From the corner of the eye

‘Explorer’ Mohan Tambe took the Google Glass on a spin. He discusses the good, the bad and the wonderful of the coolest wearable gadget around — and what can be done to better it

I have been keenly tracking the progress of the revolutionary Google Glass from the beginning of 2013, salivating over breathtaking videos relayed through the gadget itself, as skydivers landed on the building where the Google Glass developers meet was going on and then appeared on the stage in person. These were the pioneers or “Explorers” of Google Glass who were carving out a new frontier – where no one has ventured before.

Google Glass since then has been available to only a select set of “Explorers” in US and UK – and that too at a hefty price of $1,500. It was thus enthralling to be amongst the first few Google Glass “Explorers” in India and give feedback on how it can be improved. As a Google Guide told me, “Glass is a remarkable product that is exclusive to those brave enough to become Explorers of this pioneering technology”. The absolute goal of the Glass was “To make life simple”. I couldn’t agree more, and thus set out to discover how it can make a difference in day-to-day life, much more than the ubiquitous mobile.

You can thus understand how shocked I was when I read this headline: A year with the Google Glass will turn you into an obnoxious monster. Mat Honen of Wired magazine made the Glass a part of his attire for over a year and found that people were uncomfortable with him wearing it, which in turn made him uncomfortable. Glass made him realise even more acutely what a monster he had become, by being glued to the Internet and phone rather than the people around him. Reading through the comments on the same article (“a half-baked and a flop product”), I was appalled by the stereotypes which people had developed, where the Glass was like a spying device especially adept at capturing videos of people typing passwords.

What was the reality? Having used the Glass sporadically over the last few months, I was saved from becoming the “obnoxious monster” and could therefore concentrate on the applications where it could be really helpful. Invariably, I found it natural to use my Note-3 mobile on normal occasions. The Glass was reserved only for the more social or daring outdoor occasions.

I first had to overcome teething problems. The configuration requires a special “MyGlass” App from Google, which is available for downloading only in the US or UK. The basic data/voice communication requires pairing with the Bluetooth of the phone. The Glass also requires a Wi-Fi connection to access the Internet. This inevitably means that you have to configure your 3G phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for allowing the Glass to access the Internet on the move. All this convinced me that the set up was more for intrepid geeks, which is fine for an open-ended beta product.

1.1 Social experience
Unlike most personal use products, Google Glass is primarily about public perception. So I first decided to play it safe and test the reactions in the upmarket Hiranandani Gardens in Mumbai. I had earlier watched videos of Google Glass wearers walking like celebrities, with curious bystanders giving them extra attention. I got no such reactions; nobody really paid attention. Finally, I caught the KFC counter guys peering weirdly at what was stuck to my spectacles – perhaps they thought it was an overgrown bluetooth headset. Self-conscious, I decided to take off the device to look “normal”. Here is where I discovered a problem: you can’t just fold away the Glass like a normal pair of spectacles. If you are not carrying its big pouch you have no place to hide it. I felt safer later walking around in anonymity not trying to gauge other’s reactions.

My experience though was set to change completely while attending a fabulous wedding held in two of the best hotels in Mumbai, with guests from many countries. The Glass was recognised by most guests, who had either seen it earlier or read about it. It was an object of curiosity even for the hotel staff. As an evangelist, I patiently satisfied their curiosity.

Normally, the first question was ‘what does this do?’. Most remembered the brand name, but were clueless about the functionality. Some of the more knowledgeable ones ventured that this must be recording everything you are seeing. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that the battery wouldn’t allow that. Indeed, the battery let me down at almost all the events, so the Glass was just adorning my specs as a status symbol.

Even when the battery was alive, the processor in the Glass became hot and prevented me from taking videos as it needed to cool off. I had to use my mobile for taking pictures and videos of some great dance performances. Most of the pictures I took from the Glass were nice, but understandably not detailed or accurately focussed. So the Glass camera was useful more as an overview of who was present, rather than capturing precious moments.

I told the curious souls that Glass adds a new perspective to your life. Now you can be on the move and yet not miss out on SMS and email notifications. You can even read the text body, or have it read out to you. You can receive and answer phone calls. You can use it for getting visual directions while driving to a new place (like I did to reach the hotels). In short, you don’t have to take out your mobile as often. Many of them though, saw contradictions with my parallel use of the mobile. I assured them that eventually mobiles will become redundant, just like the transition from separate cameras to mobile cameras.

1.2 Changing role
The more I talked to people, the more I became uncertain about the role it will play in their lives. They all wanted something which will “simplify” their lives, rather than add complications such as fussing about the battery, the Internet connection, mobile connectivity, updates, etc. What would make Google Glass a necessity and a lifestyle changer, once the novelty has worn off? For example, I discontinued using Bluetooth headsets when concerns such as charging the battery, carrying it around, pairing it and irritation in the ear outweighed its advantages.

