Comment by jwdunne | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jwdunne | Hacker News Reader

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Oh man, I wish I was in the US, I've been raving about glass for a while. I really think it opens up new doors.

One way is combing augmented reality and social networking with Glass. There are a number of cool things that come of this.

One is being able to look at someone also using the Glass app and being presented with their profile, plus options to send messages or view more information. It may even be possible even if they don't have Glass using a combo of geolocation and facial recognition. The most exciting bit is sending a message between two glass users because it'd be pretty much like telepathy.

When the 'internet of thing' comes about, it may even be posdible to control all your various devices without lifting a finger. I could look at my kettle from across the room and flick it on!

There are tonnes of possibilities and I think, especially when it's on a contact lens, it will make what's currently considered magical (telepathy, psychokinesis, etc) a reality, just like the plane removed the magic from human flight.

I think wearable computing opens up many exciting doors and the two thoughts above only scratch the surface of the possibilities I imagine.

In fact, I feel so strongly about ot I'd emigrate to the US just to get my hands on this awesome tech. I need to get onto it ASAP.

You want to send messages to people you see? There is this other cool tech for that, it's called voice.

For a moment I missed the irony and thought this was a real name for a product. I almost got excited.

What about the situations where it's not possible, appropriate or otherwise best kept private?

There's another way to get to Australia other than plane too: walk and swim.

What you see as awesome I see as scaring the @!#@$ out of me. I enjoy being anonymous in crowds. No thanks.

You're not actually anonymous in crowds, because everyone can see your face. It's just that social conventions lead us to not bother one another. They work because we're not anonymous...if I bother you, you can immediately bother me to the same degree.

The ickiness with Google Glass is the asymmetry of information--one person basically stalking another, aided by a networked computer.

At least you'd know they were doing it by the ridiculous electronic glasses they're wearing.

Being anonymous in crowds is going to go, with or without Google Glass.

Finally, my dream of wearing masks in public has a chance of becoming more acceptable!

As stuff like Google Glass becomes more common, I could see there being a reactionary movement of people who want to stay anonymous. The easy solution is to wear masks like in Venice.

Why do your find the idea of turning on your kettle from across the room by looking at it, exciting? It is because it makes you feel like you've gained a new, awesome, magical power? But all you did was turn a kettle on. I wouldn't exactly consider that a "new door".

This device has zero appeal to me. Actually, probably less than zero.

If Google could develop a technology that would clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- _that_ would impress me. I wouldn't even mind so much that it was covered in targeted ads.

EDIT: rephrased first sentence for clarity

> Why do your find the idea of turning on your kettle from across the room by looking at it, exciting?

That use case is exciting because it'd be a phenomenally useful device for the elderly or bedridden. Being able to see who is at the door without having to get up and look through the peephole, then letting them in if you know them; answering the phone without getting up; generally just operating your house's devices without undue movement really would be quite something.

That's true, there are good use cases for it, and similar technologies, in this domain. If the commenter to whom I was replying prefaced their excitement by explaining they were elderly or bedridden, I likely wouldn't have asked that (not-entirely-rhetorical) question -- it would have seemed reasonable to me. From the context I got the impression (possibly mistaken) that they were able-bodied, though.

That's fair enough. Let me put it another way: the thought of turning my kettle on by looking at it isn't that exciting to me. The extended idea of someone turning a kettle or other connected device on, is.

You're missing the fact that the only way to interface with it is by voice. If you want to send a message to another person, you need to speak it out loud. If that person is nearby, it's not really telepathy, it's just talking.

Google glass isn't going to get a bunch of apps or options, because nobody is going to go around saying things like 'ok glass scroll left', 'ok glass install/open instagram', 'ok glass show me his profile'.

Yes, the interface needs to be improved/replaced before what I'm talking about is practical, even if it's so you can whisper rather than speak at normal volume. Personally, I do not think using voice as an interface is the correct way forward with these devices at all.

I haven't many ideas for this, my best guess would be using the eye to control it but then that has many challenges - how would we click?

I wonder how Glass will handle other people randomly shouting out instructions.

I guess what people in the top rungs in society will have in common with those at the bottom is the tendency to randomly shout things.

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