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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer at iHeart Podcasts and how the

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Speaker 1: tech are you. So it is Friday, It's time for

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Speaker 1: a classic episode. The episode you're about to hear, originally

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Speaker 1: published on May twelfth, twenty seventeen, is called the Google

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Speaker 1: Glass Story. Hope you enjoy. I'm going to talk about

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Speaker 1: a subject that I've touched on in past episodes. In fact,

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Speaker 1: we did a full episode about this subject. I'm talking

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Speaker 1: about Google Glass. And while we did do an older

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Speaker 1: episode about this, I felt like we could really use

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Speaker 1: a chance to revisit this and kind of talk about

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Speaker 1: in the more modern style of this show. You might

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Speaker 1: remember the old version of tech Stuff was more conversational,

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Speaker 1: and this one's less, so it's more narrative. Well, Google

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Speaker 1: Glass was a big augmented reality project or an AR project,

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Speaker 1: out of Google's R and D labs, the Google X Labs,

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Speaker 1: that's the super secret research and development branch of Google.

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Speaker 1: And it probably was a little bit ahead of its time.

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Speaker 1: In fact, it really was ahead of its time, and

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Speaker 1: it was purposefully ahead of its time. That was part

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Speaker 1: of the problem, but I'm getting ahead of myself. It

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Speaker 1: might have suffered from some poor design and implementation, or

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Speaker 1: at least some choices that perhaps puzzled people. I wouldn't

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Speaker 1: go so far as to call them poor myself. I

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Speaker 1: actually really liked Google Glass. Maybe it was just too

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Speaker 1: darned expensive. It's pretty costly, but whatever the reason, and

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Speaker 1: we'll explore all of them. It's no longer a consumer

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Speaker 1: product that you can buy from Google. So today we're

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Speaker 1: going to talk about Project Glass, how it got started,

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Speaker 1: the technology behind it, and the failed experiment to turn

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Speaker 1: it into a consumer product, and where is it now.

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Speaker 1: The reason I decided to cover this is because the

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Speaker 1: week I'm recording this episode, The Telegraph ran an article

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Speaker 1: about some of the biggest flops in technology, and some

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Speaker 1: of the usual suspects were in there, like the Nintendo

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Speaker 1: Virtual Boy was one of the major flops listed. There

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Speaker 1: are also some heartbreaking intrease in there. The Sega Dreamcast,

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Speaker 1: for example. I know that's another video game component there,

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Speaker 1: a console. In this case, it was legitimately a really

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Speaker 1: good video game console. It just didn't do very well

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Speaker 1: in the market. But I still have one and it

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Speaker 1: was really really good. Then there was Google Glass. That

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Speaker 1: was also one of the ones that the Telegraph listed

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Speaker 1: another heartbreaker. So what's the story behind it? Well, I

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Speaker 1: can't talk about Google Glass without first talking about augmented reality,

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Speaker 1: can I? You know me? You know I can't. I

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Speaker 1: am physically incapable of doing that. I'm sure many of

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Speaker 1: you are familiar with the concept of augmented reality or AR,

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Speaker 1: but just in case, I'm going to give you a

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Speaker 1: quick refresher. So Thomas Cottle gets the credit for coining

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Speaker 1: the phrase augmented reality in nineteen ninety. He was specifically

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Speaker 1: talking about a system that would allow you to see

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Speaker 1: where wires needed to be laid out in say, the

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Speaker 1: fuselage of an airplane. So if you've ever been able

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Speaker 1: to walk into an airplane where it's been stripped down

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Speaker 1: so you can see the guts of it. I was

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Speaker 1: recently at an airplane museum where I got to do this.

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Speaker 1: I walk through what had been a former seven forty

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Speaker 1: seven and now included a section where everything got stripped

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Speaker 1: away so you could see essentially the bones the skeleton

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Speaker 1: of the seven forty seven, and part of that included

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Speaker 1: conduits through which wires would run well. When you're building

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Speaker 1: one of these airplanes, you need to know where those

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Speaker 1: wire conduits have to be so that you can make

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Speaker 1: sure they fit into the overall design. Coddle worked on

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Speaker 1: systems that would give a digital overlay as engineers would

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Speaker 1: look at this airplane design so that they could lay

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Speaker 1: the cables the proper way, make sure that they were

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Speaker 1: aligned so that they weren't going to end up messing

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Speaker 1: up the design some other way. And really, augmented reality

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Speaker 1: is just the integration of digital information into the real

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Speaker 1: world around us. And you can do this in lots

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Speaker 1: of different ways, but typically we talk about augmented reality

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Speaker 1: in terms of overlaying some sort of visual digital information,

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Speaker 1: like a digital display through which you can see a

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Speaker 1: view of the real world, and thus you can have

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Speaker 1: some augmented information on top of that view of reality.

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Speaker 1: So a good example of this might be a fighter

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Speaker 1: pilot who has a helmet that includes a digital heads

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Speaker 1: up display or HUD on the visor of the helmet itself,

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Speaker 1: so you might be able to visualize things like Allied

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Speaker 1: aircraft and you'd be able to see it and it

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Speaker 1: would be identified within your visor, so that you get

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Speaker 1: information about that. That's a simple example, simple in the

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Speaker 1: sense that you can easily imagine it. It's actually quite

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Speaker 1: complicated when you build the technology. A few high end

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Speaker 1: cars have similar features that give digitally enhanced information that

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Speaker 1: is projected or otherwise displayed on the windshield itself, which

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Speaker 1: gives the driver the ability to see certain special views.

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Speaker 1: You might be able to see, like an infrared view

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Speaker 1: of what is outside the car, or a projection of

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Speaker 1: things like the outside temperature, that sort of stuff. But

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Speaker 1: it tends to be in those luxury cars. You don't

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Speaker 1: see it in a lot of the lower production cars,

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Speaker 1: even the nicer ones. It's pretty rare. You also have,

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Speaker 1: I'm guessing an augmented reality device on you. More likely

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Speaker 1: than not most of you, I'm sure have smartphones. So

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Speaker 1: if you have a smartphone, you have a device that

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Speaker 1: is probably capable of running augmented reality apps. There are

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Speaker 1: tons of different apps in the AR space for all

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Speaker 1: of the major smartphone platforms, iOS and Android being the

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Speaker 1: two big ones, but there are ones for other ones

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Speaker 1: as well, and typically the way these work is that

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Speaker 1: you hold your phone up, your phone's backfacing camera pulls

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Speaker 1: in a view of the world around you. So it's

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Speaker 1: like you're getting a live view. It's like your phone

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Speaker 1: is a monitor for you to look at a live

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Speaker 1: camera feed of the world around you. But then the

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Speaker 1: app allows other digital information to be overlaid on top

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Speaker 1: of that view. So it might be something as simple

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Speaker 1: as directions of where to go. Say you've programmed your

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Speaker 1: phone saying I want to get to this one particular

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Speaker 1: coffee shop and it's about six blocks away, and you

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Speaker 1: hold your phone up and it tells you, all right,

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Speaker 1: you need to go three blocks straight ahead. Then you're

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Speaker 1: going to take a rite. That's a pretty simple again

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Speaker 1: concept for augmented reality, but it could do other stuff too,

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Speaker 1: Like you might be able to hold it up to

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Speaker 1: a sign that's written in a language you can't read,

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Speaker 1: and it might be able to read it and translate

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Speaker 1: it for you. We're seeing a lot of translate apps

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Speaker 1: that incorporate this kind of augmented reality, and it's pretty awesome,

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Speaker 1: at least in my opinion, is pretty awesome. But there

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Speaker 1: are tons of different ways to implement augmented reality and

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Speaker 1: just as many different use cases for AR, and it

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Speaker 1: ranges from just entertainment to productivity to industrial use and

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Speaker 1: beyond medicine, lots of different potential uses for AR now.

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Speaker 1: Google Glass started as a head mounted computer device that

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Speaker 1: would incorporate augmented reality features into a display that you

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Speaker 1: could look through and still see the world beyond. And

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Speaker 1: while the project was first teased in a video in

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Speaker 1: twenty twelve, the origins for this project go back much

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Speaker 1: further than that. And first, before there was even a Google,

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Speaker 1: there was a guy named Thad Starner. I've actually had

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Speaker 1: the good fortune to meet mister Starner because he works

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Speaker 1: at Georgia Tech. He's a professor there, and I visited

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Speaker 1: Georgia Tech. I visited the wearable computing labs, and I've

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Speaker 1: chatted with him. He's an interesting dude, and Georgia Tech's

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Speaker 1: just down the street from how stuff works, so it's

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Speaker 1: not hard for us to get over there. Well. He

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Speaker 1: also served as a technical lead for Google Glass. In fact,

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Speaker 1: I believe he served as technical lead longer than anyone

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Speaker 1: else in that position for that particular project. And it

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Speaker 1: was Starner's work in wearable technology and augmented reality that

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Speaker 1: you could say got the ball rolling. So you remember

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Speaker 1: I mentioned a guy named Coddle got the credit for

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Speaker 1: coining the phrase augmented reality. Well, Starner says that he

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Speaker 1: really coined that phrase independently of Coddle. Also in nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety through a fellowship proposal, he wrote, and he thinks

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Speaker 1: that that might be the first appearance of augmented reality.

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Speaker 1: He wanted to use the phrase artificial reality when he

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Speaker 1: was originally talking about this concept. However, someone else was

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Speaker 1: already using that term. That someone was Timothy Leary, and

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Speaker 1: if you don't know who Timothy Leary is, you should

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Speaker 1: look that up. Leary was specifically talking about the kind

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Speaker 1: of reality you experience when you have partaken in mind

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Speaker 1: altering substances. So it wasn't exactly the context that Starner

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Speaker 1: wanted to imply when he was talking about his technology,

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Speaker 1: so he didn't adopt artificial reality, and he went with

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Speaker 1: augmented reality instead. In nineteen ninety three, which was years

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Speaker 1: before Google ever even existed, Starner created a wearable display.

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Speaker 1: So it was a display that attached to his glasses,

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Speaker 1: and really he worked with other people to design this.

