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Comment by sebringj | Hacker News Reader

Social ticks such as frantically tapping the side of your head, will be normal when someone tries to "remember" your name. I thought it was weird when people were talking to themselves with bluetooth on or walking into a street sign when looking down at their phone...but it's just going to get stranger. I could easily imagine eye flickering or eye rolling when your brain OS is rebooting. These glasses and also the contact lenses in the works will make us forget having to worry about things we take for granted today just as your phones helped us forget peoples' phone numbers or care about knowing how to get somewhere as the new devices will be contextually aware of facts we need to know that will just appear as an overlay...no more "let me look it up on google". If it's coupled with audio, gps and other inputs, it could be even more proactive in finding things before you even knew you needed them.

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I have a bluetooth "joystick" which is so small it uses a ring so that I can hold it. No reason not to improve that. The interface for your walking-around glasses can be a thick ring that you rub and click with your thumb.

This is how Focals by North [0] work. Everyone I’ve asked about it has thought it’s a silly idea (to have to wear a ring), but I still can’t think of a better interface.

[0]: https://www.bynorth.com/

I assure you, the combination of a stand that holds a tablet over my bed and the bluetooth joystick ring is the most comfortable possible bedtime reading scenario.

What stand do you use! Please share. :)

Amazon is full of them. I got a generic steel gooseneck with a clamp that attaches pretty well to my steel-pipe headboard, and I zip-tie it at a second point. My wife got a floor-standing gooseneck to hold her Chromebook, and added a 20Kg steel weight at the bottom to keep it upright.

Did they ever actually sell these? I've been trying to get my hands on a pair but have found it impossible.

Problem is I prefer fewer expensive things to charge and/or possibly lose

Can you share the product name? I'd like to get one?

It's the Acgam R1, about $16. The pictures make it look big and bulky, until you realize that the hole just fits a large man's pointing finger.

That's so cool. Thanks for sharing. What do you use it for?

I thought it was weird when people were talking to themselves with bluetooth

When Bluetooth headsets became small enough to be inconspicuous I lived in a marginal neighborhood. When my wife and I would go out, we'd play a guessing game called "Bluetooth or mental illness."

We play that too. Bluetooth or crazy.

I play a game with people talking on their BT device, where I pretend I don't already know that, and I talk back to them as if they're talking to me. The object of the game is to see how long I can keep them from their other conversation by refusing to acknowledge their device.

I'm not sure how it can get stranger. I've had guys come up to the urinal next to me still talking into their ear pieces. It's incredibly rude, bizarre behavior. Their conversation is taking place in an entirely different context, and I think that's where their minds usually are too. So they might not think anything of it when they approach from behind saying something like, "We need to take care of this right now" too loud and too close to your ear.

When that happens to me, I make sure to let the person on the other side of that conversation know where it's being held.

I flush repeatedly, turn on the water, and take out my phone and have very loud imaginary phone calls, or just cycle through the available ringtones at high volume.

Some people are still so low class that it doesn't even phase them.

Hmm, you can also try to pretend you have one on yourself and laugh joker-style looking up then talking to the ceiling, making sure the volume of your voice was uncomfortably loud and inappropriate for the setting you are in. Its not like that person can call you rude and it will give you some satisfaction that you have interrupted their call. Maybe they will self reflect at some point realizing how rude they are themselves. IDK.

It seems rude in most contexts, to just shove your conversation into everyone else's life. Unless it's a real emergency, I don't get how people think it's okay.

I think a lot of people don't realize that a lot of people consider it a luxury to be out of contact for periods of time.

Is this so important that there needs to be retaliation? Could not care less.

I wonder if guys like that realize that everyone on the call can totally hear them piss and flush the urinal.

I already can't stand talking to people who have those air pods in or are looking at screens. I don't know if social norms around this will change or not, but I hope they don't. No one can have a straight conversation with someone distracted by other stuff. Even if that person has no music on, it still feels as though he's elsewhere.

That is a great point about distraction and not feeling as though you truly are a focal point. It will get very odd if something like neuralink comes into play where the person just gets ideas as if it was their own while they are talking to you, then you will never know if they are actually thinking for themselves at all either on top of not paying you full attention. But if you are a parent with a teenager, you'll kind of already feel this way.

