WEBVTT - Apple Indefinitely Shelves it's AR Glasses Project 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.760 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.840 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:22.520 And how the tech are you? Well, I thought we'd 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:26.840 do a little tech stuff tidbits episode. Today, Bloomberg reports 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:31.440 that one of Apple's worst kept secret projects is now 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:37.319 on indefinite hold, meaning it may never come out. That 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:41.479 project is a pair of augmented reality glasses or a 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:44.280 R glasses. So I thought that chat a bit about 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.879 a R. Uh. It's too bad it's not talk like 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:50.720 a pirate day because then I could talk about our glasses. 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.400 But no, it's it's a R. And I want to 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:56.080 talk a little bit about the history of augmented reality 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.320 and why even a company like Apple has to back 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:05.520 off from the quest of the augmented reality glasses. Also, 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:07.399 I'm going to chat about what Apple is gonna do 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.319 instead of producing those a R glasses. We'll get to 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.240 that towards the end of the episode. So, first off, 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:18.880 what the heck is augmented reality. Well, it's a slice 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:23.640 of a larger spectrum that we call mixed reality or 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:28.199 x are. Mixed reality describes systems in which the user 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:33.400 interacts with some mixture of real and computer generated elements. 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:37.480 So let's take virtual reality or VR for example. With 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:42.040 virtual reality, a computer creates the visual and audio cues 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:47.200 that the user encounters, so everything you see and here 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:51.240 is computer generated. Depending on the extent of the experience, 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:54.680 you might also get some other elements to boost immersion, 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:58.880 like maybe some smells thrown in. Like maybe you are 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.880 supposed to be hanged fighting over a forest and you 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:05.440 start to smell the scent of pine, and some fans 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:08.240 begin to blow air on you to simulate the wind. 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:11.720 But this means that you're you've got some real world 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.320 stuff impacting your experience on top of the virtual elements 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:19.040 that you're seeing and hearing there before. It's a mixed reality. 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:23.240 Augmented reality is kind of on the other end of 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:27.320 the spectrum of of mixed reality from VR. So with 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:30.959 augmented reality, your experience of the world around you remains 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:34.080 available to you, so you can still see and hear 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.120 the world around you, but in addition to that, you 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:42.320 get some computer generated material that adds into that experience. 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:46.000 So it could be audio cues that are delivered through 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:50.720 like an earpiece or a bone conducting you know, uh, speaker, 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:56.080 or it could be digital information that's visually overlaid on 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.360 top of your view of the world, which could be 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:04.440 through a screen or transparent lenses. The information adds to 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:10.320 or augments your understanding of your surroundings. And this is 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.160 not a new idea. Back in nine a professor at 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:19.400 Harvard named Ivan Sutherland created a contraption that he nicknamed 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:23.520 the Sword of Damocles. Now, in case you do not 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:28.400 understand that reference, and trust me, the sort of Damocles 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:31.040 is a phrase I heard a lot before I ever 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.920 thought to even look into what the story was behind it. 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:37.800 I'm going to give you the quick version of it. 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:40.320 And I know this is tex stuff. It's not stuff 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.680 you missed in history class or uh, you know, any 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:47.480 kind of mythology course. But give me some slack. So 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:51.720 Damocles was a member of the court of Dionysius the 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:56.600 Second of Syracuse, dion as I will call him. So 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.560 this was in fourth century b c e. And Syracuse 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:02.680 was a power, a full city in Sicily, and dion 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:05.280 the second wasn't the best ruler. He was kind of 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:08.880 a party boy. He initially inherited his position when his 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:13.920 pops kicked off when Dion Jr. Was just thirty years old. Anyway, 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.960 back to Damocles, So the story goes that Damocles is 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.159 attending the court of Dion the second, and Damocles is 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:26.360 just falling all over himself, kissing Dion two's posterior, and 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.880 then he essentially implies that Dion the second had it 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:32.479 made in the shade, that being king must be the 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:36.039 best to have absolute power and all of this luxury 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.400 at your disposal. So Dion goes all like, oh you 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.320 think so, well, let's switch places and you can find out. 