Welcome to the mobile entertainment world where everyone is both star and director. Welcome to Glass.
I completed my first week as an Explorer in the Google Glass project and I can honestly say that I am intrigued by the possibilities of Applied Functional Technology. What is that?
While I may think I have dreamed it up, like most bright ideas, it has most likely surfaced in one form or another many times before. That's exactly the point. While I don't prescribe to the belief that there is nothing new in the world, that everything we invent is a reinvention of something from the past, or at best an update, I do believe true ingenuity comes from the way we apply these innovations to the problems we face in the real world.
In other words, the functions we perform by applying technology to the task at hand is what makes us look like geniuses, and perhaps that is what we are. But if we are simply technology in search of an application, what good is that? Enter the need for Explorers.
But let us back up a bit and explain what all the hype is about.
Just as we evolved as early adopters of mobile technology, device by device, from pager to PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) to Blackberry to iPhone to tablet, we now have companies (not just Google, but also others and startups as well) vying for center stage in the eyewear accessory market.
So as the over seventy crowd plays technology catch-up, learning how to text with their grandchildren and great grandchildren, those who can afford the hefty $1500 price of entry, are experimenting with Google Glass.
What is it?
My Google Glass
Google Glass is an odd looking eyeglass frame with a built-in camera, touchpad, visual screen (that cube shaped glass over the right eye), and a clip-on polarized lens for outdoor wear.
People will think you look strange wearing it, partly because it is not your average run-of-the-mill pair of sunglasses, but also because you will be making strange gestures and head nods while wearing it.
It is not that easy to carry when you aren't wearing it, since the arms on the frame don't fold like real glasses, and after several minutes of continuous wearing, the right arm, which houses the battery and touchpad may make its presence known with the added weight on the ear, or by heating up, which it does if you are taking videos.
But don't let me give you the impression that I don't like the device. I am still trying to figure out what it does best, how I might put it to practical use, and what features I would like to see in the general release.
That's where MyGlass (the accompanying app and website) comes in.
MyGlass app on the Google Play Store.
As an Explorer, I get to add my thoughts to the community forum, now 20,000 users strong and soon to grow, as Google juts announced a program to expand the number of active Explorers. I am still reading the most popular wishes of others who came before me, the true explorers, so I haven't put my list together yet, but it is being formed in the recesses of my brain.
My hope is that I will be able to share the experience with others, especially my clients in the medical profession who could benefit from a hands-free, voice-command camera, note-taker, web-browser, message taker and receiver, and whatever else it eventually becomes capable of doing.
So, stay tuned as we take this experiment for a spin.