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Google Glass 3.0? Google acquires smart glasses maker North
Google Hardware's latest acquisition is North, a wearables computing company that most recently was making smart glasses that seemed like a successor to Google Glass. Google Hardware SVP Rick Osterloh announced the purchase on Google's blog, saying, "North's technical expertise will help as we continue to invest in our hardware efforts and ambient computing future."
North developed and released a pair of smart glasses called "Focals," which came the closest we've seen so far to smart glasses that looked like normal glasses. First, the company didn't neglect the "glasses" part of "smart glasses" and provided the frames in a range of styles, sizes, and colors, with support for prescription lenses. The technology was noticeably less invasive, too. Google Glass's display surface was a transparent block distractingly placed in front of the users' face, but Focal's display surface was the glasses' lens itself. A laser projector poked out from the thicker-than-normal temple arms and fired into the lens, which has a special coating, allowing the projection to reflect light into the eye.
[...] Google's smart glasses contribution was, of course, the infamous Google Glass, which launched in 2012 and basically shut down as a consumer product about two years later. (North CEO Stephen Lake actually called Google Glass "a massive failure" in a 2019 tech talk. Awkward!) Most people would think of the product as dead, but Google quietly pivoted Glass to be an enterprise product for assembly-line workers, mechanics, doctors, and other professions that might benefit from hands-free computing. New Glass hardware came out as recently as 2019, with the "Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2," which featured a modern 10nm Qualcomm SoC. With Apple reportedly building a set of smart glasses, the consumer market will probably heat up again soon.
It's back.
Also at BBC.
Previously: Google Glass 'Enterprise Edition': Foldable, More Rugged and Water-Resistant
Intel Abandons Vaunt AR (Augmented Reality) Smartglasses
Intel's Vaunt Augmented Reality Smartglasses Concept Lives on at Canadian Company North
"North Focals" $1000 Smartglasses Reviewed
Related: Apple Glasses Leaks and Rumors: Here's Everything We Expect to See
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday July 02 2020, @03:50PM (5 children)
As long as the smart glasses properly geo tag the video with GPS location, that makes it easier to query who may have witnessed something that the state wishes to persecute.
Especially if several people witnessed a police misconduct incident.
Win can we expect more amusing Karen videos. Especially the ones with extra psycho, hold the sanity.
How soon will new smart watches have cameras? While I can make and answer calls on my Fossil Gen 5, I can't do video calls. Wrist worn cameras would open interesting opportunities.
What about smart cameras concealed on people's clothing? Then the police would not know to shine a flashlight into the lens in a feeble effort to blind the camera.
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday July 02 2020, @06:01PM (1 child)
You meant, prosecute, right?
Yeah, no, persecute is definitely the right word. Or stalker might be a good one, too. Police need to do their homework, not have easy access to peer into our private lives.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday July 02 2020, @06:43PM
I meant persecute. Prosecute is one of the mechanisms they use to do that. Extra judicial forms of punishment, such as harassment, citations, beatings and shootings are other means depending on how disrespectful one is.
More cameras are only going to hold police and Karens and Road Ragers more accountable.
But if cameras everywhere is good for the goose (law enforcement) then it is good for the gander (citizens).
Law enforcement cameras should be mandated everywhere. Not using one, even accidentally on purpose, should strip one of any qualified immunity. This serves to motivate making sure one's camera is operational and operating just as much as one might make sure their bullet proof vest is in good condition, or their firearm is clean and in working order.
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Thursday July 02 2020, @07:09PM (1 child)
A few years ago there was a riot in Vancouver. I no longer remember the reason. It might have been the aftermath of a significant organized sports event.
Most people acted decently but some significant fraction vandalized and stole.
Subsequently the police issued a public call for cell phone footage. Enough people responded that the police could identify just about every act of vandalism and theft. They spent the next few months tracking down the vandals and thieves. They did not need data from surveillance cameras.
-- hendrik
(Score: 4, Touché) by DannyB on Thursday July 02 2020, @07:16PM
I think of surveillance cameras, owned by private businesses and shops, as a defense against the police. And possibly rioters. (which are a different thing than protesters)
I have very mixed feelings about surveillance cameras owned by big brother.
We're already extremely close to having telescreens in our homes. (Alexa, turn on the living room lights.)
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday July 02 2020, @11:42PM
We can get Trump re-elected with all the proliferation of videos of The Knockout Game and other instances of violence and harassment undertaken by a criminal minority of Blacks and upper middle-class Jews and Whites dressed in Antifa colors.
You go ahead and disband your police departments. Those cops can bail their Jew-run shithole cities and work for a city in which the police budget is actually increasing, with plenty of popular support for the police cause. Then we'll gawk smugly at what happens your self-policed progressive urban utopias as they halt and catch fire all around us.