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:45.640 Keep in mind, actual history tells us that Dion really 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.679 was all about the lavish lifestyle. So this doesn't really 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.719 sound like the historical account, but this is the myth, 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:53.960 so we're gonna go with it. So the story goes 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:56.920 the Damocles hops up on the throne and he's like, hey, 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:00.360 I could get used to this. Except Dion then hangs 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:04.760 a sword point down directly above the throne and therefore 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:10.080 directly above Damocles, and he uses a single horse's hair 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.680 to do it. So he's communicating that, yeah, you've got 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:17.040 all this nice stuff, but being a ruler is a 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.159 constant danger. You never know when it's going to strike, 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:22.000 when that thread's gonna break, and you're going to be 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:26.080 in mortal peril. Now, in Dion's case, he had made 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.679 a lot of enemies, mostly by being a not great 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.160 ruler of Syracuse. So to simulate that he had this 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:36.520 sword suspended on a weak horse's hair above Damocles's head, 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.760 you know, any moment death could come for you. And 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.960 then afterwards they switched back and Dion was saying, see, 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:46.480 it's not all wine and roses, until he presumably went 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:49.640 back to smelling roses and drinking wine. Now, forgive me 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:51.960 the tangent. It's just kind of fun to dive into 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:56.839 history and literature and mythology on occasion. Anyway, Sutherland, back 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:00.920 in Night, he creates this display, calls it the Sword 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:03.560 of Damocles. By the way, he didn't do this alone. 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.800 He actually worked with several of his students over at Harvard, 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.760 and this was a head mounted display that actually dangled 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:15.320 from a mechanical arm. Thus the Sword of Damocles because 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.640 it was suspended. Now, it was done for a couple 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.120 of reasons. One was that it was just way too heavy, 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.800 so you couldn't wear it on its own. It had 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:26.080 to be suspended so that some of the weight could 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:30.320 be taken off the user. But also that connection was 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:33.000 part of the way that the whole system was able 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:38.360 to track the movement of the display, so that when 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:42.520 someone wore the display and they moved their head, their 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:47.640 their view would move along with their physical movement. See 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:51.040 Sutherland had previously created head melted displays, but they didn't 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.160 have head tracking, which means you could strap one to 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.279 your face and turn your head, but you would just 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:58.760 see the same view as you did a moment before. 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:01.320 It be kind of the same thing that if you, 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:05.520 you know, had a a smartphone playing a YouTube video, 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:08.840 just a regular YouTube video and advisor, you turn your 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:10.320 head to the left or to the right, you're still 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.320 looking at the same video right your your perspective hasn't 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:17.240 changed at all. So head tracking was a really important 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:22.000 part of the technology that would advance both augmented reality 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.160 and virtual reality, and the sort of Damocles could do it, 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:29.520 so um a phenomenal achievement in nineteen sixty eight of 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.000 all things. Like you gotta remember this is before even 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:38.000 personal computers were a thing, so really groundbreaking stuff. Now, 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:41.000 the sort of Damocles was really more in the realm 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:44.360 of virtual reality than augmented reality. It was meant to 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.760 show computer generated images, not overlay them on top of 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.280 your view of the world around you. But it was 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.920 one of the major pieces that had to fall into 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:58.800 place for augmented reality to work, because obviously augmented reality 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:05.720 own works if the overlay can adjust with respect to 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.040 your point of view whatever you're looking at. Right, if 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:12.080 you put on a pair of augmented reality glasses and 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.280 you take a look at a building and the a 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:16.960 R is telling you, oh, here are the offices that 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.360 are in that building, and then you turn your head 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:22.600 to look at a different building, well, it has to 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:26.400 be able to track that motion and understand all right, well, 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:28.160 now we're looking at something else. So we have to 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.720 put in different information because the first set of information 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:36.840 is no longer relevant. Head tracking is absolutely critical to 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:40.640 make that happen. Now a R wouldn't even get a 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:45.319 name until nineteen nine, nineteen sixty eight, we get this 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:50.880 this uh uh sort of Damocles contraption, and for the 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:54.920 next two decades, a R and VR development continue to happen, 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:59.360 but was mostly in research labs and also some military applications. 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.000 It was being used in things like cockpits of fighter 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:05.520 jets and stuff like that, but other than that, it 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:09.839 was pretty much invisible to the average person. And around 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.199 that's when Tom caught Ll and his coworker David Mizzle 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:19.760 got an assignment from their employer, Boeing Computer Services Research. So. 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:23.599 Boeing is an aerospace company, and it was looking to 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.160 update the way that it would train people construction workers 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:32.199 mainly who were building Boeing's aircraft. So one of the 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:34.520 things they had been doing is they were using these 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:39.679 little plywood boards to write instructions about how to lay 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.160 out cables along the body of the aircraft. And they 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.520 would put these boards up within the aircraft to kind 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.120 of act as guides. But you had to have specific 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:52.720 boards for every different kind of aircraft because no two 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.880 aircraft were using the exact same layout for wiring. And 0:09:57.000 --> 0:09:59.680 so the Boeing was saying, hey, can you come up 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:01.360 with a their way of doing this, because this is 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:05.520 kind of this is like stone age approach to uh, 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:09.480 to the space age stuff we're doing. So Caudel and 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.640 miss L came up with a system that used a 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:16.960 head mounted display that would let construction workers still see 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.520 the aircraft like they're still getting a view of their surroundings, 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.600 but they would get a digital drawing that would superimpose 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:27.559 where the cables were supposed to go. And they could 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.080 even use blank boards as kind of like a movie screen. 