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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you didn't touch? With technology? With tech
Speaker 1: Stuff from how stuff flix dot com. Hello everyone, and
Speaker 1: welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and
Speaker 1: I am an editor at how Stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Sitting across from me as always, his senior writer Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: The Moment One Learns English Complications set in Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the third short one in a row. Right. For
Speaker 1: people who are listening to these podcasts out of order,
Speaker 1: that's going to be confusing. But we record a whole
Speaker 1: bunch at once and then we parcel them out over
Speaker 1: time and we giggle. So today we are talking about
Speaker 1: a topic that has been in the news a little
Speaker 1: bit right about the time that we're recording this UM
Speaker 1: in mid to late February. UM. It'll be really funny
Speaker 1: in the future when people come back, because we we
Speaker 1: do get from time to time people listening back. Uh,
Speaker 1: they'll say, oh, I'm gonna start from the beginning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fantastic. When they listened to that old episode where
Speaker 1: we were talking about whether or not Apple was coming
Speaker 1: out with a tablet, Yes, and we did do that.
Speaker 1: It was really funny. Yeah, it funny in retrospect. Yes. Um.
Speaker 1: And this may be another one of those things, because
Speaker 1: it's talking about a product that it has not technically
Speaker 1: been announced, It's been speculated upon a bit and leaked,
Speaker 1: supposedly leaked. Yeah, we're talking about a pair of glasses
Speaker 1: engineered by Google that would give you a an augmented
Speaker 1: reality view of the world around you. And h and
Speaker 1: the fact that this, according to the reports that have
Speaker 1: been published in places like The New York Times, this
Speaker 1: would come to market by the end of Heck, by
Speaker 1: the time this podcast goes live, we may know more
Speaker 1: about it. It It may there may be a public announcement. Well,
Speaker 1: as it turns out, Tim buck three was right, the
Speaker 1: future is so bright, you're gonna have to wear shades. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and here's the other thing is that with all the
Speaker 1: information this will be giving you, I'll be wearing these
Speaker 1: sunglasses at night. Alright. So so what what is it
Speaker 1: about this now? Um? We should talk for a moment.
Speaker 1: I guess about a heads up display. Yes, because that's
Speaker 1: the idea here, the HUD. The HUD that's housing in
Speaker 1: urban development. So the heads up display. Um, This is
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that people have been expecting in
Speaker 1: cars for a really long time and it just hasn't happened. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there there are a few cars that do have these
Speaker 1: sort of things, but they're pretty limited, and it's more
Speaker 1: about stuff like a showing you a projection of what's
Speaker 1: in your what's behind the car, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the heads up display does. Anyone who's played
Speaker 1: video games, especially first person shooters, is familiar with the
Speaker 1: heads up display because in in video games it gives
Speaker 1: you vital information about how you are doing, like whether
Speaker 1: you have any bullets in your gun or possibly in
Speaker 1: your chest. Well, it's it's probably due in part to
Speaker 1: the fact that heads up displays are used in military
Speaker 1: aircraft and have been for quite some times. Essentially, what
Speaker 1: we're talking about is if you if you still have
Speaker 1: no idea, um, information is projected upon the in an aircraft,
Speaker 1: the glass canopy within your field of view, and so
Speaker 1: you're you can see through it to whatever happens to
Speaker 1: be on the other side, clouds, enemy aircraft, mountains. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: so you know you could see the information. Um, it's
Speaker 1: useful for targeting other aircraft. I mean, hey, I've seen
Speaker 1: the documentary Top Gun. Um. Look, it only took three
Speaker 1: three episodes before I got into say that. Um. So
Speaker 1: you know, the technology has been around for for quite
Speaker 1: some time, but in in some applications like uh, you know,
Speaker 1: regular cars just hasn't taken off, so to speak. Um,
Speaker 1: but this is more or less what Google is proposing
Speaker 1: to do, assuming that this is this leaked information is
Speaker 1: actually true. Um, it would be sort of a headstup
Speaker 1: display that you carry along with you in a pair
Speaker 1: of glasses, so you know, you and overlay of information
Speaker 1: about the world around you, which we know by the
Speaker 1: term augmented reality augmented and that it's augmented by data.
