Tri-focal

If like me you have read the Daniel Suarez novel Daemon you will have heard of the concept of augmented reality. Basically it allows you to project an image in front of your vision (like a heads up display) and that show you information pulled from the Internet.

Google now has a prototype called ‘project glass’ which is basically a set of glasses to provide this augmented reality. They have created the following video to demonstrate the concept:

<img alt="" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-1GAIb9ID-kA/UOuxAPj_rrI/AAAAAAAAG2E/eCPTbMgP8wA/video3fc28455ad1c%25255B6%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('caf2f934-7fbf-451c-9d30-188f7b68b0c8'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "

http://www.youtube.com/v/9c6W4CCU9M4?hl=en&hd=1“;” style=”border-style: none;” />

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4

Now of course this video is the ‘rose coloured glasses’ through which Google would like us to believe it will be like. If it is from Google then it is probably going to look more like this video:

<img alt="" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-5yYI1ZK8Mjc/UOuxBBkD_HI/AAAAAAAAG2I/FcTaIUKOTyk/videoe78aa6c10244%25255B5%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('c6e0563e-fea2-468d-92d5-ede1106410b0'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "

http://www.youtube.com/v/_mRF0rBXIeg?hl=en&hd=1“;” style=”border-style: none;” />

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mRF0rBXIeg

No matter how bad that is it would have to be better than what some believe would be Microsoft’s equivalent:

<img alt="" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-T-g-0XxV5L8/UOuxBzXkx-I/AAAAAAAAG2Q/J7G7VwO6w2o/videodac31acf90a0%25255B4%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" galleryimg="no" onload="var downlevelDiv = document.getElementById('3b780085-63c8-454f-8039-45c605706880'); downlevelDiv.innerHTML = "

http://www.youtube.com/v/ZwModZmOzDs?hl=en&hd=1“;” style=”border-style: none;” />

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwModZmOzDs

So if you like the concept of augmented reality I’d suggest you have a read of the Daniel Suarez novel Daemon and keep an look out for what I reckon will be a growing number of these devices.