Opinion: Gotta get some Google Goggles
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You know what’s so great about the world we live in? It’s that there are people out there right now inventing stuff you don’t even realize you need.
Take Google. Its Google X lab is reportedly hard at work developing Google Goggles.
Despite the tongue-twister name, Google Goggles will apparently be the next must-have gadget. The so-called smart glasses (gee, who knew that regular glasses were ‘dumb’?) would somehow connect with the Internet to relay information in a heads-up display. (Shhhh. No one tell Rick Santorum. He’ll want to pass a law banning Google Goggles. He thinks God gave us ‘eyes’ for this sort of thing.)
Actually, Google Goggles remind me of Segways. You know, those really cool, high-tech scooters that relieve users of the chore of ‘walking’?
Anyway, here’s what The Times said Wednesday about Google’s latest ploy, er, toy:
Google Goggles uses photos, rather than text or voice, to conduct Web searches that can identify artwork, books, albums, contact information from a business card, logos, landmarks, wine bottles and even text to translate. The experience offered by the glasses would be ‘Terminator-style’ and would display information ‘based on preferences, location and Google’s information,’ 9to5Google reported. ‘The glasses will have a low-resolution built-in camera that will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby,’ the New York Times reported. Google intends that users not wear the glasses all the time, but only as needed, the report said.
Uh huh: ‘Only as needed.’ Not like that’s a slippery slope or anything. Today’s young people can’t go five minutes without texting, surfing the Web or being on Facebook. (Heck, who am I kidding: A lot of adults can’t go five minutes!) Giving these folks Google Goggles would be like those lab experiments in which rats push a button every time they want cocaine. What happens? Bing! Bing! Bing! Bye-bye happy rats!
I mean, didn’t anyone at Google see ‘Brainstorm’? (R.I.P., Natalie Wood.)
However, it’s not as if Google isn’t taking precautions:
‘Internally, the Google X team has been actively discussing the privacy implications of the glasses and the company wants to ensure that people know if they are being recorded by someone wearing a pair of glasses with a built-in camera,’ the New York Times said.
Which -- I don’t know about you -- really puts my mind at ease. That should be an easy problem to solve. After all, Google is famous for worrying about privacy. (However, if Facebook is working on Friend Finder Frames, that’s another story.)
OK, enough with the hyperbole. Here’s what you really want to know:
According to the New York Times, Google wants the glasses on sale by the end of the year at a price ranging from $250 to $600 -- about the same as a smartphone.
Which is great -- because I thought they would be expensive or something.
Still, I’ll bet Apple is toiling away right now on Apple Eyes (or would they be Apple i’s?)
And why stop there? How about Nokia Noses, or Samsung Snouts, to help us smell better? And Ericsson Ears?
After all, my nose, and my ears, are pretty ‘dumb’ too.
Bing! Bing! Bing!
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Google’s embarrassing Safari exploit
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-- Paul Whitefield