Speaker 1: So this augmented reality could take many different forms. It
Speaker 1: could be something like, let's say that you're wearing these
Speaker 1: glasses and you're using an application that that lets the
Speaker 1: glasses display information provided by something like Google Maps. So
Speaker 1: let's say you're walking through a strange city, you're visiting
Speaker 1: a place you've never been before, and you've got to
Speaker 1: pair of these glasses on and you you're actually on
Speaker 1: your way to a specific location, but you've never ever
Speaker 1: gone there yourself before, and the glasses tell you which
Speaker 1: way to turn. M hm. You're just wearing the glasses.
Speaker 1: You're looking at the world around you, and as you
Speaker 1: come up to where you need to go, the glasses
Speaker 1: indicate through this heads up display that you need to
Speaker 1: take a left at the next intersection, and so you
Speaker 1: are navigating your way. They're using the glasses as a tool.
Speaker 1: It's sort of it's taking really taking the place of
Speaker 1: smartphone and in a lot of ways, augmented reality. When
Speaker 1: we first started talking about augmented reality, a lot of
Speaker 1: people were imagining it as something that you would wear,
Speaker 1: like a head mounted display. Uh, so it would be
Speaker 1: some sort of special goggles that would put this information
Speaker 1: on top of the world around us. We've been talking
Speaker 1: about this for years, but the actual implementation we have seen,
Speaker 1: at least in recent years, has been handheld devices like smartphones. Yes,
Speaker 1: and as as useful as that's been in in certain circumstances,
Speaker 1: it's also sort of inconvenient to hold the smartphone up
Speaker 1: in front of your face while you're trying to navigate
Speaker 1: a city. Yeah, and it makes you look like a
Speaker 1: weirdo and you're likely to hurt yourself. You're looking like
Speaker 1: a smartphone wielding weirdo, like a smartphone wielding zombie with
Speaker 1: one arm extended out in front of you. Because yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're if you're trying to if you're trying to
Speaker 1: get both a look at the world around you and
Speaker 1: get a look at the information that's being president on
Speaker 1: your phone, then you kind of have to hold it
Speaker 1: up so that your eyeline is still looking out straight
Speaker 1: ahead of you. Right, most of us don't do that,
Speaker 1: I think I think most of us. What we're doing
Speaker 1: is we're looking down. We're holding the phone at around
Speaker 1: at the level of our stomach or so, and we're
Speaker 1: looking down at it and we're walking anyway, which means
Speaker 1: that we can have close encounters with things like telephone
Speaker 1: polls or other pedestrians, both of which I have done.
Speaker 1: I've also tripped over curbs. I have nearly stepped upon
Speaker 1: a baby. Uh that I wasn't didn't even have a
Speaker 1: phone in my hand. That was just me being mean.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, there are a lot of opportunities for mishaps,
Speaker 1: like getting hit by cars and stuff. So the idea is,
Speaker 1: why don't we put this stuff in, this technology into
Speaker 1: a different form factor where we can still look around
Speaker 1: at the world around us and react to it, get
Speaker 1: the information we want and we that we sometimes we need,
Speaker 1: but not have it be an experience that puts us
Speaker 1: or other people in danger. Now, of course, this will
Speaker 1: also make it easier for for you to be mystified
Speaker 1: when people from New York come up to you and
Speaker 1: ask you if you need help finding something in particular,
Speaker 1: and you go, how did you know? And look, you
Speaker 1: know this is this is just gonna be another way
Speaker 1: for them to pick out the tourists. Well, that's all right,
Speaker 1: and and again it's not just something you would wear
Speaker 1: in a strange city. No, I just but I was
Speaker 1: just thinking about it in that context because I've always
Speaker 1: had trouble figuring out how they knew. But they just know. Well,
Speaker 1: anyone who looks up in New York City is obviously
Speaker 1: a tourist. I'm guilty. So let's talk about some of
Speaker 1: the hardware that this would have to have in order
Speaker 1: for it to work. Alright, So we don't know the
Speaker 1: specifics because this has been stuff that has been leaked
Speaker 1: to the media. There's been no official as of the
Speaker 1: recording of this podcast, there's been no official announcement from
Speaker 1: Google to tell us what this stuff is Yeah, the
Speaker 1: the Google spokesperson said something to the effect of, hey, look,
Speaker 1: there goes the lock Mass monster, and when everybody turned
Speaker 1: to look, he ran off. Yeah. This was part of
Speaker 1: a Google X, which is a top secret research and
Speaker 1: development facility within Google which people work on in Yeah.
