Since the first wave of smart glasses – in practice for Google Glass, but also Smaller competitors like Vuzix – that swept the world in 2012, many tech commentators thought they simply will change the world.
The ability to put digital information directly into your surroundings, and let others see what you see, literally through your eyes, would fundamentally change our daily lives, expectations were after Google unleashed its first few thousand glasses on select test subjects in the US states: .
But as we know: that wasn’t the case.
Don’t Take Enough – Not Stylish Enough
Initial reviews concluded that the potential was greater than the immediate benefit. There have been a number of fun uses, like you can get choppy constellations when you look up at the night sky. It was useful to have direct-to-eye directions while walking and to be able to read messages on the go without having to lift the phone.
But, reviewers said, battery life was short, some features were quirky, and all in all, Google Glass didn’t do more than a mobile phone could. Also missing was the “killer app” that made smart glasses something you just had to have. Or, as one reviewer wrote: It’s more fun to watch than to watch.
However, the benefit doesn’t have to be great for something to become popular. Just look at the fashion world. The coolest clothes on the catwalk are haute couture precisely because they are barely able to move naturally. Google pushed smart glasses on designers and models during New York and London Fashion Weeks in 2012 and 2013.
In 2014, the year Google Glass finally went on sale, they got Queen designer Diane von Furstenberg — best known for reinventing the cover dress in 1972 — to design a line of eyeglass lenses for Google Glass. It should be fun to look at.
But it didn’t quite work. Fashion critics thought glasses were more out of date than stylish. In any case, it was expensive. The design versions cost a few dollars more than the $1,500 that Google charges for the original version.
Glass holes and cast shunned
The references to the British newspaper The Guardian concluded However, with the highest price you would have had to pay if you bought a pair of Google Glass, it was that you became a social outcast. The family was not seen with him when he wore glasses, and the people around him gave him ugly looks and insults. He wasn’t the only Google Glass user who tried it.
Many were provoked into apparently being photographed by bespectacled strangers without warning. When journalist Kyle Russell at Business Inside, after covering a demonstration, Tweeted that someone tore Google glasses out of his head Only to smash them into the asphalt, comments were pretty much in agreement that he and the glasses got what they deserved.
Sarah Slocum became famous, or perhaps notorious, after she was attacked in the spring of 2014 in a San Francisco bar by bar guests who thought she was filming them. Her Google Glass video for the event She could imply that they were right…, though she claimed that she only started filming after people started acting threateningly on her.
at this time Google has already launched a good behavior campaign for early adopters of Google Glass Under the slogan “Don’t be glass holes”.
Since shooting video with glasses greedily drained a rather meager battery capacity, not many people used glasses to film everything they saw, as one might get the impression, but suspicions led a number of different companies to introduce rules against Google Glass.
Restaurants refused to use it on their premises because it made other guests uncomfortable. In the cinema, glasses can be refused to prevent film piracy. Many companies have introduced Google Glass bans for fear of industrial espionage, and if you wear glasses while driving, you risk paying a traffic fine.
In other words, you should be so gadget-friendly that you think that the advantages of Google Glass outweigh the disadvantages. In November 2014, it was reported that Even the founder of Google, Sergey Brin, appeared without glasses, which he claimed he forgot again in the car. And in January 2015, Google announced that smart glasses could no longer be purchased.
But Google Glass is not dead
men The glass project is not closed. There was a constant distillation about that Google wanted to use the glasses in a new project. However, what exactly he was about was completely blue to the public until Google Glass in the summer of 2017 all of a sudden It’s back in the enterprise market with Enterprise Edition.
The glasses have been further developed, but instead of being released as a fancy gadget, they are now a useful tool that, for example, made it possible for factory workers to see assembly instructions or get video-based remote instructions while using both hands to work with.
50 large companies, led by Volkswagen, Opel, Boeing, Samsung, DHL and GE Aviation, have already used the glasses through a separate customer program. In 2019 came version 2 From glasses – still on sale – with better performance, lower power consumption, a custom Android solution, and more protective frames. And the price is $ 999, or just under 9,000 crowns. That’s two-thirds of the cost of the original Google Glass in 2014.
The attention surrounding the new launch of Google Glass in the corporate market has garnered little attention, but not so much that if Blåkläder had launched a new line of workwear.
Say hello to smart glasses 2.0
However, in September 2021, a new wave of smart glasses designed for regular consumers is about to wash us away. This time it’s not Google, but another tech giant that is leading the way.
Facebook collaborated with Ray Ban on Ray Ban Stories, which are smart glasses that do not look techno at all. Aside from two camera lenses in the frame, these glasses are very similar to Ray Ban’s classic Wayfarer. There are also supposed to be two other smart models in the project and they can be purchased from $299 in select countries. But not in Norway yet.
Less than a week later, the Chinese company Xiaomi announced that it has smart glasses as well. Not only do they look as cool as the Ray Ban glasses from Facebook, but they also look like regular glasses. According to press releases, it is more advanced than the Facebook/Ray Ban combo, but it has a slight drawback which is that it is not for sale yet. Xiaomi also doesn’t say anything about when this will happen or what it will cost.
Vuzix, which ended up completely in the shadow of Google Glass when they launched their first smart glasses in 2012, is about to launch a new generation of smart glasses. Like Google, Vuzix has continued to make smart glasses primarily for the corporate market since they threw in the towel for the original consumer model, and they report increased revenue from smart glasses sales over the course of the year.
Do we want it?
Now, however, the company is reporting On their website, NGSG (New Generation Smart Glasses), which was shown at the CES trade fair in January, will be launched during the year. They promise that the perfect combination of form and function will allow you to enjoy your active lifestyle etc.
Of course, this new generation of smart glasses has better specifications than Google Glass. But it’s mostly advertised in the same things a cell phone or smartwatch does – except that it does it on the tip of your nose. So far, it might seem that appearance is the primary difference between Smartbrille 2.0 and Smartbrille 1.0.
And the reception? It is, of course, too early to draw any conclusions before selling or reviewing a single pair of second-generation eyeglasses. But let’s judge by the reactions to Ray Ban’s news from Facebook in the Digi’s comments fieldCamera holes in the scene frame won’t make you the most famous street this time around, either.
“Web specialist. Lifelong zombie maven. Coffee ninja. Hipster-friendly analyst.”
