Google Glass Now Works With Actual Glasses

http://recode.net/2014/01/27/google-glass-now-works-with-actual-glasses/

by sethbannon • 12 years ago

56 28 12 years ago

tlrobinson2• 12 years ago

And it still looks like a Segway for your face.

eco• 12 years ago

I think they need to move the majority of components to the neck like LG does with their bluetooth headset[1]. The less bulky and attention grabbing the better it will be when they launch for mainstream users that just wants them for their utility (early adopters may prefer them as they are now for conspicuous consumption reasons however). A second benefit is that Glass apparently has abysmal battery life. Bringing them down to the neck would allow for a much larger battery.

1. http://www.amazon.com/LG-Wireless-Bluetooth-Stereo-Headset/d...

tlrobinson2• 12 years ago

I would probably be ok with slightly bulky frames as long as it looked fairly symmetrical. My current frames are 3/8" tall and 3/16" thick on the sides, and I think it could go up to 1/2" x 1/4" without looking strange. Put the battery on one side, the electronics on the other. The only remaining problem is integrating the optics directly into the lens.

mjcohen• 12 years ago

I wear regular glasses and use sunglasses that cost less than $5 US that slide between my glasses and my face: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00012K3N6/

I think these would work with Glass.

alaskamiller• 12 years ago

I took apart my Glass, added magnets, and have it attached to my eyeglass frame. Thing with mounting this on to frames is that you actually spend a lot of time micro-adjusting Google Glass.

This is all the real problem.

The real problem is just that Glass is boring. The UI is also really awkward. Voice recognition is pretty decent but saying ok glass ten thousand times a day is annoying.

Google still sucks at devices. Though they have the best VR compared to Siri. God, does Apple suck at voice.

nicholassmith5• 12 years ago

"God, does Apple suck at voice."

I've found Siri getting better recently, for my reasonably strong Northern England accent. Significantly fewer misses than a year ago at least.

k-mcgrady3• 12 years ago

It's pretty accurate for me too with my northern Irish accent. There are only a couple of words it has trouble with (the most common being 'hour' which is annoying when setting timers) and I just adjust my pronunciation slightly when using those words with Siri.

SimHacker3• 12 years ago

Brilliant! Now your glass is more interesting and enigmagnetic. Instead of explaining to everyone how Glass works, you can explain how magnets work. Much more interesting.

panacea• 12 years ago

Wouldn't putting, even a fake copy of glass on the other side to make it look symmetric, be more aesthetically acceptable?

ivanbrussik• 12 years ago

that's what is bothering me. could never figure it out from a UX perspective, but that is definitely it.

hornetblack• 12 years ago

A battery pack maybe. But then you would either have to hide a cable in the bridge (An vital area for frames) or have a gaudy cable around the back of your head.

SimHacker3• 12 years ago

Rainbow cable FTW! https://www.modmypi.com/image/cache/data/GPIO/ribbon-cables/...

jaysonelliot• 12 years ago

I don't feel like that would help the aesthetics much. Mostly what it would do is make it look like you were wearing those Craftsman Illuminator eye lights that they sell in hardware stores.

It's the lensless metal bridge across the face that really makes them stand out. I've found that when I snap the sunglass lens into my Glass, even though I look like I'm wearing a pair of particularly douchey sunglasses, I don't get as many people staring. Worn without the lenses in, I feel like a freak show wherever I go thanks to all the gawkers. I've worn Glass in public a mere handful of times—I never use it at all anymore. The conspicuousness-to-usefulness ratio is just not sufficient for me.

SimHacker3• 12 years ago

Or go with the asymmetry and get a pirate patch for the other eye.

drpgq• 12 years ago

How hard is it to get Glass right now?

eitally• 12 years ago

Still hard, unless you know someone. One of the reasons it's hard is that invitations aren't transferable. I have one, but am unwilling to spend $1500 for something that will probably just be a novelty (especially when a Recon Jet would make a lot more practical sense for my needs), so the invitation will go unfilled.

dag11• 12 years ago

Actually, you can give the invitation code (as long as you haven't clicked on it in the email) to anyone else and they can use it.

uncoder0• 12 years ago

Super easy. Anyone who applies is offered an invite now. This policy seems to have changed sometime in mid-late December.

spiderbro• 12 years ago

Just wait until this technology can be embedded in contact lenses for the real controversy

glitchdout• 12 years ago

You mean Sight? https://vimeo.com/46304267

(I have no doubt that one day the real product will be named exactly that.)

nicholassmith5• 12 years ago

One of the things they mention is you get to choose the frames, then mount the Glass on to them, but you can't remove the Glass and use them as normal frames. So the usefulness of the glasses themselves are heavily reduced, as you'll inevitably have situations where you can't wear Glass so you need another frame to swap for. Can't say I'm overly impressed with the idea.

k-mcgrady3• 12 years ago

> "One of the things they mention is you get to choose the frames, then mount the Glass on to them, but you can't remove the Glass and use them as normal frames."

Why can't you remove it again? I read on another site that it was simply held in place by one screw (which you put in yourself after you get the frames home). If it's a screw I would think you could just unswear it again.

travisp• 12 years ago

He means that you can't just easily remove Glass when you are doing things like entering public restrooms or a movie theater. Sure, you could bring along the special screwdriver and sit their unscrewing it, but I don't think that's practical in most situations you might want to remove Glass from your head.

You can remove your glasses, but many of us who wear glasses can't easily get by without them. So, that if we really want to wear Glass in public attached to our glasses, we have to bring two pairs of glasses with us everywhere.

nicholassmith5• 12 years ago

You can unscrew the Glass device from the frame, but the right leg is shorter to accommodate it so it won't sit on your face properly.

nicholassmith5• 12 years ago

I should have expanded it on a bit as the information isn't in the recode link.

The left leg is normal length, the right isn't[1] as it needs to allow space for the device to fit in, due to this even if you remove the Glass device from the frames you'd need another pair of glasses on you anyway to wear instead. So you're looking at a pair of regular glasses, your Glass glasses, and if you're like me and it's summer time (or you live somewhere less miserable than England) potentially a pair of prescription sunglasses.

[1] http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/28/5352592/google-glass-presc... "Unfortunately, these new frames won't really work without Glass. Because the right stem is shorter than the left, you won’t be able to wear them comfortably on their own."

Google Glass Now Works With Actual Glasses

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