Glass was not AR. It was a tiny screen you had to shift your focus to.
I should change my usernames to glasswasnotar because I feel like I am always saying that when people talk about glass and ar
I should change my usernames to glasswasnotar because I feel like I am always saying that when people talk about glass and ar
Re-watch this early promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErpNpR3XYUw
There are several clear AR features displayed. There's a location based notification about the subway service upon getting close to the entrance. There's overlaid compass based walking directions. There's GPS based location identification and check-in. AR is more than just computer vision driven overlays. Though that tech wasn't available to be put in a HMD at the time, these GPS driven features absolutely were AR features and the original Glass should rightfully be considered the first AR consumer product.
Furthermore, the product still exists as the Enterprise Edition 2 and this current version supports computer vison and object identification applications, further strengthening its AR use cases.
By way of a real-world example, military pilots have heads-up displays that overlay IDs of aircraft on the aircraft as they appear to the pilot. That's AR.
My volvo has a heads-up display that show me my speed, the current speed limit, warnings, lane guidance... But none of that points to anything in my field of vision. Not AR.
Mercedes also have heads-up displays, and while I don't own one, I saw a demonstration where when you are using adaptive cruise control, it highlights the car it is following. That's AR.
The above is my lay understanding. If you buy this distinction between "heads up display" as a general term, and "AR" as a specific use of a heads up display, then Glass was not AR. It was just a heads-up display.
You don’t see reality and the screen at the same time. It is reality or the screen. (Just like a phone that isn’t running an AR app)
Looking at the screen does obscure your perception of reality because your eye has to change focus. The little prism was transparent but it may as well have been translucent because you couldn’t focus on the screen and the world at the same time.
But it wasn’t even mostly always in view… when you weren’t focused on it I guess it could kinda flash and make you focus on it, but it had no overlay ability.