I soon faced a new dilemma – should I write a romantic tale much like many of the initial Glass Explorers have, or should I espouse it as a brave new experiment still being incubated by Explorers so that it can make life simpler for other people? I consulted my Google Glass Guide, and was encouraged by his comment: “I would like for you to be honest and sincere in your comments as Glass is in its initial phase and has much room to grow”. So now Glass became my companion on all exploratory missions. One such began on Independence Day, when I was invited to attend the launch of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Sanitation, Cleanliness and Health at Santa Cruz by Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni of Observer Research Foundation. I, of course, captured all the key events on the Glass, but it also captured the fancy of the audience. I was called on stage to show how the Glass could benefit the mission, by capturing all the roadside sanitation and cleanliness problems as one was driving around, with immediate pictorial reporting to the authorities concerned. Here was a grassroot level application ready for the Glass.

I did try to dispel the instinctive notion that the Glass is capturing everything, The irony was that because of the severe battery limitations only a few seconds of video could be captured at a time, unless one kept re-triggering it. I knew that in long term all these would be overcome – what was important was to imagine the applications.

Luckily, I did not have to talk about the voice-input problem, as most people had not used this on their mobiles or had tried and immediately given up. Voice input might be helpful in some controlled conditions but is unusable or unsafe in others. This I found quickly was true for the Glass too. During the initial days, I had replied to my daughter’s message on the Glass using voice. She asked, “Have the new tenants shifted in?”, to which I replied, “Yes, they have shifted in”. The Glass wrote “Yes, they had sex in”. I was grateful to the Glass for allowing me to abort the message, saving me some needless embarrassment. At another time though, an incomplete voice message went out by Glass treating the verbal pause as end of dictation, but luckily it just had innocuous spelling mistakes. I never tried to use voice after this.

Being a gizmo developer myself, I am well aware of how one can get too attached to a purist notion to the detriment of the end-users. The maverick Glass team has been trying to get all the commands to work the voice input way, which is often disastrous. But one can avoid using a voice command when it comes to basic movement through menus in different directions. This is done through swiping on the arm of the Google Glass. There is even a button for capturing pictures, rather than saying “Ok Glass, take a picture”. I have been using only the button and swiping for predictable results, and avoiding the embarrassment of having to repeat myself unnecessarily. There is actually a “Wink” feature, by which if you wink hard, you can capture a picture. But since I was wearing the Google Glass over my normal specs, the sensor did not pick it up.

1.3 Navigation application
Of all the applications, I found that the in-built Map Navigation feature of the Google Glass had the highest potential for use. Here again the biggest hurdle is the voice input, with me always being in a dilemma about how to mention a place name such that it will be recognised accurately. It will otherwise go wild with its guesses. The problem was not just with Indian road names, which it would always mistake, but even English names, where, perhaps, the lack of an American accent caused problems.

It would have been great if the Glass team had just allowed an on-screen keyboard to pop-up on the mobile, so that one could have typed in the usual manner. They have done this for typing the name of the Wi-Fi hotspot in the Glass.

Even if one could somehow specify the destination, the problem doesn’t end there, since in practice one has to select from amongst various parameters for the mode of transport, choice of routes etc. I found that while the Google Map on my mobile suggested one optimal route after consulting the traffic, the Map on the device selected a different route altogether based on some other criteria.

The navigation guidance itself as given by the Google Glass was quite different from that of the mobile. To conserve the battery, the map and the direction signs would appear briefly on the display on a just-in-time basis and then disappear. The voice in the Glass was more insistent, repeating itself: “take the exit … take the exit now”.

The redeveloped navigation software though has several glitches and would just simply get stuck. In fact, currently my Glass navigation software has got stuck at a strange place, where it just won’t accept any destination input. All these reliability and usage problems wouldn’t have come up in the first place if Google had not tried to make a standalone Glass system, but made it as a peripheral to the mobile, just like a smartwatch. As a peripheral to a smartphone, the Glass would be able to benefit from the rich software suite present on the mobile and it could then just do the basic minimum to give the display/voice renditions on the Glass. The user would never face typing problems — s/he could safely tuck away the mobile in the pocket once the typing is done. Just the proximity to a data connection is required. By using the mobile for computation, the battery life could be conserved in the Glass and associated benefits could be accrued.

Even if the Glass overcame that problem, a bigger problem during long distance driving would be the battery life. I have been driving long distances (1,200 km+ in a day) thanks to the Google Maps on my Note-3, which I use as a GPS navigator during long journeys. I have learnt to keep the Note-3 horizontally on my dashboard, with a charging cable permanently connected, so that battery life doesn’t become a bottleneck. Now it would be rather awkward to strap your Google Glass with a charging cable as you are driving. This is rather unfortunate, because Google Glass has the potential to substitute the head-up display on the windscreen which only very high-end cars give. Perhaps a solution will emerge through an inductive charging solution hidden in the headrest (I know the concerns about the effect on the brain).