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Speaker 1: He didn't build it by himself with his own two hands,

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Speaker 1: but he worked with designers to create a computer system

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Speaker 1: that incorporated a display that could clip onto his glasses,

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Speaker 1: and it was pretty big and bulky, and it was

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Speaker 1: not transparent. It was like having a small computer monitor

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Speaker 1: mounted on your glasses. And he started to wear this

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Speaker 1: all the time wherever he went. It was kind of

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Speaker 1: an experiment in finding out how you might use wearable computers,

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Speaker 1: what elements are important, which ones are not important, how

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Speaker 1: do you incorporate it into your daily life. So he

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Speaker 1: would wear this all the time, and it very often

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Speaker 1: would prompt people to ask questions about this weird thing

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Speaker 1: that he had on hims on his face mainly. Eventually

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Speaker 1: there was a build of this that started going by

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Speaker 1: a name called the Lizzy. It was a wearable computer,

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Speaker 1: complete with input devices and with that head Melton display

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Speaker 1: that again was kind of unsightly originally anyway, This display

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Speaker 1: was able to show a resolution of seven hundred and

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Speaker 1: twenty by two hundred and eighty pixels, so tiny resolution

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Speaker 1: compared to what you would find today, the very low

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Speaker 1: resolution compared to today's screens. It was also monochromatic, so

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Speaker 1: only one color. And connected to that was a one

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Speaker 1: handed keyboard called a twiddler, which I wish were a joke,

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Speaker 1: but it is not. So it was a little one

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Speaker 1: handed twiddler keyboard. It kind of reminds me of the

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Speaker 1: keypads on old cell phones where if you wanted to

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Speaker 1: send a text message and you had to hit the

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Speaker 1: letter E, you had to press the def key twice

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Speaker 1: in a row in order for you to select E

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Speaker 1: before you moved on to your next letter. According to Starner,

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Speaker 1: he could hit type up to one hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: words per minute using this one handed keyboard method, which

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Speaker 1: is crazy fast. It's crazy fast even if you're using

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Speaker 1: two hands on a regular keyboard. So I was really

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Speaker 1: impressed to hear about that very large and heavy batteries

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Speaker 1: would give the computer more than ten hours of juice

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Speaker 1: before you need to recharge. But I mean, these batteries

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Speaker 1: weighed several pounds at least, so they weren't little, unobtrusive

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Speaker 1: things attached to the computer. It was like wearing a

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Speaker 1: hefty backpack, so it wasn't exactly comfortable to wear all

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Speaker 1: the time. And the computer was really serving as a platform,

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Speaker 1: a development platform. It was the basis for programmers to

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Speaker 1: design wearable computing applications. So it's not like it magically

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Speaker 1: gave Starner some sort of crazy computing ability. It was

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Speaker 1: rather an early wearable device to help explore the applications

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Speaker 1: and implementations of wearables without having to worry about creating

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Speaker 1: a specific product. So this was really exploratory, and when

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Speaker 1: you think about it, it was meant to say, we

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Speaker 1: think there's something here, but we don't exactly know what

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Speaker 1: it is yet. We don't know what the final form

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Speaker 1: is going to be, So I don't have an idea

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Speaker 1: for something that's going to be in a package on

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Speaker 1: a store shelf that other people can go out and buy. Rather,

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Speaker 1: I think computing has the capability of transforming our daily

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Speaker 1: lives in yet another way. Now keep in mind, this

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Speaker 1: isn't the early nineteen nineties. This is before smartphones, so

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Speaker 1: smartphones would go on to show us that, yes, indeed,

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Speaker 1: having a computer device that you can carry around with

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Speaker 1: you changes things. There's no question of that. The Internet

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Speaker 1: itself is a reflection of how much that has changed.

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Speaker 1: Internet advertising has changed dramatically because of mobile devices and

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Speaker 1: the popularity of them. So wearable computers definitely had the

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Speaker 1: potential to make an enormous impact, but we had to

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Speaker 1: figure out what sort of implementation made sense and what

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Speaker 1: kind of applications would you use it? For because just

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Speaker 1: to have something, just to have it that doesn't remain

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Speaker 1: compelling for very long. That would be part of the

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Speaker 1: problem of Google Glass later spoiler alone. Now. One of

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Speaker 1: those applications that Starner created early on was a program

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Speaker 1: that would keep track of everything he said, whether or

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Speaker 1: not it was straight voice to text. I am not

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Speaker 1: entirely certain. I'm sure by some point it really was.

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Speaker 1: But he would also be able to type things in

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Speaker 1: using the twiddler, which I remind you it's not a joke.

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Speaker 1: So it was kind of like a perpetual notes system.

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Speaker 1: He could keep track of things he was thinking about

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Speaker 1: and talking about, and then he could run a search

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Speaker 1: back against that see if he could find anything interesting

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Speaker 1: later on, and he said that about ninety five percent

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Speaker 1: of the time what he got back was garbage, wasn't

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Speaker 1: particularly interesting, insightful, or helpful. But about five percent of

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Speaker 1: the time it was totally the opposite. It was something

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Speaker 1: really worth knowing and remembering. So he thought of it

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Speaker 1: as something like a memory booster. It wasn't replacing his memory,

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Speaker 1: but augmenting it. Now, according to popular accounts, Starner attended

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Speaker 1: a conference in the late nineties and he met two

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Speaker 1: postgraduate students from Stanford, so this would be about nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety eight. Those two postgraduate students were named Saragaie Brenn

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Speaker 1: and Larry Page, and if you're familiar with those two,

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Speaker 1: you know those are the co founders or Google. In fact,

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Speaker 1: they would found the company Google just a few short

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Speaker 1: months after this conference. Now, Brin and Page thought that

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Speaker 1: Starner's wearable computers were fascinating, and he gave them a

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Speaker 1: full demonstration of what the computer was capable of doing. However,

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Speaker 1: at the time, they were already focusing on a way

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Speaker 1: to improve search engines on the web, so they couldn't

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Speaker 1: really dedicate any attention to wearable computers. They were too

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Speaker 1: busy perfecting their search engine approach. And this was important

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Speaker 1: because back in the day before things like Google, the

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Speaker 1: algorithm that got so sophisticated that it was able to

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Speaker 1: ignore a lot of the tricks people were using to

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Speaker 1: try and direct traffic to their sites. Web search engines

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Speaker 1: were just okay. Most of them were looking for instances

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Speaker 1: of keywords appearing on a page, which meant that people

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Speaker 1: would try and fool search engines by inserting as many

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Speaker 1: different key search terms as possible at the bottom of

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Speaker 1: a page, even if the page had nothing to do

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Speaker 1: with that particular concept. And why would they do this

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Speaker 1: Because web advertising is based off of how many views

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Speaker 1: you get on a page. Page views are king at

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Speaker 1: least most web advertising is not all of it, but

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Speaker 1: a lot of it is. So if you were able

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Speaker 1: to direct a lot of traffic to your web page,

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Speaker 1: that was another page view, it didn't matter if what

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Speaker 1: that people founded that by the time they got there,

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Speaker 1: if it wasn't what they were looking for, and if

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Speaker 1: they bounced, you got the page view. You don't care

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Speaker 1: where they go afterward. Well, Google one of its big

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Speaker 1: missions was to create a better search engine that would

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Speaker 1: ignore all of the gamification of SEO and to try

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Speaker 1: and look for the links that are the best representation

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Speaker 1: of whatever it is you're searching for. So that's what

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Speaker 1: their real focus was on. However, this meeting between Starner

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Speaker 1: and Brennan Page may have been the first seed for

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Speaker 1: Google Glass, and it happened in nineteen ninety eight, before

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Speaker 1: Google was an official company. Now flash forward a decade,

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Speaker 1: it's two thousand and eight. Google by this time is

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Speaker 1: a huge company, incredibly successful, and it had just launched

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Speaker 1: its own smartphone operating system called Android. Starner immediately thought

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Speaker 1: that Android had promise as more than just an operating

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Speaker 1: system for a smartphone. It could be ported over to

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Speaker 1: all sorts of different devices and used for lots of

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Speaker 1: different stuff, particularly things that were small and nimble, stuff

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Speaker 1: that wasn't like your traditional laptop or desktop computer that

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Speaker 1: includes wearables. So he tried to get in touch with

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Speaker 1: Brennan Page. However, the phone number he had from ten

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Speaker 1: years previous was no longer going to either of them.

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Speaker 1: Big surprise, right, and he kind of let lie for

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Speaker 1: another couple of years. In twenty ten, he would write

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Speaker 1: an email to Saragai Brenn and he said, you should

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Speaker 1: probably come out to my lab at Georgia Tech and

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Speaker 1: take a look at the wearables and see where we've

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Speaker 1: gone in the last ten years. I think he'd be

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Speaker 1: really interested. And Brennan said, you know, we're thinking about wearables.

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Speaker 1: We think it's about time. And rather than us go there,

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Speaker 1: how about we fly you and your team out here

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Speaker 1: so you can give us a full day of demonstrations.

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Speaker 1: And Starner said yes, and next thing he knew, he

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Speaker 1: became a technical lead for Project glass Over at Google's

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Speaker 1: X division. By Shortly thereafter, after Starner joined the team,

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Speaker 1: Starner Brennan Page were able to bring over another leader

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Speaker 1: in wearable tech, someone that Starner had worked with in

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Speaker 1: the past, Greg Priest Dorman, who had pioneered work with

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Speaker 1: biofeedback systems in the seventies and into the eighties and

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Speaker 1: then moved into wearable computing. He's another huge name in wearables,

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Speaker 1: so he also joined the Google Glass development team. On

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Speaker 1: August eighteenth, twenty eleven, four Google employees filed a patent

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Speaker 1: for what was called a wearable device with input and

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Speaker 1: output structures. It's the title of a patent, and like

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Speaker 1: most patent titles, it's a little dry and it seems

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Speaker 1: pretty nondescript. The illustrations accompanying the patent include one that

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Speaker 1: closely resembles what the final form of Google Glass turned

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Speaker 1: out to be. Some of the other illustrations looked more

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Speaker 1: like a more or less normal pair of glasses. Some

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Speaker 1: of them looked a little strange or odd. The patent

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Speaker 1: described the general components for the invention, which you know

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Speaker 1: patents are supposed to do. In order for you to

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Speaker 1: get a patent on something, you have to actually explain

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Speaker 1: how the thing works the parts that are that it's

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Speaker 1: made out of. Otherwise you can't You're not supposed to

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Speaker 1: get a patent on it. So what did this cover? Well,

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Speaker 1: I suppose I can quote directly from the patent itself

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Speaker 1: under the claims section. The first and most important of

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Speaker 1: the claims reads thus late an electronic device comprising a

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Speaker 1: frame configured to be worn on the head of a user.

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Speaker 1: The frame including a bridge configured to be supported on

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Speaker 1: the nose of the user, a brow portion coupled to

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Speaker 1: and extending away from the bridge to a first end

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Speaker 1: remote therefrom and configured to be positioned over a first

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Speaker 1: side of a brow of the user, and a first

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Speaker 1: arm having a first end coupled to the first end

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Speaker 1: of the brow portion and extending to a free end,

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Speaker 1: the first arm being configured to be positioned over a

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Speaker 1: first temple of the user, with the free end disposed

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Speaker 1: near a first ear of the user, wherein the bridge

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Speaker 1: is adjustable for selective positioning of the brow portion relative

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Speaker 1: to an eye of the user. A generally transparent display

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Speaker 1: means for a fixing the display to the frame such

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Speaker 1: that the display is movable with respect to the frame

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Speaker 1: through rotation about a first axis that extends parallel to

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Speaker 1: the first brow portion, and an input device a fixed

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Speaker 1: to the frame and configured for receiving from the user.

