Through the Google Glass

Have you heard of Google Glass? It’s an “augmented reality head-mounted display”–basically, a tiny camera attached to the side of eye glasses.

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The idea is that users can create first-person documentaries and video clips (among other features, but I’ll be focusing on the documentary aspect). The intended audience is far and wide: an NFL quarterback playing during the superbowl, an international superstar performing in front of thousands, a college student chronicling a day in the life…and the list goes on.

In a Fast Company article by Mark Wilson, the author chronicles fashion designer Diane von Furstenburg’s experience using Google Glass during New York Fashion Week. She describes Google Glass as being “true and intimate,” and says that “she felt completely free and totally unaware that [she] was film[ed] or being recorded.”

Here is a short video with her experience using Google Glass:

Trouble viewing this video? Watch it here on Youtube.

This product is innovative, interesting, and holds endless possibilities. Depending on the price point, this could totally change the way that documentaries are made. Gone [could be] the days of film crews carting equipment across the world on planes, trains, and automobiles.

My only reservation? The image quality. But Wilson, in his Fast Company article, describes the video quality as “natural and stable,” saying that Google is working on image stabilization and video codecs.

I’m highly interested in the future of this technology. I believe it holds endless possibilities for its users. Aside from documentary making, here are photos of some of the other features Google is developing that I didn’t touch on.

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What do you think? Think it’ll take off? Think it’ll flop? Would you use Google Glass?

{This post is part of a series pertaining to a New Products and Branding class at Elon University.}