Finally, there is one more problem to be overcome for being able to drive in daylight — sunshade. During bright light, it is not possible to see the screen within the Google Glass. I had to dip the sunshades to block the light from entering the Glass. The result was an overhead display to the top-right hand side of the car, which was quite neat. One extended the logic further, and just put a small sunshade made of paper on the Glass itself. Presto, now I could go around in the brightest sunlight without affecting the visibility through the Glass. After sunset of course, by removing the “Glass Shade” I could get some extra visibility. Now of course, Google can add an automatic LCD based shade for the Glass in the future versions.

Even if the Glass worked for navigation, I would still prefer a mobile-based, more comprehensive direction from the dashboard, unless the Glass teams up with the mobile to enhance the experience. The scenario though becomes totally different when one uses the Glass for navigation during cycling. Now here is a killer application, because it just can’t be substituted by mobile or any other device which wouldn’t be as convenient. In fact, I tried long distance cycling with the Glass Shade and didn’t have to stop even once for consulting the mobile map. The dampener of course was that the specialised software on the Glass didn’t recognise cycle as a transport (although it does for public transport).

1.4 Human interface
The Human Interface of the Glass is also quite unique and ambitious. It wants to allow you to recall all the events which have been recorded through the Glass or the mobile in chronological order, from a few minutes to a few months ago. The swiping motion on the arm of the Glass allows speedy movement of the pictorial “cards” depicting each event. A card can depict a collection of events, allowing a hierarchy to be navigated through simple left, right, OK and Back commands.

This way, Glass allows you to access a particular SMS or email, and even have it read out to you. The limited display though, can show only a few lines at a time, and reading a lot of text can be eye-straining, when you are constantly looking at the top right corner of the right eye.

The MyGlass App allows the content captured through the Glass to be transferred to a mobile. It even shows a ScreenCast, whereby you can see on the mobile whatever is being viewed on the Glass screen. This becomes a convenient way to show other people what the screen in the Glass is showing.

The goal of the Glass: “to make Life simple” can be first achieved by making “Glass simple”. This can be done by simply treating Glass as a peripheral and having the main apps running on the mobile itself. This way there would be no need for a separate Wi-Fi connection for the Glass, with the Bluetooth tethering itself providing the data. The Human Interface in the Glass can just confine itself to what is required for the current activity, rather than keeping a record of all the past events (for which it needs a hefty 16GB storage in the Glass itself). The menu items can confine themselves to whatever can be selected through simple swipes on the arm of the Glass. It would be a great convenience if the history of the previously dialled numbers or typed destinations etc., is given for selection through swipes. So, often-used items can be directly used through the Glass, while new items can be entered through the mobile.

Mobile is a more convenient interface for displaying photographs, videos etc., to others. Ultimately all the photographs have to come from the Glass to the mobile itself, from where it can be easily manipulated and shared. Duplicating all these facilities in the Glass is needless, and can never catch up with the enormous number of applications which are available in the mobile eco-system.

1.5 Long-term evolution
Today the mobile has become a “must” for everyone. The Glass has to concentrate on some applications where it is a “must”, otherwise it will be considered a needless burden. Map Navigation is a good example, especially when used during cycling, or while driving a car without a Map Navigator on the dashboard.

Glass has to become simpler, by confining its role to that of a peripheral to today’s smart and powerful mobiles. It has to extend the battery life by minimising computation. It has to minimise cost by reducing the local storage requirement. This way, it will easily be accepted as an advanced Bluetooth Headset, which has a display too. In fact, there can be models which have a camera, but no display – the mobile itself would be the display. The required speeds can be easily achieved without the Bluetooth using the new NFC (Near Field Communication) standard, as what is already being used for pairing professional cameras with mobiles.

As has happened with mobiles, the future will see amazing technological strides. The Glass can evolve as a “clip-on” on normal specs to allow a full transparent overlay on the main vision, for getting a heads-up display. This would allow the people in the view to be annotated with their names, roads and the buildings with their names etc. Directional arrows can be shown on the actual roads as to where to turn. The display will thus augment reality. Typing will be done effortlessly by punching on the virtual keyboard hanging in the air. At such a time the Long Term Evolved Glass will become a “necessity”, and humans will be blessed with an additional technology eye, which can probe the required details on whatever is being seen.

(The author is the Director of Product Development at the Valuable Group in Mumbai. He developed the GIST Technology for Indian languages at IIT Kanpur and CDAC Pune. He developed the ISCII code and Inscript Keyboard which are now part of the BIS standard and have been adopted by the Unicode. He would like to thank Shri Narendra Hete for the thoughtful gift of the Google Glass and the confidence reposed for the “exploration”.)