Look how big Google Glasses are behind the ear | Hacker News Reader

Look how big Google Glasses are behind the ear

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This is misleading because of the angle. You can see the full size of the device here:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/05/sergey-brin-finally-l...

Forward to 1:05 when Sergey is holding it in his hand, you can see it whole. It's pretty small.

Edit: when I saw the title I thought it would be about this:

https://plus.google.com/113217924531763968801/posts/9GjXoifY...

I'll be so pissed off if these Google Glasses can't interact with the iPhone just because Apple and Google are pissed off at each other... Those look great. Even just as a dumb display for my iPhone with some simple touchpad gestures on the side, I'd buy one.

I don't think the iOS APIs are flexible enough to allow Glass the full access that it requires. Might be wrong though, I'm no iOS developer.

Really though, if Apple brought these out would you expect them to work with Android? :-)

Oh, I'm pretty sure they won't work together without some real collaboration between Apple and Google. Well, they have a year or two to sort their relationship out, I guess.

What happens depends on what interests Google more: driving the spread of Android through less-than-fully-aligned carriers, or gathering the data that everyone using these with iOS could provide. I'm guessing the latter.

Apple may respond not by blocking a fantastic bit of kit (which would infuriate customers) but by buying a company that has its own patents on similar technology and building on the play they made in buying C3 from Saab. I'm hoping the latter.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Fraunhover-Wants-to-Beat-Goog...

Apple is a hardware company focused on seamless user experience, and highly skilled in nurturing a commercial developer base. They can think mapps.

Apple could partner with companies like Oakley,similar to how they are partnering with auto manufacturers for Siri integration.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/253987/move_over_google_oakle...

I hope the iOS jailbreak scene can do something with them.

I can't remember where I read it but one journalist wrote something along the lines of "how Google Glass looks doesn't matter - that's nothing that a partnership with Armani won't fix". Whoever they were, they were right. I just hope that Google partners up with a variety of brands to make a number of different designs.

Anyway, no matter what they look like I will be there on day one. I don't normally subscribe immediately to new tech like this. Took me a year or two to get a smartphone and I still don't have a tablet, but Glass is different.

One more thing - I really, really hope that people will find a way to load new OSes onto Glass. The technology is fantastic but it won't reach its full potential if it's locked away.

I feel the same way. I don't even have a smartphone (I get all sorts of abuse from my friends for this :P), and yet I find myself publicly saying that I'm more likely to get Google Glass than iPhone5.

Well, it runs Android, so presumably you'd be able to load up CyanogenMod or cook your own ROM.

I also assume apps would take care of the vast majority of customization and extra functionality most users need.

It's possible that it'll be a closed device though with no inputs, so no way to actually get CyanogenMod onto it. That's what concerns me.

That's what you took out of this post!

How about the fact that a world leader was so excited about a self-driving car that he jumped in to take a spin down the 101?

A self-driving Lexus, at that.

Glass half-empty.

Waaah my flying carpet doesn't come in red!

Yeah, it's like watching the Wright Brothers take off for the first time at Kitty Hawk, and complaining that Wilbur looks a bit silly lying down like that.

Having seen these cars driving on 101 I must say that as an engineer I'm sorely tempted to test their reaction ability :-)

I see them much more often on the 280, But every single time I think the same thing!

Here's a picture of Google Glass from a different angle:

http://i.imgur.com/iOlcx.png

Thats interesting since it looks like the right side is significantly larger than the right side.

Why run a wire across the top of the frame if the display is also on the right side? It makes sense to have the entire system on one side.

Balancing the weight of the thing fairly evening across your ears and nose.

That would be my biggest concern, but presumably this thing will miniaturize. It also offends my general need for bilateral symmetry.

Splitting a PCB like that is really hard, electrically. Board level signals aren't designed to be run in parallel cables. At best you'd probably just put the battery on one side and the board on the other.

That's hardly big... I was imagining something the size of a hat covering the back of the head! This is tiny.

It appears significantly bigger than when viewed from the front, like on Sebastian Thrun's interview with Charlie Rose.

I'll still be first in line to get one.

I'm not surprised. They need somewhere to put the battery. Video processing is not a low-power activity.

No, actually, I am surprised. I figured there would be a thin cord down to something about the size of a cigarette pack on your belt or in your pocket.

Video processing can be piped through a PAN or something, utilizing a smart phone or other device to handle the actual heavy lifting.

Does it actually do video processing? My impression was it was a screen, touchpad, and camera (for taking pictures) you stuck on the side of your head.

It would get smaller in time.

They said that they used to carry a backpack before.

Doesn't look too intrusive, and may even help them keep a decent balance. I don't think anybody expected them to look like typical glasses.

I already wear glasses. Wonder if google glasses come with corrective lenses too. Serious question.

As someone else who wears glasses and who, based on family experience, is not a good candidate for contact lenses, I wonder this, as well.

I don't know about the rest of you but I can't wait for Google glasses to become commercially a available

I don't know if this is the first shot of a non-white/black set but it seems we'll be getting a range of colours. I cannot wait to see the range so I can choose.

They look much bigger than the previous pictures that I have seen. Wouldn't all that weight pushing down on the ear be uncomfortable after a few hours?

Sitting on a thin wallet day after day can screw up your spine alignment. Wearing a CPAP oxygen mask (for sleep apnea) night after night can shift the alignment of your teeth. If there's any weight to Google Glass at all, I imagine wearing this day after day could eventually have negative effects too.

Kind of funny that of all the amazing things in that picture, that is what you notice.

I would probably aim to have it very gently hold on to the sides of your head, rather than simply sitting on the ear. I think that by spreading it out across the bridge of the nose, the tops of the ears, and the sides of the head, you could keep the pressure pretty low. I'd be most concerned about the battery--it's heavy, and may tend to get hot.

I am incredibly excited for these, in any case.

Is anyone else getting awesome flashbacks to Christopher Walken's film Brainstorm? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)

One scene was how they continually used "microchips" to shrink the size of the headset.

Keep in mind, I'm not sure Google has ever said that the version of Glass being shown publicly is the final form factor. When/if a commercial version is announced, it could look radically different.

Maybe it's to counterweigh the camera at the other end? (and in addition provide power, as indicated below). Without a counterweight (or something to stabilize it) the "glasses" could rest a bit unstably on the nose with the camera and display. Of course a strap would also work, but then you would need that remote battery pack mentioned in the comments.

Interesting that it's a Lexus. I thought they were using Prii for the self driving car.

They've got a Lexus too now, for unclear reasons.

http://www.importrpm.com/self-driving-lexus-rxh/

I think most of the test fleet is still Toyotas. But if you're Sergey Brin and you show up with the President of Turkey then they let you borrow the Lexus.

Looks amazing to me. Personally I wouldn't wear that. But given how small they already are they will probably be indistinguishable from normal shades within 2 years. And then I will wear that.

Does anyone find it a bit hilarious that the top comment on Sergey's post (as of right now, anyway), is some brazilian spam bot?

Aren't these still prototypes and not final designs? Compare these to original prototypes for android handsets.

That's just the prototype. In the production glasses, they'll just implant that big plastic slab in your skull.

It's 1st generation. Just imagine the third generation based on iphone development.

I think that (the grey thing) is the headrest of the car. Silly picture.

Look at how weird and curvy the Turkish guy's ears are! So weiiiird!

Brain tumor.

From what, and how is that worse than wearing a bluetooth headset, or having your phone against your hip/thigh all day?

We have a looot of radio waves around us all the time

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