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:31.480 So you would look at the blank boards and the 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:33.880 blank boards would act as the same sort of guide 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.240 that the construction workers have been used to, but now 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:41.480 the instructions are being provided by a computer program and 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:44.839 displayed within this head mounted display as opposed to being 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:49.160 physically written on the plywood boards. This meant you didn't 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:52.520 have to have plywood boards for every single aircraft. You 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.320 didn't have to have them all written out for specific ones. 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:57.640 You just use blank ones, and then you would use 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:02.000 whatever the software was was for that specific type of aircraft, 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:04.679 and then the construction workers could get to work and 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:07.560 they could follow those instructions. So Caddel was the one 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.760 who came up with the term augmented reality. The head 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:16.520 meld display adds to or augments the person's experience of reality, 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:19.200 and we would get a lot of focus no pun 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:23.360 intended on the industrial world with regard to augmented reality. 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.480 And you can quickly imagine lots of potential applications. Being 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:30.720 able to see where you need to arrange, say wires 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.200 or pipes within the frame of a building could be helpful. 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:38.840 Like imagine going through the process of constructing a home. Well, 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.480 if you have a united approach, like you have this 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.640 dream of how everything needs to be laid out, using 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.480 something like a head meld display with augmented reality could 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:55.760 allow various contractors to see that layout virtually and follow 0:11:55.840 --> 0:12:01.040 that plan and thus avoid potential complications where like someone says, oh, 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:03.240 I can't I can't do what I had planned to 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.079 do because now there's a pipe in this wall right here. 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:11.640 Also for future people who are working on a structure, 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:16.640 having a digital plan of everything that's built within the 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:20.839 walls that can be displayed through augmented reality would be 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.319 really helpful. Let's say that you are a construction worker 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.800 and you're supposed to do a whole new layout for 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.800 an office space. Maybe the previous tenant has moved out, 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:32.640 a new one's going to move in. Augmented reality might 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.920 show you where all the existing wiring is and let 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:38.640 you plan around that so that you can be as 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.920 efficient as possible when you're creating the new office layout. 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.920 So you can definitely see a lot of practical applications 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.600 for augmented reality, especially in the worlds of industry. Right, 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:57.280 maybe fewer obvious applications for the average consumer, but we 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:02.000 would eventually get to there. Okay, we're gonna take a 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:03.720 quick break. When we come back, I'll talk a little 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.320 bit more about the history of augmented reality and what's 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:17.920 going on with Apple. Before the break, I was talking 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.480 about how augmented reality is used a lot in industry, 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:28.120 but another fairly early use of augmented reality was in entertainment. 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:30.800 Sports fans would get a kind of taste of what 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.199 augmented reality is all about when the NFL started to 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.920 use sports vision here in the United States and for 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:41.640 American football. So, sports vision is a system that lets 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:48.000 producers overlay graphics onto a live television feed, such as 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:51.480 a yellow line to mark a down on the field, 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:55.319 even if the cameras in motion, the system can put 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.120 that line down so that it remains in the right 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:02.120 position with respect to your view of the field. And 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:04.560 now people who were tuning into the game could see 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.839 in real time how say an offensive team advanced or 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:11.800 failed to advance. More clearly in place could become more exciting. 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:14.040 You could see how much distance would need to be 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.920 covered in order to secure the next down or maybe 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.760 even a touchdown, which is I understand it as a 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:25.440 thing in American football. I'm not. I'm not really well 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.720 schooled in sports. I know that's a shock to many 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:34.120 of you. Now, development in augmented reality continued in various projects, 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.840 and a lot of these were independent projects. Then this 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.880 probably means that we actually saw the evolution of a 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:45.040 R occur more slowly than it would have if it 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:50.240 were a more unified kind of effort. But instead we 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:57.200 saw different teams creating different are hardware and applications, sometimes 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:01.720 in very very specific applications that just weren't portable to 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:05.840 