Rivals already eying Google eyewear; Project Glass clones now in development | Hacker News Reader

Rivals already eying Google eyewear; Project Glass clones now in development

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27 pointszacharye22 comments

Ok so the cynic in me is sitting here thinking that in order for something like this to catch on, there needs to be some celebrity or event that turns this into something "cool". It's just too techie and geeky for mainstream until something comes along to make it socially acceptable.

If I were Google I'd try like hell to partner with a company that already knows how to make glasses cool and trendy. There's one company in particular that has done really well making those 50's style hipster glasses popular--their name escapes me, as I am not a hipster--who might be a good pick.

Basically Google sucks at marketing anything, but if they can find a partner with that skill set they may have more luck.

You're talking about: http://www.ray-ban.com/

I think this would benefit from a killer app a lot more than it would from a trendsetter. A gadget needs to be useful first, stylish second.

It's just too techie and geeky for mainstream until something comes along to make it socially acceptable.

Did celebrities make smartphones cool? Did they make bluetooth cool?

I don't buy that notion at all. If this device provides value, it will be accepted.

In fact there are already glasses on the market:

"Epson Moverio" for $699.99 http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Moverio/Home.do

Developer Program (they use Android): http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Moverio/Home.do#tabs=...

ST1080 for $799: http://www.siliconmicrodisplay.com/st1080.html

In comparison though, there's no way I'd ever be caught wearing either of those. Google's glasses, on the other hand, are unobtrusive enough that I'd probably wear them. Importantly, they don't cover your entire face. Given that the area around the eyes is one of the key areas for facial recognition, I'm surprised how popular the band-style glasses are.

Yep. But you need that area for battery and electronics and as a frame to cover the whole field of vision with a screen.

I wonder what one is seeing and able to do with the Google glasses. My guess is: not much. The science-fiction concept video is not helping in that.

You don't want / need to cover your full field of vision. A 400 x 200 pixel display that covers 2-3% of your field of view and an unobtrusive system to get it there close to perfect for this kind of thing. Otherwise I might as well just look at a screen.

It's telling that in the Moverio product video, Epson doesn't show a single image of a person actually wearing the glasses....

Yes, I know that there is a pic on the product page, if you scroll down.

Here's another similar product:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden-i

This is probably good for Google. When you start a new product category, you need competition to validate your idea. Although you still need a big enough lead to maintain your leadership in the market. Hopefully Google didn't show the video way too early so competitors get a chance to make something just as good by the time they get it out themselves. It should come out within 6-12 months at most.

That kind of makes me wonder why Google revealed them so early. They must have known that by revealing it they would start the competition, but what do they gain by releasing the idea? Does this indicate that they might have a product to sell soon?

I think it's similar to the self driving car. Google is a company about fun and innovation and they want to keep that appearance up by showing the interesting products they're researching.

In many ways -- like the tablet -- this idea was painfully obvious. Mobile processors are getting better and faster and less battery hungry. Display technology of all sorts are getting better. Battery technology is getting better. When we're on the go there is already a movement to try to surrogate our smartphone with smart watches, and this is simply the next step of that process.

Assuming that it really was completely out of left field, however, Google is not a consumer products company. They are an information services company that has, thus far, only been able to heavily monetize advertisements (though it's foolhardy for anyone who can only ever see ads as where they want to be).

If Google spurred on 1000 competitors all creating such devices, Google would be there and ready to provide the information side of the equation.

And Google might have decided to make a big splash early not to make a landgrab, but rather to be in the obnoxious situation in the future where they come out with the obvious evolution of a product later than someone else makes an announcement, and gets declared a copycat.

It's worth noting that pretty much every newly-made airliner has a HUD for instrument landings (among other things). The technology is not new. It's just new to people with $600 to spend on gadgets :)

Looks like I may finally get that decent, single-eye wearable display I've always wanted! I hope somebody makes them available for sub-$200.

Google is NOT a pioneer in wearable computing and have really been getting more than their share of praise. This is a space that has been developing for quite some time. Steve Mann, a professor at University of Toronto, is probably the best known researcher that has been developing similar mediated reality technology since the 90s.

Google is just looking to commercialize the space and make sure it's their services that are driving the experience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mann http://eyetap.org/

Steve was walking around MIT's campus in the 90s looking like a borg with his eyepiece/headgear. It's quite a contrast to see the Google PR with little Miss Eye Candy wearing a slimmed-down version of that.

Short of battlefield operations, I don't see exactly how the masses are going to enbrace this tech. There needs to be some huge value-add.

> "I don't see exactly how the masses are going to enbrace this tech"

PR and Eye Candy would be my guess? Steve really didn't have either of those going for him. Never underestimate the power of good marketing. And never underestimate what the "unwashed masses" will be willing to buy.

Personally, I think it would look less obtrusive if they were built with lenses in the frame (ie. otherwise functional glasses) to make them look more normal. Except one side would have a little extra display area and camera. I think they also need to balance out the weight difference so that one side is not heavier than the other, even if it's just "ballast" counterweight.

In other words, camoed into existing aesthetic rather than something overly different which stands out. It reads more "geeky" than "cool", as they are. Of course, that could change. I used to think people talking into wires dangling from their faces was really odd in the beginning, but then everyone started doing it and it seemed normal after a while.

Touchscreen phones weren't a new idea either. The implementation and how well it works matters a lot more.

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