First impressions of Google Glass, fantastic!

Google Glass is still in development by Google X Lab, the people bringing us driverless cars and other futuristic technologies. But even at these early stages one thing is clear, this is a real winner. A consumer version should be out in the next year. My prediction, at the right price of under $500, they will fly off the shelves. Everyone will someday own one, just like a cell phone.

But for now, I joined the Beta program and picked up the Google Glass Explorer Edition which is available for the outrageous price of $1,500. For that price I was hoping they would throw in a few shares of Google stock. It does comes in great packaging, with a charger, choice of color and extra glass frames. I took mine to LensCrafters who put a rush on it and had my prescription lenses ground and installed in a few days. I think I was their first glass customer, but they did a great job.

For those who don’t know, GLASS is built around technology pioneered by the military called augmented reality and ubiquitous computing. Fighter pilots today wear helmets that erase all obstruction to their field of view while at the same time projecting critical information from other sensors that is not in their visual range. The helmet responds to eye movements and voice commands leaving their hands free to do other tasks. GLASS will provide some of the same capabilities.

Using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity GLASS makes the Internet, Intranets, computers, and software applications accessible anywhere and anytime while leaving your hands free. It is like having a data portal projected right into your eye. Efforts are already in the works to fit this technology into contract lenses. GLASS flawlessly connects directly to the web or other devices like your cell phone. GLASS becomes even more powerful as you integrate it with other technologies and products.

I found wearing GLASS like tasting my favorite chocolate candy for the first time. The experience is like nothing else. Give it a try for half an hour and you will be hooked. And more importantly, you will understand its potential to change our lives and the world around us. Improvements are needed, but GLASS is already a winner.

This is not intended to be a technical evaluation or formal test report, but rather a real life field test by an average user looking for practical application of new tech.

Using GLASS is very simple. Charge it up, set it up, log into glass.google.com to download some free apps, and you are up and running. A button on the inside of the frame turns GLASS on. There is also a button on the top for taking photos and movies. And the right outside frame also responds to swiping and tapping commands. But the real fun is using voice commands, which work great even in a noisy environment.

I found GLASS surprisingly comfortable to wear. It does not add that much weight to a normal pair of glasses. After 30 minutes it becomes part of you and you don’t notice it is there. The projector piece is located in just the right spot, easy to view yet it does not interfere with your regular vision. A charge last about five hours under normal use because GLASS goes into a low power mode when not used. If you take a lot of movies it will only last about an hour.

How easy is GLASS to use? “Ok GLASS,” brings up a menu of commands. Follow that with “take a picture, record a video, get directions, make a call, send a message,” and my favorite “Explore the stars.” A program called Star Chart makes the world of astronomy visible, even in broad daylight, and even comes with audio descriptions of all the plants and many of the stars. Love it!

What about privacy concerns? False stories about privacy abound today. Ignorance is always a stumbling block to progress. And the only people whining about their privacy are the ones with something to hide. Face it, your privacy was gone years ago. The government monitors your email, social networks, snail mail, financial transactions, phone calls, medical records, and cameras are now at every street corner. I would argue that GLASS and facial recognition software are a perfect match. And with the right software could prove very useful in unlimited applications where people "opt-in."

I think GLASS will become common in the workplace from hospitals to auto repair shops. Anything you can see you can do, so goodby paper tech manuals. Years ago a lot of effort was spent on moving away from paper towards Interactive Electronic Tech Manuals, IETMs. Today there are many new form factors that fit on a person’s body, leaving their hands free to perform work. This may bring a shift towards wearable devices that feed up audio and video step by step paperless Tech Manuals. No one has a crystal ball into the future, but we will do our best to bring the future to our classes so students can decide for themselves how they might be impacted. Web 4.0, SAAS, BYOD, iButtons, Near Field Communication, Google Glass, hear about it, see it, and experience it first in our training.

Given the success of products like GoPro, I focused my first field test on just one of the features of GLASS, its camera. Findings: voice command is the future of taking photos and video, and GLASS makes it so easy. The camera does well in low light but does not like bright areas with spot lights. When GLASS photos are compared to those taken with cell phones like the Samsung Galaxy S5, the GLASS photos fall way short. And it takes some time to learn how GLASS frames the picture, the projected window does not always represent what the final shot will capture. But these are issues that are easy to fix and I expect the consumer model to be on a par with cell phone cameras. Movies are limited to seconds to conserve battery power. That is also an issue time and advancements will fix.