Google Glass is certainly nothing new, however with it appearing in the news again here lately a few times (most notably this reporter who had his ripped from his face and smashed), we thought it might be fun to test drive one. Luckily, Andrew May over at ADM Software just happened to have a unit we could borrow for a couple of days to play around with. Nice guy!
Lets just get the 400 pound gorilla out of the corner of the room, right off the bat… yes, you look especially dorky wearing Google Glass. There is no way anyone won't notice you have it on. Maybe, MAYBE if you wear glasses, you could get away with it, but outside of that, not a chance.
Now that that's out of the way, lets move on. Google Glass continues to be one of those gadgets that I want to be really awesome, but I just don't quite know what to do with. Yes it can record video, and in the TV spot I mention some really neat applications for that, but frankly, that wouldn't be my personal use case. At the end of the day, Glass is an extension for my phone that I'm just not sure we need. Yes it is a neat concept, and one that is just WAITING for that killer app, but as yet, I don't see one for just everyday consumers.
Local Meteorologist Mike Witcher gives Glass a try
The one thing I did really like about it was navigation. I could see this being a LOT cooler. Perhaps you could create some sort of game to go along with this heads up display? I don't know, just brain storming here. It was definitely distracting to drive with; I took the unit off after about 10 minutes of driving. For me, I had to look up around where my sun visor is to see the directions, and that's just a little too far off the road for me to feel comfortable. That, and its just one more thing taking brain cycles away from driving. Not a good thing. Could it be cool? Yes. It could be cool.
Personal uses aside, there are definitely industry uses. I mention in the TV spot that the medical field is seeing some decent investments into the Google Glass platform, as is manufacturing. Imagine being an inspector, and having a video camera strapped to your head at all times. You could take notes, simply by speaking them, and you could take pictures while holding something in both hands. Will these applications become further seated and will other industries grab hold? Well… we'll see. In the mean time though, it is kind of fun to play with!
–Dan Thompson