Human/Device Interaction

[BajaBob]

For a while now I have strongly believed that the next largest innovation in technology will be bridging the gap between human-device interaction (IO). With the amount of CPU power we now carry around in our pockets the issue is turning to interaction. So much more can be had from these devices -keyboards and touchscreens are already a thing of the past. This single threaded IO (keyboards/gestures/mice/etc) is slow and does not mate well with patterns of the human mind... we are quick to think of one item and move onto the next. Our devices are holding us back from our real potential. We need a new way to interact.

Personally, I feel like the day will come soon when human thought can be translated into readable text on your computer. For now, we will start to see devices like this. This technology IMHO is going to be "the next biggest thing" in the tech industry... Whether it is delivered through glasses, contact lenses, controlled by thought or gestures by simply tiling your head a degree, this stuff is coming and it is going to revolutionize the way we interact with technology.

[ScottJ]

I bump into the Google creative team on this project and most others pretty often @ 111 8th ave.

[UserX]

Screw glasses, I want to interact with thought. Like Yoda.

[racrguy]

That's pretty damned cool. I hope that happens within the next 10-15 years.

Edit: Rumor has it they'll be available at the end of 2012!

Speaking to [Nick] Bilton, someone who has used the glasses said, "They let technology get out of your way. If I want to take a picture I don’t have to reach into my pocket and take out my phone; I just press a button at the top of the glasses and that’s it." In late February, Nick Bilton reported that "Google employees familiar with the project" confirmed the glasses would be available to the public for around $250 to $600 dollars by the end of 2012. At Wired, Steven Levy says that Project Glass "is very far from public beta," and that an end of year product launch is "extremely unlikely.

The Post’s Hayley Tsukayama looks at whether the glasses are great or a gimmick.

Google, it should be noted, is not the first company to come up with the idea of augmented reality glasses, but would have a perhaps unprecedented consumer reach.

Plus, they’ve made them look kind of cool The pictures on the Project Glass page show people modeling the specs, a thin silver band that runs across their foreheads and a small screen over their right eye. To someone of the generation that grew up with Terminator (or DragonBall Z), the device looks strange but oddly familiar. In the video that accompanies the pictures, viewers follow a man around on his augmented day, in which he wears the device while eating breakfast and while meeting with a friend.

It kind of makes you wonder what that world will look like if these devices take off.

The ability to follow walking directions without having to look down at your phone is an appealing one, as is the idea of in-view video chat. As a person with relatives who live across the country and overseas, I like the idea of being able to share a particularly nice view or quick tour of a new apartment with my grandparents.

On the other hand, I’ve always been a people watcher. And here in D.C., there’s a game I play, which I’ve dubbed, “Bluetooth or crazy?” The rules are simple: Whenever you see a person walking down the street talking to themselves, you try to determine if they’re on a wireless headset or if they’re just muttering to themselves. (I should note here that I have been both kinds of people.)

The man in the video Google released kept his glasses on the whole time. To me, that’s a telling component of the demonstration.

In the way that I envision how I would use the product, I’d take it off when I met a friend for coffee, much in the same way I put my cellphone down. I’d fold them up in the bookstore, like I do my sunglasses. I’d set them aside to do my work, like I do with my wireless headset. In fact, it’s hard for me, a gadget lover if ever there was one, to think of a device I would want to wear on my head at all times.

Obviously, it’s hard to say what the product will be like from a few minutes of video and some glossy press shots. For now, I’m guessing that the technology we see in Google’s Project Glass will become useful in other ways, for other, possibly similar, products, and that this first iteration of the idea will be one of those products that we remember as something that could have changed the way we live.

VentureBeat.com reports on why Google decided to give us a peek of the glasses now:

“We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input,” Google’s Babak Parviz, Steve Lee, and Sebastian Thrun wrote on a new Google+ page for the project. “So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do.”

Google is doing its best to give the glasses some fashion appeal by featuring rejected Gap models in its promo shots, but they still seem too obtrusive for most consumers. Google is also exploring different designs for the glasses, including some that could fit over your existing glasses, reports the New York Times.

While it may seem like the glasses will add yet another layer of digital distraction to our lives, Google employees say it will actually do the opposite. One person testing the glasses told the NYT: “They let technology get out of your way. If I want to take a picture I don’t have to reach into my pocket and take out my phone; I just press a button at the top of the glasses and that’s it.”

[jefehbk]

I bump into the Google creative team on this project and most others pretty often @ 111 8th ave.

solid barg.... but translating human thought into readable text on a computer or anything else will not happen in our lifetime if at all.

[racrguy]

solid barg.... but translating human thought into readable text on a computer or anything else will not happen in our lifetime if at all.

While I agree it's a long way off, but I figure in the next 40-60 years we'll have something capable of this. Just a guestimate though.

[Ratt]

Just one more step toward the government tracking our every movement...

[Kenny_Stang]

I think it's amazing, how well it will work, remains to be seen.

[racrguy]

Just one more step toward the government tracking our every movement...

Not sure if srs.

[ScottJ]

Should see some pretty interesting tech unravel in our lifetimes, the glasses don't seem too far fetched. There are lots of gifted folks working @ 111 8th, lots of perks to work there!

[racrguy]

Should see some pretty interesting tech unravel in our lifetimes, the glasses don't seem too far fetched. There are lots of gifted folks working @ 111 8th, lots of perks to work there!

They already have HUD type optics, the military has been using them for years. All Google has had to do really is work on the software and find a way to produce them cheap enough for the consumer market.

[CJ]

I don't know about this technology, having to focus on something 1/2" from your face sounds rather laborious.

[Aceman85turbo]

lame hipster video does not make me want one.

[Ratt]

Not sure if srs.

[Darren M]

solid barg.... but translating human thought into readable text on a computer or anything else will not happen in our lifetime if at all.

Interactive thought with a computer already exists. As does speech recognition. How can you be so sure? Or, are you like 85?