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With Google IO 2013 just 2 days away, there is speculation as to whether Google will announce a finalised price for what is, ostensibly, a head mounted wearable computer. Many industry watchers are saying it could be priced as little as $200, but, insiders are claiming that it will appear in its most basic form coming in at about $350, either way, my prediction is that they are going to sell out almost straight away.
But aside from the pricing, what else can we expect to see? At this point it might be worthwhile taking the leap and speculating a little ourselves and dreaming about that Glass future, which will undoubtedly come.
There is no doubt that Glass will herald a revolution, probably as big as the tablet revolution brought about by desire for the ipad, perhaps even bigger, dependant on that elusive price point. The question is how and in what form will it impact on our lives?
Augmented Reality (AR): this is a feature that needs to become a major element of Glass, the idea of being able to view advertising or directions or anything else for that matter projected in front of you and becoming part of the scene is massively desirable. Games would take on epic proportions if they were to incorporate AR, but just think of the possibilities, for TV, you could watch and hear your screen whilst your opponent, sitting next to you, sees and hears only theirs. Engineers, such as cable maintenance operatives could look down on the ground to see an AR set of pipes or cables superimposed over their vision.
Driving Aid: there is a lot of speculation as to the impact of people using glass when driving, usually negative. I can foresee a time when Glass enhances the driving experience, much the same way as Sat Navs have today. Firstly if you could get your car talking to your Glass, giving engine data, when required and speed, fuel, fuel consumption as standard, that would be a real help. Next the google glass would work as a dash cam and record any incidents, even if an emergency vehicle was near and you could hear it, but, can’t see it, Glass would overlay its location giving you time to pull over out of its way. The biggest gain would be in navigation, built in GPS would allow the driver to follow and understand directions in a whole new way.
First person reporting: for a reporter in the field, Glass would be indispensable. Newsworthy events could be covered and relayed, in real time, without a huge bulky camera becoming a focal point for attention so the reaction of people would be less staged and more natural. News reporting would be impacted almost straight away, it would be a very interesting time indeed.
I can see Glass being issued to law enforcement and military operators for evidence and reconnaissance purposes as well as security officers in shopping malls and private properties. But for the general populace, Glass would revolutionise social media, there would be a massive influx of photos and video to places like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ as people realise taking photos would be easier than typing.
I’m not sure if movies or TV shows will be shot using Glass, but, it is a possibility. There will certainly have to be ‘the first full length feature movie shot on Glass’, but, I’m not sure if there would be too many more after that. TV shows would probably intercut images from Glass giving an character’s eye view but again I think traditional shooting means would prevail.
There is no doubt that we are on the verge of revolutionary change with regard to our personal communication methods and I, for one, welcome our cycloptic Google overlords. All Hail Sergey!
