Out of the corner of your eye a new car catches your attention.
You ask yourself: “Ok, Glass, what model of car?”
In your head you hear, Glass: “a 2013 BMW 750i.”
You: “Ok Glass, how much?”
Glass: “$127,186 pre-owned, available at a BMW dealership 1.5 km away.”
You are then guided directly to the car dealer where you are greeted by another voice prompt.
Dealership: “Would you like to test drive this car?"
You accept, test-drive it, and eventually buy it-- all without ever actually speaking to a car salesperson, unless of course you want to.
This is the future that Google and a growing group of investors see as the potential next generation of computing. A contextual, post-desktop world where human-computer interaction and access to information is thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities. This is a future where you are the center of a ubiquitous computing experience. No longer is a device merely a smart object in your pocket. Instead it’s a cognitive prosthesis, an extension to you, enabling a computing environment where each experience is uniquely tailored to your preferences, habits and personality. Does this sound like science fiction? It may not be thanks to Google’s new wearable computer called “Google Glass.”
The idea of a wearable Heads-Up Display that enables an augmented reality is not a new one. But recently, a few factors have converged to make this type of device much more feasible for the broader consumer market. First, and possibly most importantly, are the economies of scale brought about by the rise of smart phones. The massive volume of smart phones being manufactured and shipped have lowered the costs and size associated with the components needed for the wholesale manufacture of these devices. Combined with the acceptance of a mobile and always-connected world, wearable computing has reached a point where it may no longer be viewed as a strange and futuristic concept.
Along with the rise of various web-connected devices, we have become accustomed to augmenting our reality with various forms of real-time information. Today, most people carry a mobile device with them at all times. The next generation of wearable devices is looking to take our computing experience to the next level. These devices are less about being a smart accessory and more about the collection and display of contextual information. Where the location and specifics of a users ever-changing environment directly effects how we experience the world around us. This new generation of wearable devices, like Google Glass, may help to redefine the rules and inter-relationships between ‘The Network of Things’ by combining with the local processing of information with the instant use of a global cloud of computing resources readily available to instantly make sense out of it all.
Taking the concept a step further, with technology from companies like Toronto based InteraXon, your translated brainwaves may soon be the only thing required to control anything electric. The company’s Muse headset measures your brainwaves in real-time, sending those brainwaves to your smart phone or tablet showing you how well your brain is performing. The technology translates your brainwaves into instructions to interact with content on your iOS or Android device. InteraXon says its technology makes the experience so seamless that it seems like an extension of your own body. Now imagine for a moment, Google Glass combined with this type of mind control technology? You think, how many nails in that fence? You instantly know, 1200. How many rooms in that hotel? 322. When’s the next train? In 5 minutes.
For some, the idea of our cybernetic future where technology is directly integrated into our very being is too much to consider. But, let’s consider for a moment that human integrated technology of various types is already common. From heart pacemakers to insulin pumps, contact lenses, hearing aids, and intraocular lenses, humans are already being fitted with technology to enhance their biological capabilities and have been for a while. But for the most part, these modifications are as cybernetic as using a pen or having a wooden leg and, further, they are generally not connected to anything beyond our bodies. Adding network connectivity into the mix greatly increases the potential of the technology and could form the basis of a new level human / computer interaction.
I had the opportunity to speak with Frank Chen, Partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, who shared some of his excitement around this trend. His firm recently declared itself as one of the biggest advocates of Glass and part of a new investment collective which also includes Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield. The Glass Collective Investment syndicate will provide financing and support to entrepreneurs shaping the future through Glass. According to Chen, Google Glass represents the next “big thing in technology” and has the opportunity to dramatically change how we use smart devices.
He isn’t alone in believing in the potential. In a recent Google+ post, Robert Scoble, blogger and technical evangelist, commented on his first hand experience using Google Glass saying “I've been telling people that this reminds me of the Apple II, which I unboxed with my dad back in 1977. It was expensive. It didn't do much. But I knew my life had changed in a big way and would just get better and better. “
Scoble believes, ”There is literally billions of dollars to be made with this new commerce-based system, rather than force us to sit and look at ads, the way Facebook and tons of other services do.”
According to new research from IMS, shipments of "smart glasses" -- including Glass and similar products from competitors -- could total almost 10 million worldwide over the next four years. The firm's projections show big jumps in shipments, from 434,000 units next year to more than 2 million in 2015 and 6.6 million in 2016.
From now until 2015, IMS estimates shipments of smart glasses will be driven mostly by sales to developers, such as those who have been able to get their hands on the Google Glass Explorer Edition for $1,500 a piece. The firm predicts the success of Glass "will depend primarily on the applications developed for it. If developers fail to produce compelling software and uses for the devices, shipments could be significantly lower during the next several years."
I’d also add that, not only are Apps important, but so is the price. $1500 is fine for early adopters, but for mass market appeal, the price will need to be inline with the cost of smart phones-- probably in the range of $100 - $500 per unit.
The Internet is quickly becoming ubiquitous, from your fridge to your car, to the signpost on the way to work. Anything capable of collecting, displaying and transmitting information is doing so. With all this information coming at us, we are at point where we will need something more than our natural abilities to process it all. Applications built with contextual, ubiquitous computing environments in mind, might just be the next step in our computing as well as in human evolution.
Now If I could just figure out how to get a pair.
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