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Speaker 1: And input associated with a function wherein information related to

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Speaker 1: the function is presentable on the display. What the what? Well,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to explain what that means, but first let's

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Speaker 1: take a quick break to thank our sponsor. All right,

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Speaker 1: So what did that patent speak actually mean? Because it

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Speaker 1: got so weird and dry, and that's typical for patents,

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Speaker 1: by the way. That's it's a very formulaic approach because

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Speaker 1: patent system is a bureaucracy and you have to conform

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Speaker 1: to the methodology of the bureaucracy in order to get

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Speaker 1: your idea through Otherwise, if it doesn't conform, you're not

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Speaker 1: likely to get a patent award. So what it actually

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Speaker 1: means is the invention would fit on your face like

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Speaker 1: a pair of glasses that one arm or stem if

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Speaker 1: you prefer, of these glasses would curve around the brow

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Speaker 1: above one eye to rest against the side of your head,

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Speaker 1: so over one eye, and in early Google glass it

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Speaker 1: was always the right eye. There'd be a little protrusion.

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Speaker 1: That's where at the end of that protrusion. That's where

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Speaker 1: the screen would be, the clear transparent screen. I guess

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Speaker 1: I can say clear and transparent like I can say

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Speaker 1: ATM machine. Then the other part of it would wrap

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Speaker 1: around back behind your ear, with a part of it

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Speaker 1: resting just behind your ear. More on that than just

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Speaker 1: a second, but that would be the main part of

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Speaker 1: Google Glass. The other section would just be a dumb

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Speaker 1: frame that exists really just to provide stability. So you

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Speaker 1: would have a part that would rest on the bridge

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Speaker 1: of your nose that would help support the stem I

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Speaker 1: was talking about. And on the other side your second ear,

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Speaker 1: because you remember the patent said first ear and first etc.

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Speaker 1: Et cetera. First brow. The other one would be the

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Speaker 1: second one. This is not important to the invention because

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Speaker 1: nothing of any technical import is going on on that side.

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Speaker 1: It's literally just a frame to hold the rest of

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Speaker 1: the technology in place. So over your right ear you

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Speaker 1: have the stem of the Google Glass, and in that

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Speaker 1: section you've got a control area. You've got your battery,

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Speaker 1: you've got your speaker, you've got your projector for the screen,

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Speaker 1: you've got inside, you've got the processor, you've got the

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Speaker 1: receiver for Bluetooth et cetera. On the other side, over

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Speaker 1: your left ear, it's just a regular little stem that

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Speaker 1: fits over your ear, kind of like a regular pair

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Speaker 1: of glasses. There's nothing, no technical elements inside that side

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Speaker 1: of it. It's just dumb plastic. So the part that's

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Speaker 1: right behind your ear, that's where the speaker was, that's

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Speaker 1: where the audio would come from. Obviously, if you're watching

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Speaker 1: a video or you're taking a call, you would need

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Speaker 1: to be able to hear things through the glasses. It's

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Speaker 1: cool because this particular speaker wasn't just playing audio blasting

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Speaker 1: it out into the real world. It was using bone

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Speaker 1: conduction to transmit audio so that you could hear it. Now,

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Speaker 1: if you stood close to someone who was wearing google

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Speaker 1: glass and they were playing audio, you would hear stuff.

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Speaker 1: Because when you get down to it, sound is vibration.

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Speaker 1: The sound that you are hearing right now is transmitted

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Speaker 1: through molecules vibrating at the frequency that I'm talking at,

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Speaker 1: and the amplification as well. The amplitude, So when you

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Speaker 1: get down to the fact that sound is just vibration,

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Speaker 1: bone conduction makes sense. It is what it sounds like.

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Speaker 1: Sound is transmitting through bone. Your bone conducts sound bones,

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Speaker 1: I should say, although in this particular case we're talking

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Speaker 1: about the skull, otherwise known in medical circles as the headbone,

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Speaker 1: So the headbone would transmit the sound from the speaker.

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Speaker 1: So what's happening is that? Well, I guess it helps

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Speaker 1: if we talk about just the regular sense of hearing first, right,

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Speaker 1: These vibrating air molecules enter your ear canal. They cause

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Speaker 1: your ear drum or your tympanic membrane if you prefer

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Speaker 1: to vibrate. Now, that vibration gets transmitted to a tiny

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Speaker 1: set of bones in your inner ear, which acts as

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Speaker 1: kind of like an amplifier, and they ultimately terminate on

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Speaker 1: an organ called the cochlea, which is sort of in

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Speaker 1: a spiral shell shape. It's got some fluid in it,

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Speaker 1: and it's got some finger like nerve endings in it

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Speaker 1: that are in this fluid. And when the coclia is vibrated,

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Speaker 1: then this fluid moves around and that stimulates the nerve

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Speaker 1: endings inside of it, which then sends signals to the

433
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:23,639
Speaker 1: brain which then interpret that to be sound. It's pretty

434
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:26,399
Speaker 1: cool when you really develop thought about it. Well, the

435
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:28,680
Speaker 1: neat thing about bone conduction is you can bypass the

436
00:26:29,040 --> 00:26:33,240
Speaker 1: ear drum entirely. You can send vibrations through bone, which

437
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:37,560
Speaker 1: then will reach the inner ear on their own bypassing

438
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,719
Speaker 1: that pathway that all other sound tends to take and

439
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:46,199
Speaker 1: vibrating the cochlea directly. So there are a lot of

440
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:51,200
Speaker 1: sports earbuds or headbands or whatever that have these kind

441
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:53,960
Speaker 1: of bone conduction speakers. Some people call them bone phones.

442
00:26:55,359 --> 00:26:59,919
Speaker 1: I do not, but some people do. And the Google

443
00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:03,600
Speaker 1: Lass had one of these types of speakers to again

444
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:07,480
Speaker 1: transmit sound without it blasting out into the general world.

445
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:10,879
Speaker 1: Pretty interesting stuff. And this meant that you could watch

446
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:13,359
Speaker 1: things like videos, or listen to a voicemail or make

447
00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:17,640
Speaker 1: a call using Google Glass, and you could hear through

448
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:19,520
Speaker 1: Google Glass. You didn't have to hold a phone up

449
00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:25,439
Speaker 1: to your other ear. Now, the invention also incorporated a

450
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:28,400
Speaker 1: screen that was transparent, so, in other words, you had

451
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:31,439
Speaker 1: to be able to see through the screen and be

452
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:35,040
Speaker 1: able to view the outside world through it. It couldn't

453
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:38,120
Speaker 1: have an opaque backing, so you couldn't silver the back

454
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:41,639
Speaker 1: of the screen, which presents some challenges. So how do

455
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:45,400
Speaker 1: you project images so that you can see a display

456
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:49,080
Speaker 1: and read the digital information? Because again that's what augmented

457
00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:52,080
Speaker 1: reality is all about, right, it's overlaying that digital information

458
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 1: on top of a view of the actual world around you.

459
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:56,879
Speaker 1: So if you can see through the screen, how do

460
00:27:56,960 --> 00:28:02,600
Speaker 1: you display images on that said screen? Well, Claim nine

461
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,160
Speaker 1: on that same patent gives some information on that matter.

462
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:10,080
Speaker 1: It says the electronic device of Claim one wherein the

463
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:14,240
Speaker 1: generally transparent display is a prism of a transparent material

464
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:17,600
Speaker 1: configured to make an image projected into a side of

465
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:20,720
Speaker 1: the prism visible at a surface of the prism that

466
00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:23,520
Speaker 1: is at a non zero angle to the side of

467
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:28,840
Speaker 1: the prism. Now what that means is that on casual glance,

468
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:34,359
Speaker 1: the prism looks like an elongated cube of clear plastic,

469
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:37,640
Speaker 1: and it looks like that's all it is. But if

470
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:39,959
Speaker 1: you were to take a look at it from the top,

471
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:42,960
Speaker 1: like the top of a pair of Google glass, and

472
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:45,280
Speaker 1: you were looking down, you would see that there's a

473
00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:52,760
Speaker 1: fine line bisecting from one corner of this prism down

474
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:57,800
Speaker 1: into about the middle of the prism, a this weird

475
00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 1: little diagonal. This is an angle layer inside the prism,

476
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:05,160
Speaker 1: and the way it works is it allows light to

477
00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 1: pass through straight from ahead of you. So if you're

478
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:11,040
Speaker 1: wearing the pair of Google Glass and you're looking at something,

479
00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:14,360
Speaker 1: light can pass straight through the prism, no problem. But

480
00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:16,880
Speaker 1: if light were to come from a right angle to

481
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:20,960
Speaker 1: the right, as in a place where a little projector

482
00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:25,600
Speaker 1: in the Google Glass could project out images, it would

483
00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:29,760
Speaker 1: then redirect that light ninety degrees so that it goes

484
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 1: into your eyes. In other words, you can still see

485
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:35,400
Speaker 1: the world in front of you because that light can

486
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 1: pass through unimpeded. Light coming from the right side, which

487
00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 1: is where the little digital projector is, that gets reflected

488
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:46,600
Speaker 1: into your eyes, so then you can see the digital

489
00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: information overlaid on top of the world around you. So

490
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 1: think of its kind of like a mirror, but the

491
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 1: mirror only works if light is coming at it from

492
00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,240
Speaker 1: a very specific angle. It's, you know, in a way,

493
00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:02,520
Speaker 1: like one of those two way mirrors where you can

494
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:04,560
Speaker 1: see through one way but not in the other. It's

495
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 1: kind of similar to that. So I thought that was

496
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 1: super neat. It was actually the most fascinating part of

497
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:15,600
Speaker 1: Google Glass when I was first learning about it way

498
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:19,040
Speaker 1: back in twenty twelve, when I was trying to learn

499
00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:21,240
Speaker 1: how it worked so I could write an article about it,

500
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 1: and in fact I did write at least a version

501
00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:26,560
Speaker 1: of how Google Glass works. I haven't looked on the

502
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:29,200
Speaker 1: website to see if that's still my version, because we

503
00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:33,240
Speaker 1: update these articles on occasion and sometimes that changes the

504
00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 1: authorship as well. But yeah, way back in the day,

505
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:38,920
Speaker 1: I wrote an article about how Google Glass works, and

506
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 1: part of it was just learning about this prism and

507
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:49,680
Speaker 1: I thought it was fascinating. In addition, the design of

508
00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:52,640
Speaker 1: this prism meant that it was slightly above your normal

509
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:54,959
Speaker 1: line of sight. So this is that part of the

510
00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,320
Speaker 1: patent that talked about it being offset from your eye.

511
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 1: It's it's mounted a bit above where your natural line

512
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:05,880
Speaker 1: of sight would be, so you would always have it

513
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:08,320
Speaker 1: in your field of view, but it wouldn't necessarily be

514
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:11,280
Speaker 1: in focus unless you were to glance upward so that

515
00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 1: your right eye would be looking at the prism directly.

