Quote:
Originally Posted by jyl
Whenever a new consumer electronics technology starts getting hyped for its vertical or industrial applications, that is a very bad sign. It means that the companies can't see an actual high-volume consumer market.
Remember when the early PC-based tablets had flopped in the consumer market but people were saying they'd be great for medical or sales use? Tablets then sank without a trace in the broader market (and didn't do a whole lot in the vertical markets either) and weren't revived until the iPad.
Vertical applications are very low volume, units in the 10,000s. That is not enough scale to bring down the costs, justify new chip or software development, attract apps beyond the special-purpose industrial ones. You need units in the 1,000,000s to develop a consumer electronics market.
I've been hearing the talk about Google Glass'es industrial uses, and I interpret it negatively.
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Augmented reality is the future. When I talked of an industrial use I was giving an example of how it could be used.
Computers, even PCs didn't start out well in the consumer market. PCs took off when companies started using them for business. And they killed certain jobs (secretaries). When the cost of PCs came down, people started buying them.
I bit the bullet and bought in. I've been assimilated. The mapping/directions function is awesome. Very unobtrusive. Easier to program than a regular GPS.
I have not worked with it enough as I'm boot strapping business #3! But again for the car, imagine it more of a heads up display. I expect there will be applications with speed, control functions, etc.
Imagine some other functions. Automatic distance calculations. "Bionic" eye, zooming telescopically and microscopically. It doesn't have IR temp functions, but that could be a cool addition.
At present, it is more like the Galaxy Gear than anything else. It augments your phone (dialing, taking pictures, social media interaction, GPS and mapping, etc) But it also works standalone through WiFi.
The biggest problem is the geek factor. It looks geeky. The display unit sticks out obtrusively. With a baseball cap on, and with the sunglass lenses in place, it isn't too bad. But by itself it stands out.
A couple of bad things: it is not at all water resistant, let alone water proof. For this to be serious, it will need to be environment proof.
The battery life is acceptable but needs to be longer. Right now, the only way to extend life is to attach a standard micro-USB power cord to the thing. You think it is bad with this thing on you head, now add a big wire dropping down near your ear.
Camera takes OK photos and video, but not great. And there is no flash.
What could be cool would be an IR flashlight, and then projecting the image, allowing you to walk around in the dark. I expect this could be done now.
Other things that could be cool would be an external Bluetooth camera.
As I get a chance, I'll chime in with some other notes.