Speaker 1: But anyway, So, so the what these would have to
Speaker 1: have in order for this to work is the glasses
Speaker 1: would have to have a camera, because you would have
Speaker 1: to have some sort of If you're overlaying information on
Speaker 1: top of specific things, then you want the the glasses
Speaker 1: to be able to look at you through the camera,
Speaker 1: look at a in a direction, and overlay information on
Speaker 1: the proper stuff. So let's say that you're looking at
Speaker 1: a building and uh or or a collection of buildings,
Speaker 1: and you're looking for a specific restaurant and you're scanning
Speaker 1: from left to right. Then the name of the restaurant
Speaker 1: pops up when you're looking at the right store or front,
Speaker 1: let's say, or even a menu for that restaurant perhaps,
Speaker 1: So there's that needs the camera for that visual acuity.
Speaker 1: It also probably has some sort of GPS sensor in
Speaker 1: it so it knows where you are geographically. Um, it's
Speaker 1: got to have some sort of of of transceiver in it.
Speaker 1: It has to be able to receive information exactly. So
Speaker 1: it's going to be either it's gonna it's either it's
Speaker 1: going to have WiFi or maybe Bluetooth or maybe cellular
Speaker 1: or maybe some combination of those three, uh, in order
Speaker 1: for it to send and receive information. So that because
Speaker 1: obviously you can't store the world's information on a pair
Speaker 1: of glasses, it would never fit. You would have to
Speaker 1: have the world's longest chord connecting you to whatever computer
Speaker 1: database had all the information. So this information is stored
Speaker 1: in the cloud, So you have to have a way
Speaker 1: of getting the information to and from the glasses, otherwise
Speaker 1: they're just gonna be this heavy pair of glasses sitting
Speaker 1: on your face. I was trying to get to the
Speaker 1: to the opera, but it's still two blocks away and
Speaker 1: my extension cord won't let me travel any farther, so
Speaker 1: I guess I'll have to go home. Bumm, the what's
Speaker 1: that giant backpack on your Most of the batteries, you
Speaker 1: also have to have the actual display, which, according to
Speaker 1: the information I've seen, is set a set to the
Speaker 1: side for one eye only, so that one of your
Speaker 1: eyes can just quickly glance over and see what the
Speaker 1: information is. Uh, it's not something that's overlaid over both
Speaker 1: lenses of the glasses themselves. That I imagine would be
Speaker 1: very distracting and would make things very difficult to do. Yeah. Uh,
Speaker 1: there needs to be some sort of user interface so
Speaker 1: that you can actually navigate through things, because it may
Speaker 1: be that there are multiple levels of information you could
Speaker 1: overlay on a location, and you you have an interest
Speaker 1: in a very specific subset of information, but you're not
Speaker 1: interested in the rest, So how do you navigate through that?
Speaker 1: According to what I've read, it looks like it's done
Speaker 1: right now through little subtle head motions, like you tilt
Speaker 1: your head a certain way, and that lets you scan
Speaker 1: through items or select a specific item, And like clicking
Speaker 1: on a link, you might have to tilt your head
Speaker 1: just a little bit in the direction. And according to
Speaker 1: what I've read, it sounds like these are pretty subtle movements.
Speaker 1: That's not something where you're gonna be sitting on the
Speaker 1: train and you look across and there's someone head banging
Speaker 1: away as they're trying to navigate Wikipedia. That's not what
Speaker 1: this is all about. It's more very it's very subtle
Speaker 1: movements now that you may still find that person. You know,
Speaker 1: they might still be there, but you it won't be
Speaker 1: necessary to head bang in order to navigate Wikipedia or
Speaker 1: any other website like how stop works dot com. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I hope it wouldn't be like a touch screen because
Speaker 1: I have enough problem with fingerprints on my glasses. Right.