516
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:20,320
Speaker 1: This was a specific design implemented by Google in order

517
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:23,920
Speaker 1: to avoid things like people getting distracted by digital images

518
00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:26,200
Speaker 1: when they should be paying to the world around them,

519
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:30,240
Speaker 1: and to make Google Glass something that you reference rather

520
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:33,400
Speaker 1: than something that replaces your view of the world around you.

521
00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:36,200
Speaker 1: Very important if you're doing something like I don't know,

522
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:40,920
Speaker 1: walking or driving or riding a bicycle, anything where you're

523
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 1: moving through a space. You want to be able to

524
00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:47,080
Speaker 1: make sure that you're not having your attention divided so

525
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:49,960
Speaker 1: that you end up doing something stupid, like walking into

526
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:54,960
Speaker 1: an open manhole or into a telephone pole. I have

527
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:58,160
Speaker 1: done that before, for Realsi's but that was because I

528
00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:00,480
Speaker 1: was looking at a phone. I've been that guy. I

529
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:03,200
Speaker 1: don't look at my phone when I'm crossing streets, but

530
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:05,719
Speaker 1: I look at it when I'm walking down sidewalks, and

531
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:08,120
Speaker 1: I have paid that price on multiple occasions. You think

532
00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:10,200
Speaker 1: I've learned by now, and I guess I have. I've

533
00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:16,480
Speaker 1: learned how to replicate that experience almost perfectly. The patent

534
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:19,959
Speaker 1: also included an important component in Google Glasses control system,

535
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:24,360
Speaker 1: which was a capacitive touch bar along that one stem,

536
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 1: the active stem of Google Glass. And I've talked about

537
00:32:28,080 --> 00:32:31,200
Speaker 1: capacitive touch before, but let's quickly go over that so

538
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,040
Speaker 1: that we understand what I'm talking about. So with a

539
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:38,160
Speaker 1: capacitive touch surface, you have the makings of a circuit, right.

540
00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:40,680
Speaker 1: All that remains is you have to have something to

541
00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 1: close the circuit. You have to have something conductive make

542
00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 1: contact with a capacitive surface so that a complete circuit

543
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:51,120
Speaker 1: can form and when a complete circuit does form, there's

544
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 1: a voltage drop at the location of the touch. So

545
00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:56,880
Speaker 1: if I have a giant touch screen in front of me,

546
00:32:56,920 --> 00:32:59,960
Speaker 1: and it's a capacitive touch screen, and I reach down

547
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:03,360
Speaker 1: with one finger and make contact with that screen, I

548
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,000
Speaker 1: complete a circuit, and there's a voltage drop at the

549
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:09,240
Speaker 1: point where I touched it. Software on the device is

550
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 1: able to interpret that as being an actual command of

551
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:16,880
Speaker 1: some sort, and it might be selecting a program. It

552
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 1: might mean turning volume up or down. It might mean

553
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:23,520
Speaker 1: swiping right because that dude you're looking at on tender

554
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 1: is pretty hot and you kind of want to know

555
00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:29,600
Speaker 1: what's his deal man, so you want to swipe right

556
00:33:29,640 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 1: on that. Lots of different applications. There are also resistive

557
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,719
Speaker 1: touch screens that work on a slightly different principle. Those

558
00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:40,160
Speaker 1: are the ones that you have to actually use pressure

559
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 1: when you're making contact because it's not enough to touch it.

560
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:47,920
Speaker 1: You actually have to press so that you're slightly deforming

561
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:51,640
Speaker 1: the layers in order to create a circuit within the

562
00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:57,760
Speaker 1: display itself. But that's a totally different type of touch screen. Now,

563
00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:00,479
Speaker 1: in the case of Google Glass, the capacity panel is

564
00:34:00,800 --> 00:34:03,720
Speaker 1: a means to cycle through the various features that are

565
00:34:03,760 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 1: on the glasses. It's also a way to execute other

566
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:10,879
Speaker 1: basic commands, so Google would go a step further than this.

567
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:14,480
Speaker 1: You wouldn't have just touch commands. That was just one

568
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:17,960
Speaker 1: way you could interact with Google Glass. They also incorporated

569
00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:21,560
Speaker 1: some motion controls and voice commands. So, for example, if

570
00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:23,399
Speaker 1: you wanted to turn your screen on and you wanted

571
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:26,400
Speaker 1: to wake up Google Glass from its power saving mode,

572
00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:30,319
Speaker 1: you could choose an option where by tilting your head

573
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:35,400
Speaker 1: backward at a fairly good rate, it would wake up Google.

574
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:39,360
Speaker 1: It's kind of like saying sup to someone. We'll be

575
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:41,600
Speaker 1: back with more about the Google Glass story in just

576
00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:53,359
Speaker 1: a moment. If you want to take a photo, you

577
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:56,560
Speaker 1: could start with the phrase okay Google, which probably sounds

578
00:34:56,560 --> 00:34:59,080
Speaker 1: familiar to you if you have an Android device or

579
00:34:59,120 --> 00:35:02,359
Speaker 1: a Google Home and if I just activated it, I

580
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:07,280
Speaker 1: am sorry. You could then follow up with take a picture,

581
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:09,800
Speaker 1: so you could give a voice command to your Google

582
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:12,360
Speaker 1: Glass to take photos. I can speak from experience that

583
00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 1: people thought that this was the coolest thing ever when

584
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,480
Speaker 1: Google Glass was brand new and only a few pairs

585
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:21,720
Speaker 1: were out in the wild. In September of twenty twelve,

586
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:24,399
Speaker 1: after I had a pair of Google Glass, and yes

587
00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:27,240
Speaker 1: I did have a pair of them. Technically, the company

588
00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:29,920
Speaker 1: purchased them. I was just the representative who got to

589
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:32,759
Speaker 1: be the one to use them. When I had them,

590
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:36,040
Speaker 1: I took them to dragon Con, which is a big

591
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 1: science fiction and fantasy convention here in Atlanta, and I

592
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:41,840
Speaker 1: would ask people, may I take your picture? Because there

593
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:43,319
Speaker 1: are a lot of people in costume, a lot of

594
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:46,399
Speaker 1: great cosplay at dragon Con, and most of the time

595
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:48,799
Speaker 1: people say yes absolutely. That's why I got dressed up.

596
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:52,240
Speaker 1: And then I would say okay, Google, take a picture,

597
00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:55,920
Speaker 1: and they would look at me confused because they had

598
00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,360
Speaker 1: never seen Google Glass do that before. And then the

599
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:01,520
Speaker 1: little light would flash on the Google Glass because that

600
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:04,440
Speaker 1: would indicate that a photo had been taken. Google wanted

601
00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:07,359
Speaker 1: to have a physical indicator to let people know when

602
00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:10,800
Speaker 1: a camera was active. And then immediately they would freak

603
00:36:10,880 --> 00:36:13,680
Speaker 1: out about the fact that I was wearing the future

604
00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: on my faith, and I would invariably have to take

605
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:19,600
Speaker 1: another photo because the first one would mostly be if

606
00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:22,480
Speaker 1: you've ever seen a dog, look confused. That's what almost

607
00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:25,080
Speaker 1: all of the first photos look like from that Dragon Con.

608
00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:28,080
Speaker 1: Because I was talking to a pair of glasses and

609
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:30,040
Speaker 1: they thought I was talking to them and they were wondering,

610
00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:33,520
Speaker 1: why am I saying this. These days, everyone would totally

611
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 1: understand what was going on. At the time, it was

612
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:40,000
Speaker 1: pretty new. Now, to avoid making the headset too heavy

613
00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:43,319
Speaker 1: or too hot, the designers decided that Google Glass would

614
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:46,400
Speaker 1: have to be a peripheral piece of technology, so in

615
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:49,840
Speaker 1: other words, they didn't want it to be loaded down

616
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:56,440
Speaker 1: with processors and with various connectivity chips like cellular connectivity,

617
00:36:56,480 --> 00:36:59,719
Speaker 1: Wi Fi, all of that kind of stuff. So you

618
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:03,080
Speaker 1: would co pair it to another device, like a smartphone,

619
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 1: for example, and the smartphone would act as your link

620
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:12,200
Speaker 1: between the glasses and the outside world. For the most part.

621
00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:15,239
Speaker 1: You could also do Wi Fi, I think, but obviously

622
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:18,040
Speaker 1: WiFi is not pervasive, so if you're anywhere where there's

623
00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:20,560
Speaker 1: not Wi Fi, you would need to have almost like

624
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:23,280
Speaker 1: a modem, and your smartphone would act as your modem

625
00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:26,680
Speaker 1: with a Bluetooth connection allowing for the communication between your

626
00:37:26,719 --> 00:37:30,680
Speaker 1: glasses and the phone. Now, that simplified the components that

627
00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:32,800
Speaker 1: needed to go into the glasses themselves, and that allowed

628
00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:36,000
Speaker 1: the designers to make it a little bit lighter and

629
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:38,680
Speaker 1: not worry about so much heat generation. It also meant

630
00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:41,440
Speaker 1: that there was less of a drain on the battery,

631
00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:45,400
Speaker 1: which was perhaps the biggest challenge for the team was

632
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:48,920
Speaker 1: designing a battery that would be light enough and yet

633
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:51,600
Speaker 1: powerful enough to do what they wanted it to do.

634
00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:56,160
Speaker 1: They needed it to not make the glasses uncomfortable to

635
00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:59,000
Speaker 1: wear or really unwearable for any length of time, but

636
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:01,040
Speaker 1: they also wanted to make sure they had enough juice

637
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:02,480
Speaker 1: to get a decent amount of use out of it

638
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:06,920
Speaker 1: before you had to recharge it. They also got around

639
00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:10,320
Speaker 1: this by having Google Glass go into sleep mode pretty quickly,

640
00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 1: so that anytime you were not actively using it, it

641
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:17,439
Speaker 1: could conserve power, and that way you could get maybe

642
00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:20,960
Speaker 1: another hour out of it. It drained pretty fast back

643
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:26,200
Speaker 1: when I got one. Earlier wearable computers would require those

644
00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:28,839
Speaker 1: massive batteries I talked about before, ones that weighed four

645
00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:31,439
Speaker 1: or five pounds. Now, you don't want something like that

646
00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:37,520
Speaker 1: on your glasses. It would just be excruciating. So this

647
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:40,520
Speaker 1: was a huge challenge. It remains a huge challenge in

648
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:43,760
Speaker 1: wearables to this day is figuring out the balance between

649
00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:47,640
Speaker 1: the features you want to include and how much can

650
00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:50,239
Speaker 1: a battery provide before you're going to have to start

651
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:54,200
Speaker 1: recharging it. Every few minutes. While the paperwork was being

652
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:56,799
Speaker 1: drawn up with the patents, Starner and others were in

653
00:38:56,840 --> 00:39:01,240
Speaker 1: Google's labs building this actual hardware and testing it constantly.

654
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:04,680
Speaker 1: Whenever they were in the lab, they were wearing these devices.

