Google Glass: dead or quietly evolving?
Glass shut up shop last week. Google said its high-profile wearable computing project was āgraduatingā from its original home in the companyās secretive X lab, and that it is still working on new versions of the device. The firm also said it was closing its Explorer scheme for developers to get their hands on Glass. Many interpreted this as Glass being discreetly eased out of the limelight.
It wouldnāt be a huge surprise. The device was unwieldly and had bad battery life, a terrible display and limited input options. Its unappealing aesthetic, combined with the potential for surreptitious video recording, earned its wearers the nickname Glassholes.
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But itās unlikely that Glass is indeed dead. Consumers may have rejected its high price tag, but business and industry were kinder. Surgeons, who value hands-free access to patient data, were particularly keen.
And although Googleās initial foray into spicing up our field of view may be over, a future in which computers augment our senses is still very much on the cards.
āOur focus is on creating a global communications system that would be larger than anything that has been talked about to dateā Elon Musk tells Bloomberg about his latest grand venture: hundreds of satellites providing global high-speed internet access
A picture can be a vital sign of oneās love
Every breath you take, Iāll be watching you. A high-tech photo frame billows its surface in time with the breaths of the person pictured, picking up their breathing pattern from a sensor-studded belt they wear. The gadget ā developed by Jina Kim and colleagues at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, South Korea ā aims to help couples feel closer when theyāre apart. It was presented last week at a conference at Stanford University in California, along with positive feedback from eight couples who tried it.
