Canadian cyborg says Google Glass design is cracked

"Projecting a display is old hat, the original HUD in aircraft, smart helmets for fighter pilots, even some cars have displays on the windscreen."

That's a drastic over-simplification. A bit like saying "space travel is old hat, because we've been making biplanes for twenty years now".

There's a big difference between being able to parse an image two feet from your eye or a few lines overlaying normal vision and having full colour video less than an inch from your eyeball.

"However it would be long before legislation bans them for use in cars, working with machinery etc. they will become a distraction and could lead to accidents."

Erm... It's already be illegal to have images projected into the area of the windscreen where it is illegal to have anything blocking vision. It's also already illegal to have a TV screen for the driver to look at. And it's already illegal to drive without care and attention (by being distracted)). No new legislation required.

Re: The difference between Steve Mann's glasses and Googles version is ...

Attacking the Steve Mann's image is shallow; granted, his image has some poor esthetics; however he does make very valid points, especially about how nasty it is to make optical systems work well with Human eyes, and both images look like prototypes, including Googles! I wear Ti glasses to correct eye defects, including Astigmatism, so can literally see serious problems with both examples!

Anyhow ...., a lot more work will be required on eye mounted displays and cameras, for technology, ergonomics, and esthetic appearance, before they become practical.

I doubt side image projection will be usable unless the screen is at a fixed angle and position to the eye(s); this requires a fixed screen, the offset one Google Glasses have will be tiring and jarring to use, and a fixed orientation screen and camera will be jarring due to varying eye orientation, and made worse by body movement. It will be nonsense to have to move your head rather than move your eyes to change camera orientation (even tablets are more usable than this), and mono vision seems dubious for eye displays.

Possible ideas:

* Use a full glasses design (possibly in Sun Glasses format), with a moveable camera hidden in each used lens or a central pod, a thin, high resolution, and directional light emitting screen layer in each used lens, and pupil tracking to move camera orientation, and to display images appropriately.

* Use prescription, contact lens with embedded light emitting screens and possibly cameras, with safe wireless power and data transfer from (and maybe to) frames close to the lenses; this removes the need to adjust the image for pupil orientation, unless for orientation based image enhancements.

Any camera should preferable be hidden and have maybe have a visual indication it is enabled/disabled, otherwise it will encourage violence like Steve Mann experienced.

I think Google have really underestimated how difficult usable glasses displays will be, especially with cameras, and would be wise to at least discuss this with Steve Mann, rather than just ignore him, because it may speed up their work.

Re: The difference between Steve Mann's glasses and Googles version is ...

Mann may look dorkier, but the Google guy looks like he downloaded his face from a clip-photo site.

@DougS: The difference between Steve Mann's glasses and Googles version is ...

not to do with the guys face, shaven or not, dressed or not. You seem to be ignoring the point of the pictures - the optics.

Look at the position of the U of T glasses is in front of the eye, which I saw at a Toronto demonstration. There position over the eye requires additional head movement to compensate for this. Other electronic optics don't suffer from this impediment.

The Google Glasses, I understand, project the image on to the eye - far more practical as there is no contact. If having a single lens on your face causes you so much angst, simply add a neutral lens to the other side.

I trialled some optical display glasses a couple of years ago and the over-sized temples (the parts that go over your ears) were so unwieldy that almost every tester found them uncomfortable due to the size. Google appears to have reduced the electronics considerably.

Likely you are upset that Cupertino isn't matching MS, Google, Oakley, etc. but no doubt they will become adaptable to your electronics.

Re: Each eye to focus on a different plane?

A few years ago I was forced to wear only one contact for about three weeks. It took about a week to adjust. What I did discover is that while it is doable and the headaches go away after a while, neither eye is able to focus as sharply as they can if completely corrected or uncorrected. Something in your brain sort of averages it out but like most averages, it is noticeably suboptimal.