CNet:
A simple pair of sunglasses that projects holographic icons. A smartwatch that has a digital screen but analog hands. A temporary tattoo that, when applied to your skin, transforms your body into a living touchpad. A virtual reality controller that lets you pick up objects in digital worlds and feel their weight as you swing them around. Those are some of the projects Google has quietly been developing or funding in an effort to create the next generation of wearable technology devices.
The eyewear and smartwatch projects come from the search giant's Interaction Lab, an initiative aimed at intertwining digital and physical experiences. It's part of Google Research, an arm of the search giant with roots in academia that focuses on technical breakthroughs. The Interaction Lab was originally created within Google's hardware division in 2015, before it was spun out to join the company's research arm about two years ago, according to the resume of Alex Olwal, the lab's leader. Olwal, a senior Google researcher, previously worked at X, the company's self-described moonshot factory, and ATAP, Google's experimental hardware branch.
[...] It isn't just about selling hardware. Getting sensor packed-devices onto consumers could mean a treasure trove of data beyond what people produce on their phones or at their desks. It's an especially valuable haul for Google, which makes more than $160 billion a year in targeted ads that are informed by the personal data of people who use its services. The gadgets also create inroads to lucrative new businesses for tech giants, like health and fitness, though lawmakers and regulators have privacy concerns over Silicon Valley's ever-expanding scope.
Google wants to get closer to you.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2020, @03:41PM (1 child)
Wait until the technologies are released, then wait until Google cancels them, and then laugh at people who spent money on them.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 17 2020, @04:14PM
No. I think it is better to wait until Google cancels the 2nd version of the product.
That's a much better laugh.
You know they're going to do this, even when the product is first announced.
Why is it so difficult to break a heroine addiction?
(Score: 3, Troll) by VLM on Friday July 17 2020, @04:26PM
The good news is all that delicious sounding tech
The bad news is Google only cares about selling ads using it, and WRT
part of the scope is being ultra far authoritarian leftist.
So you'll get touchpad tattoos on your skin, which sounds cool at the start, but it'll display advertisements until you pay to make the ads go away assuming you even get the option to remove the ads, and if deep learning and online data indicate you're not a fellow degenerate, it'll display a target symbol for BLM rioters to shoot at.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 17 2020, @04:27PM (2 children)
Cool. Apply it to your right hand. Everyone will want one. Imagine the convenience. If it can be used for purchasing, and for identification, you don't even need to carry a wallet.
When the tattoo wears off, you simply have a new one applied. This continuous replacement process also means you have the latest software virgin, and that the google knows more about you, and by extension the government knows too.
Next, make it the mandatory way to make payments.
Problem: not everyone can afford one.
Solution: offer a low end free version in exchange for the person also accepting another tattoo on their forehead which continuously displays colored animated advertising banners. When your useful assistant touchpad tattoo wears off, you can have both tattoos replaced for free.
The free version will appeal to teens. They will fight over who gets the best and most popular brands advertised on their foreheads.
Maybe the tattoo can also display proof that you have been recorded to have the covid-19 vaccine.
Not having the tattoo means you cannot prove you've had the vaccine, making you both a social outcast, as bad as a leper, and unable to transact any business.
Masks will be unnecessary as everyone with the tattoo can simply show their proof of vaccination.
Don't take the mark.
Why is it so difficult to break a heroine addiction?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday July 17 2020, @06:40PM (1 child)
The current, perhaps incredible, state of privacy laws in the US and many other countries is such that: disclosure of your medical state, including communicable diseases, is (mostly [hhs.gov]) at your discretion - protected health information - up to you to disclose, or not.
Curiously, vaccination status is less protected - many forms of employment, travel, etc. require full disclosure of vaccination status.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 17 2020, @07:03PM
Now to be fair you said "vaccination status is less protected", but let me take "at your discretion" and run with it . . . just for a moment . . .
It is at your discretion to pull over when a cop turns on their flashing lights, and maybe siren.
It is at your discretion to present ID to a cop, or get out of the vehicle when so instructed.
It is at your discretion to confess to a crime if you ever want the
interrogationinterview to come to an end.It is at your discretion to show your papers please when asked by CBP within the 100 mile constitution free zone adjacent to national borders.
I can imagine bad things. Out of fear, people will want proof that others are vaccinated. Government will likely be in favor of this.
Why is it so difficult to break a heroine addiction?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2020, @05:24PM (1 child)
Google brain implants. Get instant internet beamed directly to your visual, auditory, and sensory nerve centers. In exchange Google has rights to all your memories, even the ones you blocked out.
Yeah, it's going to get interesting.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday July 17 2020, @07:07PM
More likely scenario:
Mandatory brain implants, given at birth, will automatically charge your credit card any time you happen to incidentally overhear any copyrighted music or see any copyrighted video or images.
(then Google will cancel this project, but introduce a similar but not quite identical product that mostly but not entirely overlaps the original product. Then they'll cancel that one.)
Why is it so difficult to break a heroine addiction?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday July 17 2020, @06:40PM (5 children)
Sounds backwards. You want hybrid glasses (augmented reality and virtual reality) and holographic smartwatches.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 17 2020, @07:08PM (4 children)
R2D2 was able to hear and understand human speech perfectly, but was unable to do simple speech synthesis.
Why is it so difficult to break a heroine addiction?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday July 17 2020, @08:11PM (2 children)
That was a design decision....by the author (or director).
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 17 2020, @08:45PM (1 child)
Even when the movie came out, in about 1977, BYTE Magazine pointed out the absurdity.
It doesn't pass the sniff test.
Why is it so difficult to break a heroine addiction?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 17 2020, @11:48PM
》 it doesn't pass the sniff test
Neither did BYTE Magazine.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday July 18 2020, @01:05AM
Well, I understand that "holography" [soylentnews.org] could be useful for glasses, though the term may be misused.
What would really be cool is a watch capable of beaming a Star Wars style (or better) hologram, to make up for the small screen size. It looks like Sasmung is trying to do something along those lines [androidheadlines.com] but the technology involved is typically not the "magic" display that people want.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday July 17 2020, @06:44PM (2 children)
This time they'll probably be making sure the use case overwhelms the social stigmas before attempting a wide rollout.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Friday July 17 2020, @07:10PM
This time Google will ensure that anyone who attacks their customers ("glass holes") will be identified, and go viral on social media.
Why is it so difficult to break a heroine addiction?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 17 2020, @10:58PM
It's really simple. Just make it look indistinguishable from sunglasses during casual inspection. If you make it look like a Borg, you'll get the fist [theverge.com].
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday July 17 2020, @09:41PM
What if you already wear glasses? I can't replace them with their ad-delivery platform. Not that I plan on getting a pair but in theory. I don't see my local optician offering these.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Frosty Piss on Saturday July 18 2020, @12:23AM (2 children)
My main issue with this is I want the flying cars. Google promises this and that, where is it? Where are my damn AI guided flying cars? Fool me once, twice. But three times? I WANT MY FLYING CARS!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday July 18 2020, @01:10AM (1 child)
They basically exist already, but cost an arm and a leg and will have plenty of red tape blocking them for years:
https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2020/7/7/urban-air-mobility-raises-safety-concerns [nationaldefensemagazine.org]
Uber said it would have flying taxis [theverge.com] by 2023. Make that 2025 because of COVID, and maybe they will go bankrupt first.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2020, @01:26PM
It's going to take at least until cars get real self driving - the licensed helicopter pilots are what's expensive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2020, @01:29PM
With the governor shutting down the state, how are people doing work that involves designing and touching real hardware?