Speaker 1: There was talk that there could be some voice activation
Speaker 1: stuff added in at some point, and even that this
Speaker 1: could ultimately take the place of a smartphone where you
Speaker 1: would have an earpiece that would be part of this
Speaker 1: so that you could make calls and you can you know,
Speaker 1: you could replace it. There are other reports I've seen
Speaker 1: that no, this is really going to be paired with smartphones,
Speaker 1: where you might use your smartphone as the the device
Speaker 1: that actually connects to the Internet, and then the glasses
Speaker 1: connect to your smartphone and use it as essentially a
Speaker 1: hot spot. Um, that's a possibility, although most reports I've
Speaker 1: seen say the glasses themselves are going to have the
Speaker 1: capability to either use WiFi or three G or four
Speaker 1: G connections in order to get data. Of course, if
Speaker 1: it is using WiFi and you can use your smartphone
Speaker 1: as a WiFi hot spot, that's still a way that
Speaker 1: you would use your phone to actually grab the data
Speaker 1: and then it would send it to the glasses. UM.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of interesting uses for this, so
Speaker 1: lots of information about the world around you. You might
Speaker 1: be able to find out things like historical information of
Speaker 1: sites that you're visiting. You might be able to find
Speaker 1: recommendations for restaurants or shops or movies. You might even
Speaker 1: be able to do things like navigate and purchase stuff
Speaker 1: before you get to places. Um. Like, let's say you
Speaker 1: look at a movie theater and it pulls up the
Speaker 1: movie listings for that theater while you're looking at it,
Speaker 1: and then you decide, Hey, that movie sounds interesting, I've
Speaker 1: been meaning to see that. I'm already in the area.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go and buy tickets through here. Like
Speaker 1: these are all things that might be used with the glasses. Again,
Speaker 1: since they don't actually exist in a way that we
Speaker 1: can play with them right now, we can only imagine
Speaker 1: they're the use case scenarios right well. Of course, uh,
Speaker 1: Google has Google Latitude UM, which is sort of a
Speaker 1: competitor to some of the other location based services out
Speaker 1: there in a way that your Google account kind of
Speaker 1: like four square. Yeah. Um, and uh so you know
Speaker 1: you could you could also do things like check into
Speaker 1: a location. Um, you could go to a restaurant, for example,
Speaker 1: and and uh uh you know, you know you've you've
Speaker 1: navigated there, and once you're there, Uh, you would maybe
Speaker 1: be able to read tips from other people, you know,
Speaker 1: stay away from the lasagna, don't eat the fish. Um
Speaker 1: we had two choices, chicken or fish. Oh yes, I
Speaker 1: had the lasagna. Um, so so yeah, I mean it
Speaker 1: could be used for all kinds of things like that. Um.
Speaker 1: Google doesn't expect people who are going to wear these
Speaker 1: all the time, at least according to these reports. Of course,
Speaker 1: again Google hasn't said, but but let me tell you
Speaker 1: there will be some. If I get a pair of
Speaker 1: these glasses, I will wear them all the time. Yes,
Speaker 1: he will, because guys, to me, this sounds super cool
Speaker 1: and it's something I've wanted to play with for a
Speaker 1: long time. And I love augmented reality applications. I've got
Speaker 1: some of my phone I use a lot of the
Speaker 1: ones that you know have augmented reality features built into them. So, Google,
Speaker 1: if you're listening, I am more than happy to be
Speaker 1: a beta participant in this classes program and I will
Speaker 1: I will wear the heck out of them, because this
Speaker 1: is exactly I love the idea of information being everywhere, right,
Speaker 1: having having a a geographic element to information, so that
Speaker 1: it almost gives information more of a sense of permanence
Speaker 1: to me, like you've associated it with a place. It's
Speaker 1: not just data. There's a physical location that you have
Speaker 1: been to. And when you combine the two, to me,
Speaker 1: that makes the information more meaningful and relevant to you
Speaker 1: from a personal experience. And being the nerd that I am,
Speaker 1: I love information anyway, So this is the kind of
Speaker 1: thing that just gives me like, who I want one?
Speaker 1: Maybe you could build ghost detector apps into them, and
Speaker 1: then you don't play with me, Palette, We're not gonna
Speaker 1: go into that. I will have a will have a
Speaker 1: van and oh man, it's so easy to get me
Speaker 1: upset about that. Let's let's talk about quick quick aside.