other uses. But by two thousand there was some serious 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:11.800 work going on. A developer named hiro Katsu Kato developed 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:15.240 an open source software library and he called it a 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:20.200 R toolkit. That really helped developers because it meant they 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:22.920 didn't have to reinvent the wheel for every application. They 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:27.800 had this common source of of a software library that 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.200 they could be they could build upon, and they could 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:34.840 tweak and evolve and improve over time. And meanwhile other 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:39.400 people could take advantage of that same toolkit, and that 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:44.000 really sped things up considerably. In two thousand nine, Esquire 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.840 magazine released a special edition of its magazine, a physical 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:52.440 paper magazine, and it included a QR code on the 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.720 cover along with Robert Downey Jr. And if you happen 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.080 to have a laptop and it happened to have a 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.760 webcam attached to it, and you could download some specific 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:06.600 software that Esquire linked to, then you could use your 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:09.400 webcamp to scan the QR code on the magazine cover 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:13.160 and looking through the monitor like which would be kind 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:18.960 of mirroring the the cover of the magazine, Robert Downey Jr. 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:21.640 Would suddenly spring to life and jump to it and 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:25.480 introduce you to the concept of augmented reality. He did 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:27.720 it in a pretty snarky way, which is, you know, 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:30.520 kind of his thing, and then he went on to 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:36.280 sheepishly promote his upcoming Sherlock Holmes film, which honestly was 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.760 pretty adorable and entertaining. Now, the mobile revolution, which was 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:45.640 largely led by Apple's iPhone, would transform how we access 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:49.800 online content, and it also created a new way for 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:54.520 us to experience augmented reality using special apps and real 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.680 world components, such as movie posters. We could use our 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:02.120 phones to be the view through which we experienced augment 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:04.920 in reality. Right the camera on the back of the 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:09.119 phone could feed a video view right to your screen, 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:13.479 and then the phone would overlay digital information or replace 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:18.480 whatever it is you're viewing with whatever they are application 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.840 wants it too. So for the example, there were movie 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:23.920 posters where you would hold your phone up and I 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:26.159 assume there still are, I just don't hear about them 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:28.800 very much, but you would hold your phone up and 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.040 it would scan that this was an a R related 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:34.800 the thing. You might even have to have a very 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:38.000 specific app downloaded in order for this to work. But 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:40.720 then the movie poster would seemingly come to life, or 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.720 you might get an animated sequence, or even like a 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.920 trailer would play for the movie. All these sorts of 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:51.240 things could happen where it's built on top of your 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.320 view of the world in this case, this particular movie poster. 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:59.080 But you know, people were already starting to wonder what 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.440 if you could build this technology into say a pair 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.520 of glasses, and so instead of holding up a display 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.480 and then looking at the world through that, you know, 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.280 kind of like those folks who go to concerts and 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.720 they turn on their their cameras on their phones and 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.800 they watch the whole concert through their phone as their 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.520 videoing the concert instead of being in the moment, Like 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.199 what what if? Instead of doing that, I'm just wearing 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.080 some glasses and the display is built into the glasses 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:32.520 and I can see these effects without having to have 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.399 this this handheld device between me and the world around me. 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.640 But that is a very tall order when you start 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:43.479 to consider the elements that are required to fit into 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.879 those glasses in order to give it a r functionality. 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.600 Let's break down some of the components that you would 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:56.760 expect in an augmented reality headset. First of all, you 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.119 have to have some sort of processor or controller to 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.119 act as the brains of the device, So there's one 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:07.400 chip right there. You need at least one camera, preferably too, 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:09.840 so you can get some stereoscopic vision so you can, 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.640 you know, have depth be part of the calculation here. 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:15.560 But you need at least one camera so that the 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.160 device can align information with whatever it is that you're 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.120 actually looking at. So that camera needs to be able 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:24.400 to say, all right, well, I can tell they're looking 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:26.960 at this McDonald's, so I'm going to show them the 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:31.200 big Donald's menu. You need a display, or at least 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.160 some form of projection so that you can actually see 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:38.000 the digital information that's being provided to you. You might 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:40.480 need a microphone and a speaker if you want to 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:44.200 incorporate voice commands and audio feedback. You might want some 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:47.359 sort of GPS sensor. Now you could get away with 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:50.879 pairing this device with something else, like a smartphone, and 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.880 then your smartphone ends up taking over some of these 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.879 duties because you can you can offload that to the 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.919 phone instead of onto the device itself. But you might 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:04.320 want something like an accelerometer in your A R glasses. 