THROUGH A GLASS, SMARTLY
Geeks aren’t the only people wearing Google Glass
Some 10,000 people are trying out an early version of Glass, Google’s wearable computer, most of them selected as part of a contest. To get a sense of the advantages and drawbacks of the device, we spoke to three Glass owners who have been using the device since late spring: Sarah Hill, a former TV broadcaster; David Levy, a hiking enthusiast; and Deborah Lee, a stay-athome mother.
Glass is designed to work like a smartphone that’s worn like a pair of glasses. Although it looks like a prop from a science fiction movie, the device is capturing imaginations beyond the realm of nerds.
Our trio’s favourite feature, by far, is the hands-free camera that shoots photos and video through voice commands. They also liked being able to connect to the internet simply by tapping on the right frame of Glass to turn it on and then swiping along the same side to scroll through a menu. That menu allows them to do such things as get directions on Google Maps or use the Google search engine. The information is shown on a thumbnail-sized transparent screen attached just above the right eye to stay out of a user’s field of vision.
Among the biggest shortcomings they cited was Glass’ short battery life, especially if a lot of video is being taken. Although Google says Glass should last for an entire day on a single battery charge for the typical user, Ms Hill said there were times when she ran out of power after 90 minutes to two hours during periods when she was recording a lot of video.
Glass’ speaker, which relies on a bone conduction technology, also is inadequate, according to some testers. They said the speaker, which transmits sound through the skull to allow for ambient noise, can be difficult to hear in any environment other than a quiet room.
‘‘If you are out in the street or anywhere else where there is any noise, it’s impossible to hear,’’ Ms Lee said. ‘‘That has been challenging because there is no way to adjust it. If you could adjust the sound, I think it would solve a lot of problems.’’
Ms Hill, 42, lives in Missouri and became a Glass evangelist shortly after she picked up the device at Google’s New York offices. The liberating aspects of Glass came into sharper focus for Ms Hill as she took a cab to the airport for her flight home. During the taxi ride, she began a video call on Google Hangout with people in Austria and the UK. As the cab was preparing to drop her off, Ms Hill was about to end the call so she could carry her luggage. Then came her first Glass epiphany.
‘‘That’s when it hit me that, ‘Holy cow, I don’t have to cut the call off,’ ’’ Ms Hill recalled. ‘‘I could continue talking because I didn’t have to hold a phone. So I carried on a conversation through the airport and people were staring at me like, ‘What is that thing on your face?’ ’’
Ms Hill became accustomed to the double takes and quizzical looks as she wore Glass to community gatherings, restaurants and shopping excursions. The encounters usually led to her offering others to try on Glass, and most were impressed with their glimpses at the technology, Ms Hill said.
Ms Lee, a resident of New York, has been relying on Glass mostly to capture precious moments with her nine-month- old daughter, Maddie. Her favourite moment came when she photographed some of her daughter’s first giggles a couple months ago. Ms Lee, 34, told Glass to take the pictures as she as tickled and kissed her daughter’s tummy.
‘‘Obviously, you can’t do that with a phone in your hand, so I’m totally loving Glass,’’ Ms Lee said. ‘‘It’s really been great.’’
Glass also allowed Ms Lee to set up live video sessions with her parents in Oregon so they could see Maddie eat her first solid food just as she saw it. She also took pictures of her raising Maddie airborne that wouldn’t have been feasible with a camera requiring hands-on operation. ‘‘I’m capturing all these tiny moments that are really exciting with a baby,’’ Ms Lee said.
Unlike Ms Hill’s experience in Missouri, hardly anyone in New York gives her a second look when she wears Glass in Central Park or around her neighbourhood.
‘‘I thought more people would stop me in the street or something like that, but that hasn’t really happened,’’ Ms Lee said.
Mr Levy, 39, rarely wears his Glass around his hometown of Boulder, Colorado, because he doesn’t want to stand out from the crowd. Just two days after Mr Levy picked up the device in New York, he recalls seeing someone else wearing the device at the airport. ‘‘My initial reaction was, ‘What a jerk,’ ’’ Mr Levy said. ‘‘There was a little bit of ostentatiousness about it, as if he were flaunting it. I’m a low-key guy who doesn’t like a lot of attention. I have an iPhone that does a lot of things that I might otherwise make Glass do if I didn’t want to make a spectacle of it.’’
Glass has impressed Mr Levy while wearing it for his main purpose of taking pictures and video of some of the trails charted by Protrails.com, an online hiking site he coowns. His objective is to share more of the great outdoors with schoolchildren in the hope it will inspire them to do more outdoor exploration and less sitting at home.
‘‘I was wondering if Glass would feel like a burden or part of my hiking equipment. It actually feels pretty cool,’’ Mr Levy said. ‘‘They are totally fine on my head and don’t block any of my view. When you see something interesting, you can immediately have a camera on it. I really enjoy being able to capture those images.’’
Some analysts question whether Glass will have mass appeal once it hits the market. Sceptics who have seen early users walking around wearing Glass believe the device will eventually be remembered as a geeky curiousity that never lived up to its hype, similar to the Segway, the twowheeled, self-balancing scooters that remain an anomaly more than a decade after they first went on sale.
Angela McIntyre, a research director at Gartner, believes the retail price for Glass will have to plummet to US$200 (6,370 baht) to make a significant dent. Early testers had to pay $1,500 for the device, though Google hopes to bring that price down by the time of its mass-market release next year.
Ms Hill figures it’s still way too early to envision all the different ways that Glass will be used: ‘‘We’re guinea pigs using the Model Ts of a new age in computing,’’ she said. ‘‘They don’t have heated seats or radios or all the amenities that they will eventually, and we are still learning how to drive them.’’