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Journalism of Courage
Are Googles augmented reality glasses inevitable? Or would you rather just look straight?
Heres Googles latest,bravest piece of whimsy yet a clunky pair of glasses that will annotate your entire field of vision,provide weather,maps,contacts,alerts and more. Though the project is far from being physically rolled out,it seems there will be some kind of retinal tracking mechanism that will act like a touchpad,though you can also speak directly to it. Of course,Project Glass is partly wish-fulfillment it gazes into a world where Google is centrally and seamlessly fitted into our lives and partly a reminder of Googles cosmic ambitions,unmatched by any of its competitors.
Its the companys first step into the world of augmented reality and wearable computing,one that has been dreamt of in science fiction,laboured over in laboratories,seriously awaited since the 1990s but one that never seemed so immediate until now,as a working,mass-produced Google gadget. Of course,Project Glass vision may have put some people off the idea of immersive computing for good: the prospect of living with all that visual clutter,a profusion of icons and popups,isnt entirely appealing. Many have also pointed to the too-good-to-be-true absence of ads in Googles demo video.
Either way,wearable computing is the natural next frontier. Its not hard to wrap our heads around the concept after all,were already physically hooked up to information systems,to artificial extensions and aids. Augmented reality applications are already being tried out for the military,for surgeons and game designers. Project Glass hasnt envisioned anything creepier than a hands-free smartphone,so far. And until Googles developers give us a little more to look at,we can have fun imagining the possibilities.