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:08.120 You would also need some form of wireless communication chip, 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:12.000 whether that's Bluetooth or WiFi or cellular or something else, 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:17.440 so that it can send and receive information. Probably Bluetooth 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:20.680 would be one of the requirements, because it's hard to 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:24.480 imagine not pairing this with a smartphone, at least for 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.320 the data connection. You could get away with having it 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:30.320 be cellular, though then you would have to, you know, 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:35.399 pay a bill each month to keep your glasses connected. Um, 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.479 I'll see, you need a battery to power the whole thing. Now, 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:41.480 this is just scratching the surface really, which is why 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:43.359 you start to see it's tough to pack all of 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.520 these components that you need for a useful working device 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:50.919 and still keep it in a sleek eyeglass frame style 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:55.760 form factor. So back in Google would show off Google 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:58.440 Glass and this device would pair with a smartphone. So 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:02.240 the smartphone acted kind of like a modem for the glasses. 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.159 It would you know, filter information to the glasses and 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.919 take information from the glasses, kind of acted as a liaison. 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:13.320 It could also store photos or videos that you would 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.320 take with the glasses, so you could take pictures, you 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.200 could take video, and then the glasses would send that 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:22.399 to a smartphone and then free up the limited space 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:26.800 that the glasses themselves had. Uh, so you did offload 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:30.879 some of the requirements onto your companion device, the smartphone 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:35.440 you paired the Google Glass with. That ended up stripping 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:37.359 down the Google Glass a little bit, so they didn't 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:40.960 have to have everything I just mentioned earlier. Now, the 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:44.960 Google glass, the glass part referred to a prism that 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.879 was positioned so that it was out of the way 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:51.680 of the wearer's view if they were looking straightforward, but 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:54.160 by just glancing up and a little bit to the right. 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:58.600 They could look into this prism and see some overlaid information. 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:01.960 This was Google's way to both keep the view clear 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:05.200 for the wearer and also make a display that was 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:09.720 still accessible and useful. The glass had forward facing cameras 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:12.359 and also a bone conducting speaker built into the frame 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:14.960 so that you could hear audio from it, and you 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:18.120 could use vocal commands. You could use a few head 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.159 movements to do things like activated. Also had a physical 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:23.920 button if you wanted to use that to take pictures 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:26.840 and stuff. Uh. And that was about it, and it 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:30.679 was neat, but it was really limited. And while geeks 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:33.240 like me slobbered over the thought of getting a pair 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:36.920 of Google Glass, it didn't really have the aesthetic or 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:40.359 the utility to appeal to the general public. You just 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:47.320 you couldn't do enough with them to make them really desirable. Also, 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:50.720 people were freaked out about the idea of folks wearing 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:52.840 a camera on their face where they could be taking 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:56.640 video or pictures and no one would know about it. Now, 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.240 I would counter that to say, we're already there, because 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:04.640 everybody already has a camera in their pocket. Smartphones are everywhere, 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:08.000 and people always have their smartphones out and they're always 0:23:08.040 --> 0:23:10.600 looking at stuff and you can't tell if they're taking 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:14.280 photos or if they're just scrolling on Twitter or whatever. 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:17.800 So that already exists. It just for some reason, once 0:23:17.880 --> 0:23:21.520 you moved it to the glasses format, people got more 0:23:22.680 --> 0:23:26.200 wary of it, which is interesting. I guess if you 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:29.480 just have a little bit of abstraction, then that makes 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:32.119 people comfortable enough to accept it or at least not 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:34.760 think about it much. But then when it becomes a 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:39.159 little more m prevalent, people get worried. I even had 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:41.800 people asked me to take I had a pair of 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:43.960 Google glass and had I had friends of mine asked 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:45.919 me if I could take them off when we were 0:23:45.960 --> 0:23:50.800 doing stuff like eating lunch together because they were freaked 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:53.560 out by it. And meanwhile, I'm thinking, like, every single 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:57.399 person in this restaurant has a camera on the table, 0:23:57.520 --> 0:23:59.879 if not actively in their hands, because no one can 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:03.520 us leave them out of the way at any given moment. 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:08.320 So yeah, Google glass did not take off, and it 0:24:08.520 --> 0:24:12.840 ended up languishing a bit. It is still used, but 0:24:13.080 --> 0:24:16.359 in limited scope, like it's typically used in workplace and 0:24:16.520 --> 0:24:19.960 industrial settings, but not it's not a consumer product. It 0:24:20.080 --> 0:24:24.040 never really made that transition Okay, we're gonna take another 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:27.000 quick break. When we come back, we'll finish up on 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:31.040 the recent history of a R and talk about Apple. 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:43.000 So Google Glass, as we mentioned, came out in two 0:24:43.040 --> 0:24:46.280