655
00:39:04,920 --> 00:39:07,120
Speaker 1: Whenever they were doing their regular jobs, they were wearing

656
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,000
Speaker 1: these They were testing them, they were trying them out,

657
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:11,640
Speaker 1: they were adding new features, taking old ones out when

658
00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:15,000
Speaker 1: they didn't work, building apps just for their own use,

659
00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:18,239
Speaker 1: to kind of really test the limits of what this

660
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 1: technology could do. And then at the end of the

661
00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 1: day they would put them up and go home because

662
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:27,160
Speaker 1: they weren't ready for the world to see Google Glass yet.

663
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:30,560
Speaker 1: They didn't want to go out and start using it

664
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:33,279
Speaker 1: outside where people might wonder what the heck is going on,

665
00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:35,359
Speaker 1: and then next thing you know, everyone's talking about it.

666
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:40,600
Speaker 1: So in twenty eleven, Google employees submitted the patent for

667
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:45,080
Speaker 1: the headmounted display. The Patent Office would eventually grant that

668
00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:49,560
Speaker 1: patent on February twenty first, twenty thirteen, which actually is

669
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:52,799
Speaker 1: not that long at all. That's pretty fast in many

670
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:56,560
Speaker 1: cases for between a patent application and when it's actually granted.

671
00:39:57,480 --> 00:40:00,239
Speaker 1: A couple of years is nothing. But then go we'll

672
00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:02,239
Speaker 1: let the cat out of the bag. In between those

673
00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:08,160
Speaker 1: two dates, in April twenty twelve, Google released a concept video,

674
00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:10,960
Speaker 1: and this was a video that was shown from a

675
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:13,880
Speaker 1: first person view, so you were in the shoes of

676
00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:18,240
Speaker 1: a guy wearing some sort of device that had something

677
00:40:18,239 --> 00:40:20,879
Speaker 1: to do with Google. And the reason why I'm vague

678
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:22,920
Speaker 1: is because the video was pretty vague. It was just

679
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:25,319
Speaker 1: giving you an idea of what this experience might one

680
00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:28,280
Speaker 1: day be like. Clearly, it was a head mounted display

681
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:31,880
Speaker 1: of some sort with a heads up display element to it,

682
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:35,319
Speaker 1: and it allowed this guy to send messages, to make

683
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:38,799
Speaker 1: phone calls, to take images, to share live video with

684
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:42,080
Speaker 1: someone else. So, in other words, the camera on this

685
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:46,160
Speaker 1: device could feed video directly to somebody somewhere else in

686
00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:52,719
Speaker 1: the world, and you could even alert the person of

687
00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:54,640
Speaker 1: what was going on in the world around them. So

688
00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:57,640
Speaker 1: at one point, he's on his way to an appointment

689
00:40:57,960 --> 00:40:59,920
Speaker 1: and he wants to take the subway, and as he

690
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:02,600
Speaker 1: gets close to the subway, a little alert points up

691
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 1: and it says there are delays at the subway station,

692
00:41:05,640 --> 00:41:08,200
Speaker 1: and he's like, aw shucks, and so he decides to

693
00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:12,560
Speaker 1: walk instead. So some of this stuff would get worked

694
00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:15,759
Speaker 1: into Google Glass. Some of it wouldn't be directly worked

695
00:41:15,800 --> 00:41:20,200
Speaker 1: into Google Glass, but they could fudge it through other means.

696
00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:22,560
Speaker 1: But it was an interesting video and it got a

697
00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:26,960
Speaker 1: lot of people talking. It generated a lot of buzz. Now,

698
00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:31,359
Speaker 1: you might think, like with the subway example, was that

699
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 1: a case of machine vision understanding that the subway the

700
00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:40,759
Speaker 1: guy is walking to is a particular one in a

701
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 1: particular system, and that that one is one that's being

702
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:48,200
Speaker 1: affected by delays. That was not worked into Google Glass

703
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 1: because the camera cannot be perpetually on. If it were,

704
00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:56,040
Speaker 1: the battery would drain very very quickly. Instead, what you

705
00:41:56,080 --> 00:42:01,759
Speaker 1: could do is you could incorporate GPS from a smartphone

706
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 1: as well as a person's calendar if they've added an

707
00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:10,200
Speaker 1: appointment to their calendar, and if the phone makes a

708
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:12,759
Speaker 1: quote unquote guess that you are on your way to

709
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:15,920
Speaker 1: set appointment, and it notices you're getting closer to a

710
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:19,040
Speaker 1: subway station because of your GPS coordinates, it could then

711
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:22,120
Speaker 1: send you an alert saying, oh, we've got this message

712
00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:25,480
Speaker 1: saying that that particular subway station is experiencing delays. Now,

713
00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:29,399
Speaker 1: from your perspective, it's almost like Google Glass looked at

714
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:33,719
Speaker 1: the subway and then said, hey, buddy, let's walk. You're

715
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:35,319
Speaker 1: never going to get there if you try and get

716
00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:38,520
Speaker 1: on the train. But in reality, it could be stuff

717
00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:40,680
Speaker 1: that's happening on the background. The nice thing is it

718
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:44,839
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter how it happens. What matters is the experience.

719
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:48,839
Speaker 1: Does the experience make sense? Is it compelling? Because if

720
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:51,160
Speaker 1: it is, it doesn't matter if it was because of

721
00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:54,320
Speaker 1: machine vision or if it was because of a combination

722
00:42:54,719 --> 00:43:00,800
Speaker 1: of GPS and calendar apps and other information. The result

723
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:03,560
Speaker 1: is the same either way. Other than the fact that

724
00:43:04,160 --> 00:43:06,920
Speaker 1: in the way I just described, it's not draining your

725
00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:09,400
Speaker 1: Google Glass battery super fast by having the camera on

726
00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:13,520
Speaker 1: all the time. The video got a lot of attention.

727
00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:16,200
Speaker 1: People were excited about it. People wanted to know more,

728
00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:20,120
Speaker 1: but Google did not show off Google Glass at that

729
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:24,080
Speaker 1: particular moment. They did show it off not too long

730
00:43:24,239 --> 00:43:27,640
Speaker 1: after that, and they did admit they were working on

731
00:43:27,680 --> 00:43:31,200
Speaker 1: an augmented reality project and they wanted to get feedback

732
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:33,880
Speaker 1: from people about how they would use it and what

733
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:39,000
Speaker 1: they thought about this concept. A couple of months later,

734
00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:42,880
Speaker 1: they held the Google Io Developer Conference. I've been to

735
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:47,160
Speaker 1: one of these. They're very very nerdy. It is interesting.

736
00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:51,880
Speaker 1: It gets incredibly technical very fast, because it's meant for

737
00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:56,919
Speaker 1: people who are developing apps for Google platforms. The event

738
00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:00,720
Speaker 1: took place in San Francisco's Moscone Center, and high above

739
00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:04,480
Speaker 1: the center was a blimp with several skydivers in wingsuits

740
00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:07,319
Speaker 1: and parachutes, and each person in that group was wearing

741
00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:09,400
Speaker 1: a pair of Google Glass. And in the middle of

742
00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:12,239
Speaker 1: a totally different presentation, Sarah gay Brenn runs up on

743
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:14,520
Speaker 1: stage and he says, I'm sorry to interrupt, but we've

744
00:44:14,560 --> 00:44:17,640
Speaker 1: got a time sensitive event going on right now, and

745
00:44:17,680 --> 00:44:21,440
Speaker 1: he switches to video showing the blimp above the Moscone Center.

746
00:44:21,800 --> 00:44:24,320
Speaker 1: Then they switch to a camera inside the blimp itself

747
00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:26,279
Speaker 1: and you see the team there, and you see that

748
00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:28,480
Speaker 1: each member of the team is wearing a pair of

749
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:33,680
Speaker 1: Google Glass. They start a Google hangout using their Google Glass,

750
00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:35,840
Speaker 1: and then you can see the screens from each of

751
00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:39,280
Speaker 1: their perspectives. So now you're getting a first person view

752
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:42,880
Speaker 1: of these people who are inside the blimp. And eventually,

753
00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:45,239
Speaker 1: once the blimp is in the right location, they make

754
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:48,480
Speaker 1: a jump. They jump out of the blimp, they fall,

755
00:44:48,719 --> 00:44:52,200
Speaker 1: they launch their shoots, they land on the roof of

756
00:44:52,239 --> 00:44:56,200
Speaker 1: the Moscone Center. They hand over a package to a

757
00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:59,879
Speaker 1: person riding a mountain bike and he's also got Google

758
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:03,040
Speaker 1: glass on. He rides over to the edge of the building,

759
00:45:03,120 --> 00:45:07,000
Speaker 1: switches over into repelling gear, repels down the side, gets

760
00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:10,359
Speaker 1: inside the Moscone Center, gets on a different mountain bike,

761
00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:15,360
Speaker 1: rides over into the conference room, down the aisle, straight

762
00:45:15,400 --> 00:45:19,000
Speaker 1: over to the stage, and brings Sergei brin a package

763
00:45:19,040 --> 00:45:22,720
Speaker 1: that has inside of it a fresh pair of Google glass.

764
00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:28,600
Speaker 1: It was a heck of a demo. I watched it live,

765
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:32,440
Speaker 1: not in the Moscone Center. I was watching it remotely.

766
00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:34,759
Speaker 1: I was not at that particular Io event, and my

767
00:45:34,880 --> 00:45:38,400
Speaker 1: jaw was on the floor to see this display of

768
00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:43,320
Speaker 1: wearable technology in such a cool application. You know, this

769
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:47,000
Speaker 1: Google hangout that's showing me what it's like to skydive

770
00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:51,040
Speaker 1: from a first person perspective. And then this journey from

771
00:45:51,200 --> 00:45:54,279
Speaker 1: the sea, the roof of the building down into the

772
00:45:54,320 --> 00:46:01,200
Speaker 1: center itself. It was an effective demonstration. Now, in August

773
00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:03,640
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, Google would receive a pattern. Now this was

774
00:46:03,680 --> 00:46:06,240
Speaker 1: not the same one for the head mounted display pattern

775
00:46:06,440 --> 00:46:09,400
Speaker 1: that one wouldn't be granted until twenty thirteen, but this

776
00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:11,680
Speaker 1: was a patent for a process and the title of

777
00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:15,560
Speaker 1: the pattern was unlocking a screen using eye tracking information.