Calling AirPods “those air pods”, but also having something as “young” as “big_chungus” as your username... I’m having a hard time figuring out your age!

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6d/3c/aa/6d3caa7a1e6d67aa6c96...

Judging by the (upper)middle class kids I work with, the social stigma around wearing earbuds while holding a conversation is clearly on the way out. It seems like a rapid social shift (which makes me old at 34, I guess) and is probably an “important” change for those who want to sell us on the AR future.

To that end, my experience of using transparency mode on AirPod Pro earbuds is that they very much do “become invisible” while allowing me to overlay (auditory) information on the world around me. If they were built to be as inconspicuous as my father’s hearing aids, nobody would know the difference and no overt social stigma would persist. The AR future of today is auditory.

> content lenses I'm guessing that's a typo, but it works just as well as "contact lenses".

yah was and funny it did, thanks, fixed, maybe they should be called "content lenses". funny accident.

I'm sure we'll develop sensitive clothing, body feedback and other forms of haptic interfaces - a tap on the side of the glasses might not be necessary if you can train your AR to respond to say, snapping fingers or tapping feet.

The thing I hate about this trend is that we seem to love to forego a vital part of interfaces in the process: visibility. I don't know why designers seem to hate buttons, but it's really annoying.

EDIT: where "visibility" also includes haptic feedback and all of that other good stuff. See http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesi...

Buttons are expensive and actually placing things on the real world carries a lot of inconveniences.

The good news is that AR can add visibility to hidden interfaces too. The bad news is that nobody will bother.

It has to be more than that. A touch sensor might be cheaper than a button, but even Software UI distances itself from the button visual of the 90s and 00s, instead opting for icons with no discernible background or button association. Software UI design is very much imitating how a physical touch sensor interface looks. It seems to be the current trend, chasing a "clean" design above all else.

I miss switches. Big metal toggle switches with labeled positions. These tiny hall effect buttons that barely give any feedback are the worst of both worlds. They have no visible status. The tactile element isn't much better than a touchscreen, and they break. Toggles!

Buttons aren't visible if they're on the side of your head. I have headphones with about 5 buttons. I can often successfully use the volume and power ones if I locate them correctly, but there are another two next to those that I sometimes end up pressing instead.

Buttons don't have to be visible. They can have different shapes that you can feel. Brail would be useful if people would learn it.

There are also non-button tactile controls, like the 'buttons' on the Airpods Pro that are actually just pressure-sensitive indents you squeeze.

Which - as a Minnesotan - I find to be a frustrating interface when gloves are required.

(somethingsomethingdesignedforcalifornia)

You know it's cold when your bare finger no longer works on a touchscreen.

I should have been more clear: those buttons are still "visible" in that they have a haptic interface. I have a headphone with "tap to play/pause, swipe to change songs or volume" - it's impossible to know without reading the manual or triggering one of these actions by accident. Which incidentally also happens a lot.

That's bad interface design IMO. I guess the headphones look "cleaner" but it's really annoying in practice and not worth it.

Those are crappy buttons. Good buttons are ones that you don't need your eyes. Take an xbox controller. Every button on the device is labelled and there is a schematic detailing every aspect of their function in every game, however you never look down at the controller because you can discern every single button on the controller by feel alone.

I don't hate buttons. Here, I'm making a small device with lots of buttons:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VpG8uGSzWzCskN2m7

Can you write C? Do with it what you like. I'll make a javascript framework that runs on a smartphone too. (Nordic Bluetooth LE chip, microphone, speaker, 12 RGB LEDs, gyro/accelerometer, battery that should last weeks). Internet connected walkie-talkie, translator, study languages (like this: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=8699).

I'll make more devices soon, and will sell them for $25. Send me an email, and I'll message when they are ready (mail in profile).

Love it! Sadly, my self-insight has reached the level where I know I would buy it then never use it after tinkering for a few hours, so I'm afraid I have to pass on ordering one.. but I really like the concept!

> I could easily imagine eye flickering or eye rolling when your brain OS is rebooting.

That image reminds me of the transhumanist YouTube series H+. In one of the first episodes one of the characters keeps trying to “reboot” after his implant succumbs to a computer virus capable of killing people.

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