Google’s glasses free people from unsocial habits

‘Wearers can speak commands to eyewear’

LONG BEACH, California, Feb 28, (AFP): Sergey Brin envisions Google’s Internet glasses hitting the market this year with an eye toward freeing people from unsocial habits engendered by “emasculating” smartphones.

Brin spoke of inspiration behind Google Glass eyewear during a brief appearance Wednesday on stage at a TED Conference known for an inspiring mix of influential big thinkers and “ideas worth spreading.”

He playfully demonstrated his point on stage by ignoring a theater audience to stare down at his smartphone, saying he was intent on a message from a Nigerian prince need of $10 million.

“I like to pay attention because that is how we originally funded the company,” the Google co-founder quipped about a well-known scam.

“Seriously, in addition to potentially socially isolating yourself when you are out and about using your phone, I feel it is kind of emasculating,” he continued.

Brin described Glass as the first form factor to deliver on a vision he had from Jason Botta and his team are some of the most imaginative and thrilling platforming elements crafted in recent years. Some tombs that Croft comes across are optional excursions, but they’re all so well done, it shouldn’t be a choice to skip ’em.

“Tomb Raider” also sounds as good as it feels. Jason Graves’ powerfully tense score and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Croft hit the right tone, and the conversations Croft overhears between Google’s inception that one day search queries would be outmoded and information from the Internet would come to people when they need it.

Glass frees the eyes as well as the hands when it comes to connecting to the Internet on the go, according to Brin.

“That is why we put the display up high, out of the line of sight,” Brin said, wearing the Glass eyewear he is rarely seen without.

“If I wore a ball cap, the display would be on the brim and not where you are looking,” he continued. “And sound goes through bones in the cranium, which is a little freaky at first, but you get used to it.”

Glass wearers can speak commands to the eyewear, and built-in camera technology allows pictures or video to be captured from first-person perspectives while people take part in what is happening.

“Lastly, I realized I also have a nervous tic,” Brin said. “The cell phone is a nervous habit. If I smoked, I’d probably smoke instead.”

He observed that smartphones sometimes become props used by people as many of the island’s all-male goons are so enlightening and humorous, players will want to let the reticle linger a bit longer to eavesdrop on all the chatter.

“Tomb Raider” isn’t perfect though. Sometimes it’s sloppy. Croft falls — off cliffs, through roofs, into the ocean — more than those dwarfs in “The Hobbit,” and that’s not even including the moments when the X button isn’t mashed quickly enough. Surely there must be more creative ways for Croft to distractions or to appear busy, saying that Glass strips away excuses not to be sociable or to not be honest about simply wanting to take a break.

“It really opened by eyes to how much of my life I spent secluded away in email, social posts or what-not,” Brin said. “There is nothing bad about that, but with this thing I don’t have to be checking them all the time.”

Brin said Glass eyewear will be available later this year at prices lower than the $1,500 charged to software developers and early adopters during a restricted test phase.

Also: LONG BEACH, California:

heads Wednesday with iPad software that lets people try on sunglasses by manipulating 3-D images of themselves from the neck up.

The founder of discount prescription lens company 1-800 Contacts used a TED Conference known for luring the technology savvy to introduce a service intended to let shoppers see themselves go from Point A to Point B on the mythical Yamatai island.

The weakest link is Croft’s laughably underdeveloped shipmates. Each is a cliche: bespectacled geek, gentle giant, angry black woman, wise old man. It’s difficult to sympathize with Croft for putting herself through hell to save them, or understand why the writers couldn’t create multidimensional supporting characters like in the “Uncharted” games.

Speaking of that epic treasure-hunting in eyewear using smartphones, tablets or computers with cameras built into screens.

“One of the great ironies of glasses is that people who wear them usually can’t see themselves when they are shopping for glasses because they need to be wearing prescription lenses,” Coon said.

“For the first time, you can see yourself trying on glasses.”

Glasses.com software, which will be released in April for iPads and spread to iPhones, as well as Android mobile gadgets and computer Web browsers, uses device cameras to create 3-D images of people’s heads, according to Coon.

People can admire themselves in an array of lenses and frames, using touch controls to turn virtual heads for profile views or slide frames up or down noses. Shoppers can then have selected glasses shipped to them.

“The vision is to try something on and shop simultaneously,” Coon said.

“We used the same basic tool kit someone would use for special effects in a movie, not augmented reality stuff.” franchise, while the developers have clearly borrowed some of Nathan Drake’s moves, they’ve created more than an “Uncharted” clone. The tone is darker, and the levels are less linear. This is not just “Uncharted” or “Assassin’s Creed” with Lara Croft, it’s “Tomb Raider” for a new era. Three-and-a-half out of four stars. (AP) Online: http://www.tombraider.com