The Future of Smart Glasses

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The Future of Smart Glasses The Future of Smart Glasses Forward-looking areas of research Prepared for Synoptik Foundation May 2014 Brian Due, PhD. Nextwork A/S Contents Smart&Glasses&and&Digitised&Vision&.....................................................................................................&3! 1.0&The&basis&of&the&project&...............................................................................................................................&4! 1.1!Contents!of!the!project!................................................................................................................................................!4! 2.0&The&historic&development&of&smart&glasses&..........................................................................................&5! 3.0&The&technological&conditions&and&functionalities,&and&various&products&..................................&8! 4.0&The&likely&scope&of&smart&glasses&within&the&next&3H5&years&...........................................................&9! 5.0&Likely&applications&of&smart&glasses&.....................................................................................................&12! 5.1!Specific!work6related!applications!......................................................................................................................!12! 5.2!Specific!task6related!applications!........................................................................................................................!12! 5.3!Self6tracking!applications!........................................................................................................................................!13! 6.0&The&six&different&areas&of&research&........................................................................................................&14! 6.1!The!optician’s!perspective!......................................................................................................................................!14! 6.2!The!eye!professional!and!cognitive!perspective!...........................................................................................!15! 6.3!The!legal!perspective!................................................................................................................................................!17! 6.4!The!technological!and!design6related!perspective!......................................................................................!19! 6.5!The!sociological!and!historical!perspective!....................................................................................................!21! The!interactionist!and!psychological!perspective!...............................................................................................!23! 7.0&The&project’s&methodology&and&literature&..........................................................................................&27! 7.1!The!people!with!whom!I!have!been!in!contact!..............................................................................................!27! 7.2!References!......................................................................................................................................................................!27! This report has been reviewed very positively by: Martin Sønderslev, PhD, partner of Socialsquare; Bjarne Tveskov, software designer and CEO of Tveskov; and Lars Kai Hansen, Professor at the Technical University of Denmark. ! 2 Smart!Glasses!and!Digitised!Vision!! This project will explore the opportunities and challenges, which arise in connection with the dissemination of glasses with built-in computer technology, such as Google Glass, with mobile, photo, Internet, GPS and video technology. The aim is to outline a variety of themes: e.g. the importance for the optical industry, for the interaction between people and for further technological development. Illustration 1 shows the six designated study areas, which will be further outlined. Illustration 1: The six designated study areas ! 3 1.0!The!basis!of!the!project! The project’s identification of key areas of research is motivated and highlighted mainly by the fact that, at the end of 2014, Google will be launching Google Glass. There are already other products on the market, but the hype about Glass suggests that, in the long run, we may be talking about a game changer. Therefore this project outlines different areas of research with the objective of crystallising specific opportunities on the social, interactional, technological, legal and commercial level. I will look closely at each area and explain how all the areas could be further investigated. In the near future technological development is going to be closely connected to vision. This applies, not only to specific variants of smart glasses, but also, more generally, to the development of what is known as the Internet of Things. In short, this means that the internet will pervade everything, and that, for example smart glasses and smartphones, will be able to communicate with things. The overall question is how the optics industry (glasses, contact lenses, health etc.) will cope with, and relate to this development. This project and report was commissioned and funded by the Synoptik Foundation. 1.1!Contents!of!the!project!! We begin from the outside with an aerial view, by outlining the historical development towards the manufacture and commercialisation of smart glasses. We will then take a closer look on the technological conditions and the various products on the market. We will then outline the various applications, before proceeding to a more detailed examination of the six different fields. ! 4 2.0!The!historic!development!of!smart!glasses!! A great part of the evolution of human civilisation has involved a technological evolution towards better, more efficient tools: from the first flint axe and the agricultural tools of the Middle Ages to today’s high-tech products. Ideally, the driving force lies in optimisation, improvement and efficiency. Early on human beings had a very close affinity to technology. Early examples of the fusion of man and machine include the first attempts to fly, the design of various kinds of prostheses, and extended installations such as attached weapons, armour and gear. The media theoretician, Marshall McLuhan, claimed that all technology, broadly speaking, is an extension of mankind. However, it is only with the development of the computer that we really see technology merging with human beings. This has been predominantly in sci-fi writing, computer games and early films, such as Star Trek, RoboCop and Terminator. These films showed, not only the fusion of man and machine, but also the possibilities of accessing an extra digital layer of information on a human scale. In addition to experiments in fiction, there have always been a handful of researchers and laymen with an interest in technology, who have experimented with attaching computers to their bodies. But it is only with smartphones and the wearables of tomorrow, that the permanently attached computer is becoming mainstream, practically useful and, in several ways transformative in terms of culture and behaviour. Below, the development of computers from stationary computers, via laptops, to the computers, which you constantly have on your person, is illustrated. Over the last 20 years, this development has led to one revolutionary new product category on the market after another. In the future, this development will approach total integration, with intelligent clothes, intelligent contact lenses and incorporation of computers in the skin. Illustration 2: Timeline for the development of the computer. Far right, you can see Google Glass, Google Watch and Google Contact Lens etc. 5 The special feature of optics technology is that it is based on a Heads-Up Display (HUD) and Head-Mounted Display (HMD) and, in particular, an Optical Head Mounted Display (OHMD) (see technical details in Section 3.0). In brief, this is glass/plastic at eye-level, through which you can see both an online, digital world and an offline, physical world: a so-called augmented reality. In this context, one can discuss just how relevant the term “glasses” always is, if it is taken literally and exclusively to mean: “a vision-corrective instrument with two lenses and frames.” This will be discussed in Section 6.1. Right now, we would like to point out that the word “glasses” has become generally accepted; hence it will be used to describe wearables, which are positioned at eye level. Unlike other wearables and body-integrated technologies, which require you to look down or away, with smart glasses you look straight out at the world, without having to rely on the use of your hands. This provides a completely different interaction situation and radically new applications. Latest developments in optics technology are heading towards smart contact lenses and implantation. Much points to the possibility that contact lenses will take on a vast field of applications, since they represent a less disruptive aesthetic and social element. Google have already made great strides in this field with their “smart contact lens”. We will look more closely at this topic in Section 6.4. The development of smart glasses has its own parallel technological history to the history of the computer. The best-known proponents are the American pioneers, Thad Starner and Steve Mann, professors at MIT, who, way back in the 1980s, started experimenting with glasses and attached computers. As computer processes have become faster and technology
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