778
00:46:16,719 --> 00:46:20,040
Speaker 1: So this would require having some sort of camera facing

779
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:24,480
Speaker 1: back toward a person's eye, and it would look at

780
00:46:24,640 --> 00:46:28,200
Speaker 1: motions of the eye and interpret that as various commands,

781
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:31,759
Speaker 1: including unlocking a device. So you may have had a

782
00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:34,400
Speaker 1: smartphone at some point that allowed you to create a

783
00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:38,600
Speaker 1: pattern by tracing something on a screen. An old Android

784
00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:42,040
Speaker 1: one I used to use had a grid of dots,

785
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 1: and you would connect dots in a particular pattern, set

786
00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:49,160
Speaker 1: that as your pattern of choice, and every time you

787
00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:51,160
Speaker 1: wanted to unlock the phone from that point forward, you

788
00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:53,480
Speaker 1: had to retrace that pattern. Well, you could do the

789
00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:58,359
Speaker 1: same thing with eye tracking if you had a virtual

790
00:46:58,520 --> 00:47:03,640
Speaker 1: display of dots and you stared at one dot until

791
00:47:03,680 --> 00:47:06,279
Speaker 1: the camera had picked up and acknowledged yes, you're looking

792
00:47:06,360 --> 00:47:08,359
Speaker 1: at the correct one, and then you just move your

793
00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:10,399
Speaker 1: eye from dot to dot, and this is like moving

794
00:47:10,440 --> 00:47:12,880
Speaker 1: your finger from dot to dot, and you could unlock

795
00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:16,640
Speaker 1: a screen in that way. That's just one particular approach

796
00:47:16,680 --> 00:47:19,160
Speaker 1: that you could use to unlock a screen using eye tracking.

797
00:47:20,520 --> 00:47:24,840
Speaker 1: This particular type of feature would not be included with

798
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:26,839
Speaker 1: Google Glass, but it shows the kind of stuff they

799
00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:29,640
Speaker 1: were thinking about while they were putting all this together.

800
00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 1: Yet Another pattern revealed what Google hoped to do with

801
00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:36,680
Speaker 1: Project Glass, and it used gestures. So these would be

802
00:47:36,719 --> 00:47:39,600
Speaker 1: hand gestures, actual hand gestures you would make in front

803
00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:43,719
Speaker 1: of your face lack a crazy person in order to

804
00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:46,560
Speaker 1: send commands to your Google Glass. So let's say you

805
00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:50,839
Speaker 1: see something on the street and you like it. It

806
00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:54,840
Speaker 1: could happen. Maybe you see a poster for a band

807
00:47:55,040 --> 00:47:57,080
Speaker 1: that you like and it's they're coming up with a

808
00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:02,400
Speaker 1: show nearby. Make a little heart shape with your hand. Awe,

809
00:48:03,360 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 1: so cute, you Millennials, And then this would end up

810
00:48:08,160 --> 00:48:11,560
Speaker 1: being picked up by the camera and interpreted as liking

811
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:14,239
Speaker 1: the thing you are looking at. Maybe it posts to

812
00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:17,439
Speaker 1: a social media page saying, Jonathan likes the fact that

813
00:48:17,719 --> 00:48:19,840
Speaker 1: they might be giants is going to be in Atlanta

814
00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 1: the Variety Playhouse playing a show, And yes, I would

815
00:48:23,560 --> 00:48:25,799
Speaker 1: like that. I love they might be giants and the

816
00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:29,680
Speaker 1: Variety Playhouse is a delightful venue. I don't know that

817
00:48:29,719 --> 00:48:31,160
Speaker 1: I would go so far as to make the little

818
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:34,480
Speaker 1: heart shape of my hands, though I do have my limits.

819
00:48:35,600 --> 00:48:38,760
Speaker 1: But this shows another way of how Google was thinking

820
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:43,160
Speaker 1: about interactions with its technology and ways that you could

821
00:48:43,200 --> 00:48:46,640
Speaker 1: control it beyond just using a capacitive touchscreen or even

822
00:48:46,719 --> 00:48:50,680
Speaker 1: voice commands. That also would not find its way into

823
00:48:50,719 --> 00:48:53,080
Speaker 1: Google Glass, but it might find its way into some

824
00:48:53,120 --> 00:48:57,040
Speaker 1: future Google product. Now, next we'll explore a bit with

825
00:48:57,120 --> 00:49:01,360
Speaker 1: Google Glass, and we will pay handsomely for it. But

826
00:49:01,640 --> 00:49:04,600
Speaker 1: before I jump into that, let's take another quick break

827
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:17,719
Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. In April twenty thirteen, Google would

828
00:49:17,760 --> 00:49:22,560
Speaker 1: open up an extremely limited program called Glass Explorers. So

829
00:49:22,640 --> 00:49:24,960
Speaker 1: I guess actually it was dragon Con twenty thirteen, not

830
00:49:25,040 --> 00:49:28,520
Speaker 1: dragon Con twenty twelve, which totally makes sense. I can't

831
00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:31,359
Speaker 1: tell those years apart dragon Con to dragon Con, they

832
00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:36,840
Speaker 1: all bleed together. But this program, the Glass Explorer's program,

833
00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:40,240
Speaker 1: was a pilot testing program. It was really a beta

834
00:49:40,280 --> 00:49:43,200
Speaker 1: test for the technology itself, and you had to apply

835
00:49:43,600 --> 00:49:45,719
Speaker 1: to be in it. You actually had to fill out

836
00:49:45,719 --> 00:49:49,680
Speaker 1: an online form to explain how you would use Google

837
00:49:49,719 --> 00:49:53,080
Speaker 1: Glass and why you think you would be a good

838
00:49:53,120 --> 00:49:56,880
Speaker 1: candidate for the Glass Explorer program. Not only that, but

839
00:49:56,920 --> 00:49:59,319
Speaker 1: you had to pay for it. You couldn't just get

840
00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:04,040
Speaker 1: a pair. They cost one thousand, five hundred dollars fifteen

841
00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:07,520
Speaker 1: hundred dollars for a pair of Google Glass. Now, the

842
00:50:07,560 --> 00:50:10,400
Speaker 1: application process was pretty simple, but it meant that Google

843
00:50:10,440 --> 00:50:14,560
Speaker 1: could very quickly go through this huge number of applications

844
00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:17,160
Speaker 1: and decide which ones sound like good choices and which

845
00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:22,000
Speaker 1: ones don't. Now, in my case, our company bought the

846
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:24,520
Speaker 1: pair of Google Glass. I applied for them, but it

847
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:26,879
Speaker 1: was a company purchase, so I don't actually own those

848
00:50:26,920 --> 00:50:30,719
Speaker 1: Google glass anymore, but I was able to buy some.

849
00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:32,400
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to tell you a funny little story

850
00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:35,600
Speaker 1: that happened to me. And this is all because Jonathan

851
00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:39,040
Speaker 1: doesn't pay enough attention when he fills out online forms.

852
00:50:40,800 --> 00:50:42,360
Speaker 1: So in the United States, there were a couple of

853
00:50:42,400 --> 00:50:45,359
Speaker 1: different places you could pick up a pair of these

854
00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:48,920
Speaker 1: glasses once you ordered them, and you had to physically

855
00:50:49,000 --> 00:50:52,360
Speaker 1: go to these locations. Google did not want to send

856
00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:55,200
Speaker 1: anything to anyone because they didn't want to deal with

857
00:50:55,239 --> 00:51:01,040
Speaker 1: the case of someone intercepting a shipment and stealing it

858
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:04,359
Speaker 1: or selling it or breaking it apart or whatever. They

859
00:51:04,360 --> 00:51:07,000
Speaker 1: wanted to keep a tight rain on who actually got

860
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:09,759
Speaker 1: their hands on these Google glass So as part of that,

861
00:51:09,800 --> 00:51:12,440
Speaker 1: you had to go to one of these physical locations

862
00:51:12,480 --> 00:51:14,480
Speaker 1: to pick up your pair. They did not have one

863
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:17,120
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, which is where I live. They had them

864
00:51:17,120 --> 00:51:21,480
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, in San Francisco, and New York. Out

865
00:51:21,520 --> 00:51:23,400
Speaker 1: of those, New York is the easiest for me. To

866
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:26,280
Speaker 1: get to. New York is a couple of hours flight

867
00:51:26,440 --> 00:51:29,720
Speaker 1: from Atlanta. If I want to go to San Francisco

868
00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:32,719
Speaker 1: or Los Angeles, you're talking four or five hours each way.

869
00:51:33,960 --> 00:51:37,080
Speaker 1: So I decided I would pick up my Google Glass

870
00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:39,360
Speaker 1: in New York, and I filled out the form and

871
00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:41,920
Speaker 1: I indicated the day and location where I wanted to

872
00:51:41,920 --> 00:51:45,480
Speaker 1: pick it up. But then I realized something I had

873
00:51:45,480 --> 00:51:48,400
Speaker 1: double booked myself. Something else was happening the day that

874
00:51:48,480 --> 00:51:51,719
Speaker 1: I had chosen, and Google Glass would allow you to

875
00:51:51,840 --> 00:51:57,279
Speaker 1: change your delivery date one time only. That's it, so

876
00:51:57,360 --> 00:51:59,560
Speaker 1: if you messed up, you could change it once and

877
00:51:59,600 --> 00:52:01,799
Speaker 1: that's all you could do. So I go back on

878
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:04,359
Speaker 1: there and I'm like, well, I can't take this day

879
00:52:04,360 --> 00:52:05,840
Speaker 1: that I thought I was gonna do. I'm going to

880
00:52:05,920 --> 00:52:08,399
Speaker 1: do this other day. So I chose a different day.

881
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:12,200
Speaker 1: I did not realize, however, that by choosing a different day,

882
00:52:13,040 --> 00:52:16,839
Speaker 1: my choice of destination got reset to the default, which

883
00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:21,759
Speaker 1: was Los Angeles. So instead of rescheduling to fly to

884
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:25,400
Speaker 1: New York, I rescheduled to fly to La So I

885
00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:29,160
Speaker 1: actually had to fly to Los Angeles go to Venice, California,

886
00:52:29,480 --> 00:52:32,640
Speaker 1: which is where Google has an office, and pick up

887
00:52:32,680 --> 00:52:36,279
Speaker 1: my pair of Google Glass. Bright side of it is

888
00:52:37,239 --> 00:52:39,480
Speaker 1: the day after I got my Google Glass, I got

889
00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:41,480
Speaker 1: to really try it out at the happiest place on

890
00:52:41,560 --> 00:52:44,719
Speaker 1: Earth because I went to Disneyland and I brought my

891
00:52:44,760 --> 00:52:50,200
Speaker 1: Google Glass with me. So funny, stupid story about Jonathan

892
00:52:50,239 --> 00:52:52,920
Speaker 1: not paying attention. Moral of the story is pay attention

893
00:52:53,000 --> 00:52:57,879
Speaker 1: on your online forms, especially if you have to resubmit anyway.