Speaker 1: Ghost hunting is bunk alright, alright, God, that was such
Speaker 1: a fun episode. Um yes, that we do have an
Speaker 1: episode about ghost hunting technology and what it does and
Speaker 1: what it does not do. Um I e. It does
Speaker 1: not ghosts. So if you want to on its own,
Speaker 1: if you want to learn You don't even start Pette.
Speaker 1: If you want to, If you want to learn more,
Speaker 1: go and check out that episode. It's actually a fun one.
Speaker 1: It was one of those where it was there was
Speaker 1: a bet on whether or not I could finish the
Speaker 1: episode without having some sort of aneurysm or something. I
Speaker 1: made it. Yeah, No, it was. It was a razor's edge.
Speaker 1: So let's let's talk about whether. Okay, let's we're on
Speaker 1: the the the rumor mill here, so it could or
Speaker 1: could not happen. Let's let's talk about the technology too.
Speaker 1: I mean, could this happen. We've got small cameras that
Speaker 1: are built into our cell phones. I mean they're it's
Speaker 1: receivable that you you could have something small enough to
Speaker 1: put in a pair of glass. Um you've got um,
Speaker 1: you know, you've got the Oakley Thump MP three player
Speaker 1: that's built in the glasses. And supposedly these these uh
Speaker 1: devices look a lot like the Oakley Thump glasses, according
Speaker 1: to one report I read. So you know, we know
Speaker 1: that you could put a battery and some audio technology
Speaker 1: in there. YEA a question, But the question I have
Speaker 1: really is what would the battery life be like? Because um,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean I've and also we don't know
Speaker 1: for sure that would be running the Android operating system.
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of of Yeah, that's the assumption
Speaker 1: that it would be running Android, which makes sense. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's your mobile platform. And you would think if this
Speaker 1: is sort of a either either a split from smartphone
Speaker 1: technology or a compliment to smartphone technology. However you want
Speaker 1: to look at it, if it's parallel or if it's
Speaker 1: splitting off, you would imagine that would probably use a
Speaker 1: similar operating system, although I'm not sure where the processor
Speaker 1: is gonna go. Yes, that's the thing is that it's
Speaker 1: gonna it's gonna need a processor, it's gonna need the battery,
Speaker 1: it's gonna have all these sensors in it, it's gonna
Speaker 1: have the display technology in it. Uh So you start
Speaker 1: wondering how bulky is it gonna be, how heavy is
Speaker 1: it gonna be, how hot is it going to get
Speaker 1: as it's running, and how long will the battery life last. Now,
Speaker 1: if my Android smartphone is anything to go by, and
Speaker 1: I have I have one of the bulkyear Android smartphones,
Speaker 1: And to be fair, the reason for that is because
Speaker 1: it's one of the ones that has a physical quirity keyboard.
Speaker 1: So that's that's adding quite a bit of bulk to it.
Speaker 1: But if we look at a smartphone and we look
Speaker 1: at how heavy it is and and the size of it,
Speaker 1: part of that is because the displays tend to be
Speaker 1: pretty big. In this case, the display can be much
Speaker 1: smaller because it's gonna be really close to your eye,
Speaker 1: so you don't need to make it that big. You know,
Speaker 1: it's gonna it's gonna cover up a good amount of
Speaker 1: your field of vision when you look a certain direction,
Speaker 1: so you don't need it to be huge. So that's
Speaker 1: gonna cut down a little bit on on the size
Speaker 1: and weight. But yeah, I'm curious to see, like, is
Speaker 1: it gonna feel comfortable? Maybe that's one reason people wouldn't
Speaker 1: wear them all the time, because if they're if they're
Speaker 1: heavy enough, you might not want to wear them for
Speaker 1: more than, you know, a few minutes. But if you're
Speaker 1: not wearing them all the time, where the heck are
Speaker 1: you putting them? Yeah? Well, you also have to be
Speaker 1: concerned that people who need prescription vision correct action like me, uh,
Speaker 1: might have difficulty reading it. Now for people who are
Speaker 1: are near sighted, maybe not as much of a problem.
