Glass: reality enhanced

I haven't ever given Project Glass a fair chance, partly because I thought its price on release would be far beyond anything a student could afford, and because something inside made me believe the product would never eventuate, since it was merely a 'Project'.

The new logo for Glass

But now I have to leave at least one of those preconceptions behind, Glass is going to be a reality. The developer preview models are already on their way out, for a smooth $1,500, and for those who missed out, the #ifihadglass competition just launched and offers preview models to lucky entrants in the U.S. 



The competition, which follows on from  the upload of: How it Feels [through Glass], encourages individuals to basically answer the question of what they'd do if they had Google Glass. The video itself is our first look at what it'd be like if we had Glass, and the endless uses we'd have for it, all with one simple command: "OK Glass".

I'm enthralled by the video, and it's certainly nowhere near as invasive as the parody videos would suggest. A simple head-up display (which I suppose is what you could call it) in the top right corner of the spectacles offer significantly more visibility than I had imagined, and from the official video, Glass doesn't appear as though it would hinder too much, if at all on the way we already handle tasks. The ability to record precious moments in life when you haven't got your phone/camera handy, or the time to fiddle with all the settings to have the devices up and running would be ideal. Similarly, using the headset to navigate to new places, without having to bother with walking into things whilst fervently looking at your phone's screen would help out.

Glass - Source: HypeBeast

Up until today, I didn't believe Google's Project Glass showed much promise. Sure, the concept was brilliant and a definite representation of where our future could take us, with help from Google - nevertheless, I couldn't help but to feel the headset projections would be too intrusive on our vision, and that the technology itself was too invasive on our personal lives. Whilst I still have concerns over privacy, most of my fears have been allayed.

I can recall the live video recording brought to viewers by Sergey Brin and a team of skydivers, recorded on Glass and presented at last year's I/O, and thinking: 'wow, that's interesting and all, but I'm waiting for the unveiling of your Nexus tablet - cut to the chase already!' Now, I'm hanging on and waiting eagerly for the latest Glass news from the search giant.