894
00:52:58,920 --> 00:53:03,160
Speaker 1: Back in those days, I still wore eyeglasses. I've had

895
00:53:03,239 --> 00:53:06,319
Speaker 1: laser eye surgery since then, but back when I got

896
00:53:06,400 --> 00:53:10,160
Speaker 1: the Google Glass, I still wore eyeglasses, and Google Glass

897
00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:12,839
Speaker 1: at that point had not been outfitted to work with

898
00:53:13,400 --> 00:53:17,560
Speaker 1: existing pairs of glasses. You could either wear Google Glass

899
00:53:17,760 --> 00:53:19,320
Speaker 1: or you could wear a pair of glasses, but you

900
00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:22,480
Speaker 1: couldn't really do both unless you worked for Google like

901
00:53:22,760 --> 00:53:26,400
Speaker 1: Sergey Brinn, and you could have someone make a custom

902
00:53:26,440 --> 00:53:29,279
Speaker 1: pair for you. So instead I would have to wear

903
00:53:29,320 --> 00:53:32,000
Speaker 1: contact lenses. This was one of those early complaints about

904
00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:34,279
Speaker 1: the Google Glass program. A lot of people wanted to

905
00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:38,920
Speaker 1: be able to attach the Google Glass part to an

906
00:53:38,920 --> 00:53:40,799
Speaker 1: existing pair of glasses, and there was just no way

907
00:53:40,840 --> 00:53:44,520
Speaker 1: you could do that In May twenty fourteen, Google opened

908
00:53:44,560 --> 00:53:47,200
Speaker 1: up the Explorer program and allowed more folks to join,

909
00:53:47,760 --> 00:53:51,240
Speaker 1: and there were talks of special Google Glass stores, including

910
00:53:51,320 --> 00:53:54,640
Speaker 1: floating barges, off the coast of places like San Francisco

911
00:53:54,719 --> 00:53:57,360
Speaker 1: and New York. And these were meant to be interactive

912
00:53:57,400 --> 00:54:00,520
Speaker 1: tech spaces and perhaps even a high end life luxury

913
00:54:00,600 --> 00:54:04,719
Speaker 1: showroom for Google Glass. But by June twenty fourteen, so

914
00:54:04,840 --> 00:54:07,960
Speaker 1: May twenty fourteen, this is all in the news, and

915
00:54:08,040 --> 00:54:10,120
Speaker 1: in fact, the barges have been kind of coming together

916
00:54:10,160 --> 00:54:12,840
Speaker 1: over the last couple of years, but in June twenty fourteen,

917
00:54:12,880 --> 00:54:16,799
Speaker 1: the plans for the barges were I guess scuttled is

918
00:54:16,840 --> 00:54:19,720
Speaker 1: a good word if we're talking about barges. The plans

919
00:54:19,719 --> 00:54:23,479
Speaker 1: were scuttled. The barges weren't scuttled immediately, but the plans were.

920
00:54:24,880 --> 00:54:27,759
Speaker 1: They never saw service, they never came online, they never

921
00:54:27,800 --> 00:54:30,880
Speaker 1: became stores. They did raise a lot of interest as

922
00:54:30,920 --> 00:54:33,719
Speaker 1: people watched them take form on a daily basis, but

923
00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:36,480
Speaker 1: they disappeared with about as much of a whimper as

924
00:54:36,600 --> 00:54:41,440
Speaker 1: could be. They were never really explained, and so they

925
00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:44,360
Speaker 1: kind of started to become something and then went away

926
00:54:44,560 --> 00:54:47,000
Speaker 1: before anyone could really figure out what exactly they were

927
00:54:47,120 --> 00:54:54,160
Speaker 1: going to turn into. In January twenty fifteen, Google pulled

928
00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:59,040
Speaker 1: the plug on the Explorer program because ultimately it had

929
00:54:59,080 --> 00:55:02,680
Speaker 1: been a failure, but not necessarily for the reasons you

930
00:55:02,760 --> 00:55:08,120
Speaker 1: might think. So let's rewind a little bit. It's twenty

931
00:55:08,200 --> 00:55:13,040
Speaker 1: twelve and Project Glass has a divided team. You got

932
00:55:13,080 --> 00:55:17,120
Speaker 1: two main camps of engineers who are disagreeing about a

933
00:55:17,280 --> 00:55:22,160
Speaker 1: fundamental aspect of Google Glass. One team thinks this should

934
00:55:22,200 --> 00:55:25,160
Speaker 1: be a persistent wearable device, meaning you put it on

935
00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:27,400
Speaker 1: and you wear it all day long. It's like a

936
00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:32,560
Speaker 1: fashion accessory, it belongs as part of your outfit. The

937
00:55:32,600 --> 00:55:35,080
Speaker 1: other team disagrees and says, no, this should be something

938
00:55:35,080 --> 00:55:38,480
Speaker 1: that you're using for specific use cases. So a situation

939
00:55:38,600 --> 00:55:41,279
Speaker 1: comes up when you would need Google Glass. That's when

940
00:55:41,320 --> 00:55:43,239
Speaker 1: you put it on, and then when that's over, you

941
00:55:43,280 --> 00:55:47,439
Speaker 1: take it off again. The two can't agree with which

942
00:55:47,480 --> 00:55:51,560
Speaker 1: direction they should go in. Saragey Brinn, who's excited about

943
00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:54,360
Speaker 1: the technology but impatient to wait and get all of

944
00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:57,200
Speaker 1: this susted out, has an idea. Instead of relying on

945
00:55:57,239 --> 00:56:01,040
Speaker 1: a relatively small group of engineers and developers, why not

946
00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:05,279
Speaker 1: create a beta testing program invite a wider group of

947
00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:08,000
Speaker 1: people to use it in the real world and take

948
00:56:08,000 --> 00:56:11,560
Speaker 1: that information as a way of developing it further. So,

949
00:56:11,600 --> 00:56:15,120
Speaker 1: in other words, you open this up, you get a

950
00:56:15,160 --> 00:56:18,000
Speaker 1: lot more information from a lot more people using it

951
00:56:18,040 --> 00:56:20,799
Speaker 1: in a lot of different situations, and you see where

952
00:56:20,800 --> 00:56:23,560
Speaker 1: it works and where it doesn't work, and you make changes.

953
00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:26,160
Speaker 1: If it works in one case, maybe you pursue that

954
00:56:26,200 --> 00:56:28,880
Speaker 1: a little more. If it doesn't work in another, maybe

955
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:31,080
Speaker 1: you change gears or you try to figure out a

956
00:56:31,080 --> 00:56:34,560
Speaker 1: way to make it work in that situation. But the

957
00:56:34,600 --> 00:56:39,080
Speaker 1: point was opening it up to more people meant more information,

958
00:56:39,320 --> 00:56:42,640
Speaker 1: and more information meant that they could make better decisions.

959
00:56:43,800 --> 00:56:47,799
Speaker 1: And this was not a bad idea. It could teach

960
00:56:47,840 --> 00:56:50,160
Speaker 1: Google how people would use the technology and where they

961
00:56:50,200 --> 00:56:53,640
Speaker 1: should concentrate on building out features. It was really just

962
00:56:53,800 --> 00:56:57,040
Speaker 1: a larger part of the overall Google Glass experiment, only

963
00:56:57,080 --> 00:57:00,200
Speaker 1: there was a small problem. The unveiling of Google Glass

964
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:04,920
Speaker 1: made it a prestige item. The way they showed it

965
00:57:04,960 --> 00:57:07,560
Speaker 1: off and the way they rolled it out meant that

966
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:13,000
Speaker 1: it became an object of exclusivity. You had to apply

967
00:57:13,239 --> 00:57:15,640
Speaker 1: to be in the club for one thing, so people

968
00:57:15,640 --> 00:57:18,320
Speaker 1: were either in it or they weren't. You had to

969
00:57:18,320 --> 00:57:21,400
Speaker 1: pay fifteen hundred dollars for it, which meant that you

970
00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:24,000
Speaker 1: needed to have a pretty good amount of discretionary income

971
00:57:24,040 --> 00:57:27,080
Speaker 1: if you were going to buy something like this. Wearing

972
00:57:27,080 --> 00:57:30,240
Speaker 1: Google Glass didn't just say I'm interested in technology. It

973
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:33,120
Speaker 1: also said I have the money to blow on something

974
00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:37,160
Speaker 1: that hasn't even become a product yet. And it also

975
00:57:37,640 --> 00:57:41,680
Speaker 1: said I'm in a club and you aren't. And on

976
00:57:41,720 --> 00:57:45,320
Speaker 1: top of that, people began to express concerns about privacy issues.

977
00:57:46,240 --> 00:57:48,480
Speaker 1: I mean, how could someone feel like they could maintain

978
00:57:48,520 --> 00:57:51,040
Speaker 1: any sort of sense of privacy if they're going out

979
00:57:51,040 --> 00:57:54,000
Speaker 1: in public and other people have cameras mounted on their

980
00:57:54,040 --> 00:57:56,720
Speaker 1: faces all the time. I mean, that's what Google glass was.

981
00:57:56,760 --> 00:58:00,240
Speaker 1: In part. It was an external camera pointing outward the

982
00:58:00,280 --> 00:58:03,720
Speaker 1: world from the perspective of the person wearing it. Now,

983
00:58:03,920 --> 00:58:07,320
Speaker 1: Google Glass had included a light to indicate whether the

984
00:58:07,360 --> 00:58:10,200
Speaker 1: camera was on or not, so that way people could

985
00:58:10,200 --> 00:58:13,600
Speaker 1: see if perhaps video was being recorded or streamed live

986
00:58:13,640 --> 00:58:16,400
Speaker 1: over the internet, or if a photo was being taken,

987
00:58:16,680 --> 00:58:18,960
Speaker 1: and if the light was off, then presumably it wasn't.

988
00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:23,680
Speaker 1: Now I would encounter strangers who would see me wearing

989
00:58:23,720 --> 00:58:27,320
Speaker 1: these glasses, and they thought it was the most amazing thing. Ever,

990
00:58:27,440 --> 00:58:30,800
Speaker 1: and the day I received my parent Los Angeles, it

991
00:58:30,880 --> 00:58:33,400
Speaker 1: was like I was being treated as a celebrity. People

992
00:58:33,480 --> 00:58:35,840
Speaker 1: were stopping me to ask about the Google Glass. They

993
00:58:35,840 --> 00:58:38,600
Speaker 1: wanted to learn more. They were fascinated by the technology.

994
00:58:38,720 --> 00:58:41,600
Speaker 1: They wanted me to take pictures of them using it.

995
00:58:42,400 --> 00:58:44,960
Speaker 1: But then I got home and I got around my friends.

996
00:58:46,080 --> 00:58:48,280
Speaker 1: My friends were different because I hung out with my

997
00:58:48,320 --> 00:58:51,000
Speaker 1: friends all the time. They knew me. But now I've

998
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:53,920
Speaker 1: got a camera on my face pointed at them. And

999
00:58:54,080 --> 00:58:56,480
Speaker 1: more than once I had friends ask me if I

1000
00:58:56,560 --> 00:58:58,520
Speaker 1: might take off the Google Glass while I had a

1001
00:58:58,520 --> 00:59:01,800
Speaker 1: conversation with them, because they didn't feel comfortable with the

1002
00:59:01,840 --> 00:59:04,320
Speaker 1: thought of a camera looking at them, even if the

1003
00:59:04,360 --> 00:59:07,280
Speaker 1: camera was demonstrably off, if they knew for a fact

1004
00:59:07,320 --> 00:59:10,760
Speaker 1: I wasn't using Google Glass, it was still uncomfortable. And

1005
00:59:10,760 --> 00:59:13,040
Speaker 1: this was a problem that was widespread. It wasn't just

1006
00:59:13,120 --> 00:59:19,480
Speaker 1: anecdotal in my case. So people who were in this

1007
00:59:19,680 --> 00:59:23,720
Speaker 1: program began to be called a new name. The official

1008
00:59:23,800 --> 00:59:28,960
Speaker 1: name was Glass Explorer, but the new name was Glasshole.

