Technologies 6: Google’s Glasses
2011 was supposed to be the year we’d start seeing interesting AR applications and some serious media attention, maybe even a killer-app. Well that didn’t happen. Half way 2011 I kind of lost my interest after seeing Raimo van der Klein from Layar present an appalling vision for their software. Minutes later I witnessed Kevin Slavin brutally putting them down. For good, I thought. The eloquent, well argumented and funny presentation he made up half an hour before the event was such a delight after corporate crap the Layar camp came up with. Raimo Basically told us Layar is an advertisement platform and that this is a dream come true for all of us. If that sounds like a weird argument, check out the presentation for some really crooked reasoning. Both Video’s can be found after the jump.
Kevin’s argument is solid: everything you hold in front of your eyes is an obstruction of the surrounding reality, not an augmentation. Of course the obstruction will be filled with digital add-ons, but these can never have the depth and detail that your actual surroundings possess: “Reality is plenty, thank You”. There really is no way around his argument, but I’ve always felt that there is a little more to this story. I shouldn’t forget to note that Slavin’s argument was directed to Classic AR specifically: holding a between your eyes and the world to project digital imagery. I think this leaves plenty space for more integrated AR (or might now be the time to come up with a more suited name) where the interaction between the actual and the digital world is less obtrusive, more sensible to the human senses and respects the value of our surrounding.
Raimo van der Klein being Obnoxious
Kevin Slavin being himself.
This being said, Classic AR is back on the menu, boys. Apparently Google will be selling a consumer version of AR Glasses before the end of 2012. So, what Google does want with this? Google was originally presented as a search engine, but in reality Google deals in personal information. Every service they offer is created to extract personal information, every dollar they earn is made by monetizing this information. With Google’s search engine they create rough personal profiles. With maps they get geographical information that can be connected to your personal profile, With Gmail they get access to your network and to your personal conversations. With Calendars they get information about your future whereabouts. With Chrome they get information about all your browsing habits, and with Android they can create exact profiles, combine all of the benefits of their other services and learn the very private stuff you know when you’re intimately connected with a person. I’m not saying they’re secretly collecting all of your most private information and selling all of it to the highest bidder, but to me it’s clear they’re sitting on a goldmine that should be making us feel at least a little awkward.
Yet we all use their services regularly, because they are simply the best. Nobody tops Google for popular search. Gmail is the best e-mail provider on the web. Google Maps was pure science fiction coming into real-life when it was first launched: Satellite images of the entire world becoming available to everyone everywhere was astounding. Google Streetview was equally stunning, although the technology behind it was much more quotidian. The sheer size of the project was simply overwhelming: taking pictures of the entire world, one street at a time is an incredible concept. Google Chrome is faster, simpler and more intuitive than any other browser. Android is the second best mobile OS, but it comes without the jail bars set up around the best one. So the question is, what will the Glasses bring next, both to themselves and to us?
Well, I think it’s going to be spectacular. First let’s see what it’ll bring to the consumer: The Glasses will help Google make the final step in mapping the actual world, and this is a huge one. The satellite images and maps in Google Maps meant that Google owns a plan view of the entire world. For Streetview they added elevations to their world model. With the Glasses they get the opportunity to create a full 3D model of the world: Google World.
No more jumping from point to point in Streetview, with views only from the roads that were accessible to their camera car. You can walk through Google World just as you would in Wolfenstein, Unreal Tournament or Call of Duty. How awesome is that?! It also means that you can look from everywhere, in each direction and Google World will not stop at your doorstep. Google World will probably also have your bedroom in it.
Microsoft has been working on similar technology for their Bing Maps, and Blaise Aguera’s presentation on Augmented Maps for TED for showed us a glimpse of what would be possible when you combine the geographical information from your Maps and Streetview archives with Photosynth technology and 3D Image Synthesis. Once enough people have sent enough imagery of a certain area, you will be able to synthesize a fully texture mapped 3D model of the space, comparable to the models in first person shooters. Microsoft already showed us how to do this, but so far we haven’t seen much of this, probably because they didn’t have the means to collect enough useable data. With the Glasses, Google will have the means. Depending on how many Glasses they’ll sell they will have an army of voluntary collectors, and they get the perfect tool to create valuable data to synthesize a 3D model of the world (camera, gps, digital compass, 3G, 4G, WiFi).
When you’re actually looking through the Glasses Google doesn’t have to show you the textured model, off course. Reality does a pretty good job just being there all the time. The textured model is for navigation on your computer screen (and probably for playing games). The actual use for the Glasses are quite straightforward (these are the ones that Google’s marketing team will be pushing): augmented way finding, Robocop view, checking e-mail, etc. Google already has a lot of interesting information attached to their maps, which they can now seamlessly integrate into your reality. Pretty cool at first; maybe even something we’ll get used to. Personally I hope that Kevin Slavin’s “Reality Is Plenty, Thank You” plea will become something of a prophecy.
So how will Google benefit from Google World and Glasses (besides the revenues from the glasses and the Android store)? Well, with Google World is a 3D full-scale infrastructure to place advertisement in: one hell of an asset. The platform is best suited for the Glasses of course, but it is just as useful for other Android devices such as smartphones. Knowing exactly where you are (instead of only having a GPS signal) gives Google the edge it needs to stay ahead of the competition. Adding 3D information to this knowledge would be the final step for this advertising infrastructure.
The Glasses are a logical step up from Android phones: With Android, Google can collect personal information through aggregation of the various sensory inputs that smartphones running their OS offer. The Glasses focus on one sense, vision, but they do this really well. Like the phones, the Glasses are worn on your body, so no mistakes in identity. The difference is that a smartphone sits in your pocket, and is mostly passive during the day. Glasses are on your face. The cameras register what you see. So Google now not only knows where you are, they know exactly what you’re looking at. This is an advertiser’s wet dream! No more smart guessing and aggregation to synthesize a user profile that can tell what the consumer might come into contact with; the consumer will now constantly and voluntarily show you what he is seeing. Time for some Real-Life Digital Product Placement, Augmented Out Of Home and more of that advertisement crap. Time for some more serious money. I’m guessing the Glasses will be a huge success.
