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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Trying out Google Glass


     I recently attended a conference where there was a Google exhibit and they offered me a chance to try out the Google Glass.  This latest offering from Google has created some controversy with privacy issues.  The controversy has focused on the ability of a user to take photos and videos of people without the other person's knowledge.  While this issue has also created controversy with smartphones the issue is more significant with Google Glass since it is very hard to determine when the wearer might be taking a photo.
    Google Glass is simply the latest advancement in computer technology from the early days when computers took up a whole room to this latest version small enough to wear on a pair of glasses.  With the pair I tried at the conference it seemed that you had to tap the glasses to turn on it's computer.  When on a small patch of a screen appeared in the upper right hand of your view.  While distracting at first it became less noticeable when you were talking with someone or focusing normally on what was directly in front of you.  The commands to operate the glasses were all verbal and limited to a few features on the glasses I tried.  An example was to command "Take photo" would activate the camera and a second command of "take photo" would actually take the photo.   The command "weather" brought up the weather for Washington D.C. where I was.  I assumed it has a built in GPS to identify my current location.
      It is probably still early to know if or how quickly this technology will catch on but I would assume that applications will be developed to popularize the glasses.  Who would have realized that the development of smartphones would have led to the development of apps.  I have to admit it was fun to try this technology and can't wait to see where this concept goes.
 

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