Sergey Brin, a figure of envy among nerds, geeks, normal people, and well, quite frankly the whole world is envious of his wealth, recently put some of his company’s money into a doing something that may not merit any investment at all.
During Google’s I/O event, Brin broadcasted live feeds of skydivers free falling while wearing Google Glasses. However, the Wi-Fi signals on the glasses were too weak so Google had to use antennas to amplify the signal to make the live feed possible.
Well? And then what? After the live feed, Google graciously announced that developers can pre-order the Google Glass for $1,500 smackers. Buying a Wi-Fi eye glass with mounted camera for $1,500 is hardly a justifiable investment.
Google’s promo video of Project Glass revealed some sci-fi-esque augmented reality features, but if the consumer version of the Glass (supposed launch is in 2014) is nothing more than a glorified Wi-Fi camera eye glass then Google may just have spent years working on, well, a head mounted camera.
That’s not to say that Google won’t achieve full augmented reality integration with their Project glass, but hiring stuntmen to jump out of an aircraft just to prove that Google Glass is capable of recording videos and broadcasting it is a rather questionable use of resources. Okay, Google has a lot of money to blow, but the point is people want to see some hints of the augmented reality from the promo video—not what a person sees when he is falling at terminal velocity.
Here’s a reminder of what Google has promised us.
Reference: arstechnica.com, gizmodo.com
Benjamin K Steele blog 