This week, Google showed off its new Google Glass, computerized eyewear that is made to search, chat, navigate and even take pictures.
During the demonstration that was shown in a new Google video, users speak the words ‘ok Glass’ to access a list of voice commands – send a message, record a video, take a picture, launch a video chat session, do a search, get driving, directions, and check the weather.
The ‘ok Glass’ idea appears to be an effort to mimic the Start menu that first appeared with Microsoft’s Windows 95. Start became the gateway for almost everything you could do with your PC. Google appears to expect that computing is going to advance soon past PCs and even smartphones. It hopes that ‘ok Glass’ will become as familiar as the Start menu is to us now.
The eyewear puts a screen just above your field of vision. The device includes a camera, processor, orientation sensors and other related electronic gizmos. Google is now selling prototypes for $1500 and they will ship later this year.
The video referenced above shows Glass could have GoPro-like qualities as a sort of intimate video camera, among other uses. You will be able to provide your friends and relatives with first person views of what you are doing – playing ping pong, playing with your kids, jumping rope, reading, writing and more. Google, which just did an update to its Now virtual assistant for Android, seems to want to convey that Glass is a sort of real-time Facebook that you can use to share your life with others.
One concern some have about Glass is how other people will respond to it. People will be aware that there is a microphone and camera pointing at them. But perhaps people will adjust to it, just as they have to cell phones and Bluetooth.
No doubt that it is a time of big changes for Google….as new products such as Glass come out, and old ones such as Reader fade away….