Saturday, March 28, 2015

Sam's Day with Google Glass






Unfortunately my day with glass started out with some technical difficulties that were frustrating. The photos I took would show up on the device, but not on the computer when I plugged it in. I finally found a workaround through screencast, but the quality was terrible. I have no idea what went wrong, but luckily it started working again and I was able to get some material off of it.

I had already used glass in the past so the learning curve of getting familiar with it again was very short.

I have an iPhone 6 so I think the camera on that is a little better. The glass photos are crisp looking but the iPhone photos have a higher resolution and can be zoomed in on better if needed. Obviously the advantage of glass is the first-person vantage point. But if I was looking for high quality I think I'd choose my phone.

The social interactions were pretty awkward. I thought since I usually wear glasses it might just slide by but people noticed it right away, the second I walked in to my French class. "Wait, am I on it right now?" a girl in my class asked me. I had to explain this several times throughout the day, half the time the device wasn't even on and I was asked "Are you recording me?"

I found that carefully letting people look through it and see what it was like was the only way to help understand what I was seeing. And to be clear, these questions were never too concerned or put off by the device – it was more like they were just curious. I was surprised by how many people seemed to just be blown away by it or hadn't heard of it at all. I didn't think it carried the shock value it ended up having.

It was awkward walking around campus I felt like people noticed and looked at me funny so much so that I wanted to take it off a lot of the time. But the event I went to, Relay for Life, was a more comfortable environment and was a great, visual event to take photos and video at – as seen in my video. I guess it makes more sense to be wearing it at an event instead of just randomly around campus when people are walking to class.

I think glass is awesome and would be really cool if it were integrated into every day life. It's really just like having a smartphone up by your face. No more text neck! The first person angle is what I think a lot of social media photography is trying to capture anyway – what you're currently seeing and doing.

I guess privacy is an issue but it's just as easy to snipe pictures of people on your phone. I think glass can be even more noticeable at times because you have to raise your hand to push the button or use a voice command. I personally think it's a pretty nifty device that could become even better if made widely available and become socially acceptable.
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