The tech world and consumers at large have been buzzing amid recent reports/leaks which indicate that Google will, in the next year, come out with smartphone-esque glasses. Apparently, these devices, often dubbed “Terminator” glasses after the cyborg technology portrayed in the 1980s classic film by the same name, will overlay the physical world with digital data—augmenting our practices of looking.
The technology differs little from existing smartphone apps that overlay images of the physical world with bits of information. The difference, and it is a big one, is the embodied integration of this particular device. Controlled by movements of the head and face, the Google glasses are designed to fit seamlessly into movements of the organic body. To look with this device is to see an augmented world. The eye takes in not only the reflections of light that make up the image, but also the data which strategically and purposively contextualize it.
This increased integration of physical bodies and digital technologies similarly integrates physical spaces and digital information. No longer will brick and mortar be the counter to web-based locations. Rather, brick and mortar will act as the base upon which digital data is written, and digital data will become part and parcel of the architecture of the physical space—an architecture that can be updated in real time.
Although Google reps do not, at this point, expect people to wear the glasses continuously, we can quite easily imagine a near future with full digital augmentation of organic seeing (i.e. Google type glasses worn all or most of the time). What implications might this have for commerce, privacy, meaning making, and mental processing?
Comments 4
LeeboZeebo — February 28, 2012
The implications on privacy are something being discussed right now. Google is already well known to accumulating massive amounts of data regarding their users - it's become a known practice of the internet giant. So there already exists an expectation that these glasses will pull even greater amounts of data about where we go, what we see, and if voice technology prominently enters the picture, what we are talking about.
Kate — February 29, 2012
There is also the question of what will happen to social interaction. Currently people interact in the real world without the benefit of profiles and apps, and this has the possibility to change that. You meet someone and they are a blank slate. This technology invites the constant use of profiles, floating above our heads, such as dating profiles or game profiles. Imagine walking into a shop and seeing all the information that people have public on Facebook floating around their heads.
The other side of this is if we spend all of our time looking at a screen, even if it is overlaid on reality, will we look at other people? There is already the complaint that people don't verbally talk as much any more, spending out time texting or sending instant messages. How will this play into that dynamic?