Clad in black t-shirt and black pants, Google cofounder Sergey Brin made a surprise onstage appearance at TED for a quick, shambling, funny talk about his Project Glass, the eyewear computer-camera that every early-adopter nerd wants. He started out distracted, looking at his smartphone, and then appeared to realize the audience was watching. "Oh, I just got this message from a Nigerian prince, he needs help getting $10 million out of the country. This is how we funded the company and its gone pretty well," joked the billionaire. My (hastily typed) notes: "This act of looking down at my phone is one of the reasons behind Glass. We questioned whether you should be walking around looking down. That was the vision behind Glass and that’s why we created this form factor. I don’t want to go through all the things it does [see Forbes reporter Ryan Mac's post for more on that) but it's a privilege to be on the TED stage. The motivation behind it was that, other than potentially isolating yourself in looking down at your phone, it's also emasculating...we all use these touch phones which you can't even feel. Is this what you were meant to do with your body? When we made this we thought, 'Can we make something that frees your hands and frees your eyes.' That’s why we put the display up high and out of your line of sight so you can make eye contact with people. The sound conducts through the bones in your cranium to free up your ears. If you want to hear it better you cover up your ears, which is surprising. Our original vision at Google was eventually to get rid of the search query and you’d just get the information you need when you need it. Fifteen years later this is first form factor that delivers on that vision. The project has lasted just over 2 years. We've learned lot. The camera is one of the biggest surprises. Taking images and video when I wouldn’t have otherwise, like of my kids on the swings or in the air...With this [his smartphone] I realized how much I was secluding away my life. With this [Glass] I know I will get certain messages if I really need them but I don’t have to be checking them all the time. I've really enjoyed exploring the world more."
Clad in black t-shirt and black pants, Google cofounder Sergey Brin made a surprise onstage appearance at TED for a quick, shambling, funny talk about his Project Glass, the eyewear computer-camera that every early-adopter nerd wants. He started out distracted, looking at his smartphone, and then appeared to realize the audience was watching. "Oh, I just got this message from a Nigerian prince, he needs help getting $10 million out of the country. This is how we funded the company and its gone pretty well," joked the billionaire. My (hastily typed) notes: "This act of looking down at my phone is one of the reasons behind Glass. We questioned whether you should be walking around looking down. That was the vision behind Glass and that’s why we created this form factor. I don’t want to go through all the things it does [see Forbes reporter Ryan Mac's post for more on that) but it's a privilege to be on the TED stage. The motivation behind it was that, other than potentially isolating yourself in looking down at your phone, it's also emasculating...we all use these touch phones which you can't even feel. Is this what you were meant to do with your body? When we made this we thought, 'Can we make something that frees your hands and frees your eyes.' That’s why we put the display up high and out of your line of sight so you can make eye contact with people. The sound conducts through the bones in your cranium to free up your ears. If you want to hear it better you cover up your ears, which is surprising. Our original vision at Google was eventually to get rid of the search query and you’d just get the information you need when you need it. Fifteen years later this is first form factor that delivers on that vision. The project has lasted just over 2 years. We've learned lot. The camera is one of the biggest surprises. Taking images and video when I wouldn’t have otherwise, like of my kids on the swings or in the air...With this [his smartphone] I realized how much I was secluding away my life. With this [Glass] I know I will get certain messages if I really need them but I don’t have to be checking them all the time. I've really enjoyed exploring the world more."
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