1009
00:59:31,600 --> 00:59:36,040
Speaker 1: That hurt. The technology was not ready for a full

1010
00:59:36,080 --> 00:59:38,840
Speaker 1: consumer product. It was never intended to be that. It

1011
00:59:38,920 --> 00:59:42,280
Speaker 1: was meant to be a test bed for this technology.

1012
00:59:43,160 --> 00:59:45,600
Speaker 1: And if you got involved in the program, and if

1013
00:59:45,640 --> 00:59:48,240
Speaker 1: you were honest with yourself about what you were doing

1014
00:59:48,240 --> 00:59:51,320
Speaker 1: and what the product was for, or what the Google

1015
00:59:51,320 --> 00:59:53,960
Speaker 1: Glass was for, you should have been fine with that.

1016
00:59:54,200 --> 00:59:56,480
Speaker 1: You knew from the get go that this was a

1017
00:59:56,680 --> 01:00:01,120
Speaker 1: testing phase of a technology, not something that was ready

1018
01:00:01,120 --> 01:00:04,560
Speaker 1: for prime time. But people began to get frustrated with

1019
01:00:04,560 --> 01:00:08,560
Speaker 1: glasses limited utility. They'd say, like, after a couple of months,

1020
01:00:08,640 --> 01:00:12,160
Speaker 1: they just stopped wearing them because really, I mean, you've

1021
01:00:12,160 --> 01:00:14,040
Speaker 1: got a camera in your pocket already, why do you

1022
01:00:14,080 --> 01:00:17,640
Speaker 1: need another one. They weren't putting Google Glass through more

1023
01:00:17,640 --> 01:00:20,680
Speaker 1: and more uses, which meant that the program was becoming

1024
01:00:20,880 --> 01:00:25,560
Speaker 1: decreasingly important. Over at Google. They were getting less data,

1025
01:00:26,360 --> 01:00:28,080
Speaker 1: which is what they needed in the first place to

1026
01:00:28,080 --> 01:00:34,920
Speaker 1: make Google Glass a successful consumer product. So there wasn't

1027
01:00:35,040 --> 01:00:39,600
Speaker 1: just enough there there to keep people's interest, and the

1028
01:00:39,640 --> 01:00:42,520
Speaker 1: wrong sort of folks had jumped into the program. And

1029
01:00:42,560 --> 01:00:44,400
Speaker 1: by wrong sort of folks, I mean people who thought

1030
01:00:44,400 --> 01:00:46,920
Speaker 1: it was a prestigious thing to be in this club,

1031
01:00:47,720 --> 01:00:51,360
Speaker 1: who spent the money as a way of having something

1032
01:00:51,400 --> 01:00:54,280
Speaker 1: that other people did not have, not as a way

1033
01:00:54,320 --> 01:00:56,880
Speaker 1: of expanding the technology, but as a way of expanding

1034
01:00:56,920 --> 01:01:01,720
Speaker 1: their own status among others, and so interest and support

1035
01:01:01,760 --> 01:01:05,240
Speaker 1: began to wane, both inside and outside the company. But

1036
01:01:05,320 --> 01:01:09,200
Speaker 1: Glass did not disappear. Lots of those features became incorporated

1037
01:01:09,200 --> 01:01:12,120
Speaker 1: into other stuff like Android and Google Home. The phrase

1038
01:01:12,160 --> 01:01:15,760
Speaker 1: okay Google is still used to activate Google's Assistant, which

1039
01:01:15,800 --> 01:01:17,480
Speaker 1: can be on the phone, it could be on Google Home,

1040
01:01:17,520 --> 01:01:19,680
Speaker 1: it can be on other devices. And I apologize if

1041
01:01:19,680 --> 01:01:22,000
Speaker 1: once again I woke it up for those of you

1042
01:01:22,040 --> 01:01:26,640
Speaker 1: who have Android devices nearby, and that can do a

1043
01:01:26,640 --> 01:01:29,480
Speaker 1: lot of different stuff depending upon what Google Assistant is

1044
01:01:29,560 --> 01:01:32,320
Speaker 1: running on. For example, at home, I can use it

1045
01:01:32,360 --> 01:01:34,480
Speaker 1: to listen to different types of music or control my

1046
01:01:34,560 --> 01:01:37,320
Speaker 1: lights on my phone. I can do all sorts of

1047
01:01:37,320 --> 01:01:43,560
Speaker 1: different types of features. And you might even encounter Google

1048
01:01:43,680 --> 01:01:48,080
Speaker 1: hardware Glass hardware in certain industries because, believe it or not,

1049
01:01:48,200 --> 01:01:51,240
Speaker 1: Google Glass does still exist. Google still produces them and

1050
01:01:51,320 --> 01:01:55,400
Speaker 1: still licenses it out, but only to other companies. It's

1051
01:01:55,440 --> 01:01:58,600
Speaker 1: a business to business product now, it's not a consumer product.

1052
01:01:59,280 --> 01:02:02,240
Speaker 1: This is a program I'm called Google at our Glass

1053
01:02:02,280 --> 01:02:05,640
Speaker 1: at work, I should say Glass at work. So rather

1054
01:02:05,720 --> 01:02:08,920
Speaker 1: than this consumer product, this is a device that gives

1055
01:02:08,920 --> 01:02:13,120
Speaker 1: real world assistant to people working in various industries, and

1056
01:02:13,160 --> 01:02:15,800
Speaker 1: it all depends upon the augmented reality apps that the

1057
01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:18,960
Speaker 1: glasses are running. But it could be something like what

1058
01:02:19,040 --> 01:02:22,160
Speaker 1: I was talking about before with mechanics, giving real time,

1059
01:02:22,680 --> 01:02:26,280
Speaker 1: overlaid information on how to do a repair or how

1060
01:02:26,360 --> 01:02:28,880
Speaker 1: to take apart an engine or how to build one.

1061
01:02:29,840 --> 01:02:32,280
Speaker 1: It could be for medical use, it could be even

1062
01:02:32,360 --> 01:02:35,160
Speaker 1: just for corporate use. There are a lot of reasons

1063
01:02:35,200 --> 01:02:39,760
Speaker 1: that Google Glass could come in handy. So it is

1064
01:02:39,800 --> 01:02:43,680
Speaker 1: still around. It's just not a prestige product for glass holes.

1065
01:02:45,000 --> 01:02:49,040
Speaker 1: Now it's doing real work. The sad thing is, I

1066
01:02:49,040 --> 01:02:51,880
Speaker 1: bet Google glasses progress would be much further along if

1067
01:02:51,920 --> 01:02:54,400
Speaker 1: there had not been such a hoopla about it when

1068
01:02:54,440 --> 01:02:57,800
Speaker 1: it was first launched. If it had been launched more

1069
01:02:57,960 --> 01:03:01,560
Speaker 1: like we're trying to develop this technology and less like

1070
01:03:01,600 --> 01:03:05,280
Speaker 1: a rock star, then maybe people wouldn't have gotten so

1071
01:03:05,440 --> 01:03:08,400
Speaker 1: wrapped up in it, And maybe that means that Google

1072
01:03:08,440 --> 01:03:11,560
Speaker 1: would have been able to get more helpful information from

1073
01:03:11,600 --> 01:03:13,840
Speaker 1: people who are really using the technology the way it

1074
01:03:13,880 --> 01:03:17,800
Speaker 1: was intended, and maybe we would see Google Glass much

1075
01:03:17,800 --> 01:03:21,160
Speaker 1: further in development and maybe would even be a consumer product.

1076
01:03:22,080 --> 01:03:25,240
Speaker 1: I'm sure it was discouraging to the Google Glass team

1077
01:03:25,800 --> 01:03:31,040
Speaker 1: to see how things went awry, but it does still

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01:03:31,040 --> 01:03:35,080
Speaker 1: exist and AR is still a thing. There are related

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01:03:35,120 --> 01:03:38,040
Speaker 1: products that are also pushing augmented reality into a new era.

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01:03:38,120 --> 01:03:42,160
Speaker 1: There's Microsoft's hollow lens that's a great example. There's Magic Leap,

1081
01:03:42,280 --> 01:03:45,560
Speaker 1: about which we know very little bits and pieces of

1082
01:03:45,600 --> 01:03:48,800
Speaker 1: information leak out over time, but we're always learning a

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01:03:48,800 --> 01:03:51,280
Speaker 1: little bit more. But I'm always going to have a

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01:03:51,320 --> 01:03:54,560
Speaker 1: soft spot in my heart for Google Glass. It's something

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01:03:54,560 --> 01:03:57,000
Speaker 1: that I think if it had just had a little

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01:03:57,000 --> 01:03:59,840
Speaker 1: bit of a lower key rollout, we'd be looking at

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01:03:59,880 --> 01:04:02,960
Speaker 1: a very different world with wearables right now, or at

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01:04:03,040 --> 01:04:06,960
Speaker 1: least a more advanced one. Hope you enjoyed that classic

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01:04:07,000 --> 01:04:10,760
Speaker 1: episode about Google Glass. Obviously you could argue this is

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01:04:10,800 --> 01:04:16,920
Speaker 1: another case of Google shelving a product after having some

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01:04:17,120 --> 01:04:21,919
Speaker 1: issues getting it to actually, you know, gain traction. Whether

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01:04:22,000 --> 01:04:25,200
Speaker 1: Google will ever make a huge jump back in the

1093
01:04:25,280 --> 01:04:28,040
Speaker 1: mixed reality remains to be seen. Honestly, it kind of

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01:04:28,080 --> 01:04:31,160
Speaker 1: remains to be seen if anyone can really get that

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01:04:31,240 --> 01:04:35,520
Speaker 1: technology to a point where it has mainstream adoption. It's

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01:04:35,560 --> 01:04:39,320
Speaker 1: such an expensive and difficult technology to master that it

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01:04:39,360 --> 01:04:42,080
Speaker 1: may be a while before we see that. Apple certainly

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01:04:42,120 --> 01:04:43,840
Speaker 1: is going to give it a shot, so I have

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01:04:43,880 --> 01:04:46,280
Speaker 1: to keep our eyes on that. Hope you're all well

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01:04:46,560 --> 01:04:55,680
Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you again really soon. Tech Stuff

1101
01:04:55,760 --> 01:05:00,320
Speaker 1: is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit

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01:05:00,360 --> 01:05:03,880
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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01:05:03,920 --> 01:05:04,840
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.