntmen from the skies above San Francisco to land on the roof of the convention center and then stunt-bike their way through the stairways to the stage. Live footage of the whole thing was streamed from the Glass headsets.
Like some of DVF’s more expensive clothes, however, Glass will remain the preserve of the few for a while yet. Google put the initial “Explorer Edition” of the hardware up for preorder at Google IO, price at a not-inconsiderable $1,500 apiece, with shipping expected early in 2013. A consumer version is planned for the market within a year of that taking place.
[via MarketingLand]
Google Glass hits the runway for DVF at Fashion Week is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Google glasses look dumb enough that you might expect to get beaten up for wearing them. But they’ve now made an appearance at New York Fashion Week and… they still look dorky, even on super models. More »
Google Glass‘ early luxury brand pricing appears to have put it in good stead, with the elite at New York’s Fashion Week getting an early close-up look at Google’s wearable camera future. Diane von Furstenberg, who’s no stranger to a tech tie-in, has added the lightweight frames to her latest show, using them to make a documentary about fashion’s creative process. The project is set to appear on von Furstenberg’s Google+ page later this week, but if you’re not a world-renowned fashion designer (or model), we’d be paying more attention to that two-year wait.
Filed under: Wearables
Google Glass makes catwalk debut at New York Fashion Week originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google has been granted a new patent that could potentially be pretty huge for the company. The patent is for automatic object recognition, which is usually quite difficult to pull off due to the need for human input. With Google’s patent, humans don’t need to do anything, as the system would make use of “feature vectors” to aid in the recognition of the objects in a video or still image.
Engadget reports that these feature vectors include things like color and movement to automatically recognize objects. These feature vectors are refined in the system’s learning process, where Google suggests that the system would use images from a “visual content repository” to become more familiar with the traits of the objects its meant to identify. It’s a very interesting patent, and the whole learning process could be helped along by content creators on YouTube who name and tag their videos accurately.
While it makes sense that Google would want to apply this patent to YouTube, it could also have some applications with Google Glass. Object recognition could be a huge feature of Google Glass should the company decide to implement something like this, so you can bet that Google is considering that avenue. At the moment, though, we don’t know how Google will utilize this freshly-granted patent, or if it even will to begin with.
Still, this could potentially lead to an object recognition system that’s completely automated, and that’s definitely something to get excited about. We’ll have to keep our eyes peeled for more information about this patent, but it might be a while before Google wants to talk about the system described in it. Stay tuned, folks.
Google Glass aimed patent grabs auto-recognition of everyday objects is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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