Speaker 1: As people who are far sighted. Although people who are
Speaker 1: near sighted who are not wearing contacts and put these
Speaker 1: glasses on, are not going to really be able to
Speaker 1: see the world around them. They might be able to
Speaker 1: read the information about the world around them, but then
Speaker 1: they look at they actually look at the building that
Speaker 1: they're reading about, and that just as an indistinct blob. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's how it would be for me. Yeah. No, That's
Speaker 1: the thing is that if I were wearing these glasses,
Speaker 1: I would also need to wear contacts in order to
Speaker 1: really experience it the way I would want to. You
Speaker 1: are about to fall in. Uh course you pay the
Speaker 1: platypus man. I wonder how many Phineas and ferb references
Speaker 1: we've had since I started watching that show. And he
Speaker 1: doesn't even have kids, ladies, And it's a lot. No,
Speaker 1: I'm just a big kid myself. But yeah, yeah, there
Speaker 1: there are a lot of other questions too, like, uh,
Speaker 1: from what I understand, Yeah, the big one they guess
Speaker 1: work right now as they think that it will probably
Speaker 1: cost around this bay being the media. Yeah, well I
Speaker 1: should identify they like New York Times and blogs and
Speaker 1: like like a wireds blog, Engadget and other blogs like that.
Speaker 1: The best guess right now is that would fall into
Speaker 1: the smartphone range, so probably between two and fifty and
Speaker 1: six hundred dollars for a pair of these, which you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's a luxury item. That's something that early
Speaker 1: adopters will probably be more than willing to pay, assuming
Speaker 1: that they have that kind of money laying around. But
Speaker 1: your average consumer would be like, well, that's just a curiosity,
Speaker 1: and they may very well be correct, because the other
Speaker 1: thing I've read is that apparently Google doesn't have any
Speaker 1: plans on how it would monetize this, that this would
Speaker 1: just this is almost like it's just an experiment to see,
Speaker 1: you know, hey we can do this. Let's do this
Speaker 1: and show that we can do it. But there's no
Speaker 1: real plan on making that like a core part of
Speaker 1: their business because there's not really a money generating part
Speaker 1: of that right now. Although you could imagine that advertising
Speaker 1: would very easily fall into their you know, location based
Speaker 1: advertising would obviously be a source of revenue if this
Speaker 1: thing were to progress beyond you know, the the initial phase.
Speaker 1: So it may be that Google doesn't really pursue this
Speaker 1: as an actual, like, you know, broad consumer product, but
Speaker 1: really just something for a group of people who are
Speaker 1: really passionate about the idea, so that it might fuel
Speaker 1: the next generation or maybe two more generations down the road,
Speaker 1: where it becomes something more of a of a consumer
Speaker 1: product and less of a of a hobbyist kind of product,
Speaker 1: especially for people who are interested in not just using
Speaker 1: it but developing for it. Right. So there's that, um,
Speaker 1: and then there's UH questions about when it will come
Speaker 1: out right now, the the most information I've seen is
Speaker 1: before the end of UH. And then there there are
Speaker 1: some guesses that there may be some beta programs between
Speaker 1: now and then where normal schlubs like I don't know
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strict and co host of popular podcast tech Stuff,
Speaker 1: could get their hands on a pair of these and
Speaker 1: try them out. And he is more than willing to
Speaker 1: do that. From what I understand, he and I are
Speaker 1: really close. Don't make him big, No, no, please, don't,
Speaker 1: I'll do it. I'm not I'm not a proud man.
Speaker 1: But yeah, So there are a lot of other questions
Speaker 1: about this, uh, you know, if it if it does
Speaker 1: come out, because sometimes these projects pop up in Google
Speaker 1: and then never really go intwhere outside the company. UM, So,
Speaker 1: if it does come out, will it take off? If
Speaker 1: it even if it does take off, will Google continue
Speaker 1: to pursue it? You know? These questions also come into
Speaker 1: play with things like the when Google did the whole
Speaker 1: driverless car thing, right, that was a super cool project,
Speaker 1: really interesting, and it may very well be that certain
Speaker 1: car manufacturers will end up utilizing some or all of
Speaker 1: the technology that Google created as part of that project.
Speaker 1: But as of right now, there's no way for the
Speaker 1: average person to experience that technology. So is this going
Speaker 1: to become something like the driverless car? Is that going
Speaker 1: to be where we're gonna have, you know, years between
Speaker 1: when we find out about it and when something actually
Speaker 1: tangible to us happens. Yeah, well I bet you'd be
Speaker 1: willing to have beta test that for them too. Yes,
Speaker 1: if you want, Google, if you want to give me
Speaker 1: a pair of those glasses and a car that will
Speaker 1: drive me around, I will. I will be more than
Speaker 1: happy to test out both of those things. I do
Speaker 1: not you know a little bit of trivia about Jonathan.
Speaker 1: I don't drive, so so a driverless car would be
Speaker 1: incredibly useful for me in the city of Atlanta, where
Speaker 1: cars are almost a necessity the humans. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: That's depressing, but true. So yeah, give me a driverless
Speaker 1: car and I can add to the problem. Well, it's uh,
Speaker 1: I'm interested to see whether or not they're they're ready
Speaker 1: to rule something like that out. Um, I just I
Speaker 1: just don't know. It seems like something that's not going
Speaker 1: to be a mainstream product, at least not for years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm not it's done. I'm not sure that the
Speaker 1: average person has any desire for this sort of product.
Speaker 1: You know, it may just be something that they're like, No,
Speaker 1: that's such a nerdy thing. I can't imagine it. See
Speaker 1: for me, it's just it's so compelling that it's something
Speaker 1: that I'm very eager to to check out. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I could. I I'm not. I am not the average person.
Speaker 1: I am. It's total total geek. So a person who
Speaker 1: is not as geeky may look at this product and
Speaker 1: just say, wow, I can't imagine ever wanting to use that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I I use my smartphone to play you know,
Speaker 1: angry Birds or fruit Ninja. I don't use it to
Speaker 1: look up information about the world around me. I'm not
Speaker 1: interested in learning or exploring or broadening my horizons. I'm
Speaker 1: happy in my insular a little world where I've created this,
Speaker 1: this compartmentalized existence that is completely cut off from everything else.
Speaker 1: And really I'm fine with not learning and being an
Speaker 1: ignorant person and just kind of wallowing in my ignorance
Speaker 1: celebrating it really is what I like to do. That that,
Speaker 1: to me, is what existence is all about. You know,
Speaker 1: those people are cool. You know. Do I need to
Speaker 1: take the soapbox away from you again? Because I'll do it.
Speaker 1: I'm done with it anymore. I'll turn this podcast around anyway, Nick,
Speaker 1: and I was being facetious everybody. Anyway, My my wife
Speaker 1: would never want a pair of these glasses, and she's
Speaker 1: completely justified in that. Me I am. If these come out,
Speaker 1: I will get a pair, that's just it's I know
Speaker 1: I will. He doesn't need a tablet, but he does
Speaker 1: need a pair of augmented reality. That's not true. I
Speaker 1: do need a tablet. There's just not a tablet out
Speaker 1: there that does what I needed to do. I need
Speaker 1: a very specific tablet that hasn't been made yet. Maybe
Speaker 1: you could attach it to your face and then you
Speaker 1: can use it like AMA. That's not that, it's not
Speaker 1: the form factor. That's the problem. It's not the form
Speaker 1: factor of the tablet that I object to, it's the
Speaker 1: it's the use cases that you know, I don't need it.
Speaker 1: That's a different podcast. We should do a podcast why
Speaker 1: Jonathan wants a tablet and why he's not gonna buy one.
Speaker 1: All right, and I'll be just five minutes of me
Speaker 1: explaining myself. Yeah, just like a typical text of episode.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, that wraps up our discussion on this
Speaker 1: theoretical piece of technology that may very well be on
Speaker 1: the market by the time of this episode goes live.
Speaker 1: If you, guys have any topics you would like us
Speaker 1: to talk about, please let us know. You can send
Speaker 1: us an email or address is tech Stuff at Discovery
Speaker 1: dot com and that email address works now. Some of
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Speaker 1: had a little bit of a problem. We have fixed
Speaker 1: that problem. Please email us, or you can let us
Speaker 1: know on Facebook or Twitter or handle at both those
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