Google Glass – The future is here, or at least around the corner

If you thought that there couldn’t be any more tech gadgets to surprise you and leave you a bit flabbergasted, think again. Enter Google Glass. Google Glass is a wearable computer using an optical head-mounted display that is being developed by Google within their plan Project Glass, with a mission of producing a “mass-market ubiquitous computer”. Yes, that does sound like a term from an ominous sci-fi movie.

Google Glass displays information in a smartphone manner with a hands-free design that can interact with the wearer using voice commands. The frames do not have lenses fitted to them at the moment, but Google is considering partnerships with sunglass retailers like Ray-Ban and may also open retail stores to allow customers to try on the device. The Explorer Edition cannot currently be used by people who wear prescription glasses, but Google has confirmed that Glass will soon be able to be attached to prescription lenses. 

Glass is still very much a prototype, even after 8 months of testing and developing. The first thing noticed about Glass is the cube-shaped glass prism that sits above the right eye. It has a 640 x 360 resolution and hangs just out of the way of the wearer's line of sight. For the wearer, the display has to be viewed by pointing the eyes up and to the right – which possibly could look strange and cause major headaches – and acts as a much larger screen; one that's equal to a 25-inch High Definition television.

There are about 8 thousand "Explorers" currently – a group of engineers, scientists, artists, and journalists in the U.S. – who were allowed to buy and test Glass for about $1500, about R15 000. At the Glass office in New York, they got a crash course on how to connect Glass to the Internet, take videos, snap photos, get directions, perform Google searches, return e-mails, make calls, and much more. And all this using just your voice with an instruction that begins with “Okay, Glass.”

Google Glass is still in its developmental stage but is expected to be released in the latter part of 2014. But don’t get too excited. The cost of Glass is likely to be pretty exorbitant until Google finds a way to mass produce it and make it accessible to those masses. And that’s not the only downside to Glass. This could potentially be one of the most disruptive pieces of technology to be invented in current years and has also become a regular subject in legal circles around the U.S. But whatever may come of Google Glass, the development of the technology is fascinating and mind-boggling and will most likely become “ubiquitous” just as Sergey Brin and his Google guys want it.

3D Printing hits the fashion industry

3D printing has become the latest craze. It is the manufacturing process through which any three-dimensional object can be created using a digital model and involves the consecutive layering of material in different patterns to create the object. Although 3D printing has been around since the 1980s, it was only around 2010, and even more recently, that it became more commercially available and viable to use in different industries. 3D printers can now even be bought online, which are industrial robots able to follow computer-given commands.

It was in March last year that burlesque dancer and model, Dita Von Teese, had created a stir when she unveiled the world's first fully articulated 3D-printed dress. The gown, dramatic and revealing just as Dita loves it, was designed by Michael Schmidt and Francis Bitonti and revealed at the Ace Hotel in New York. The dress was said to be based on the Fibonacci sequence of numbers and was assembled from 17 pieces, dyed black, lacquered and adorned with over 13 000 Swarovski crystals.

You might be surprised that 3D printing was also used to create some of the items worn at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in November last year. Who would’ve thought! Victoria’s Secret, Swarovski, and 3D printing manufacturer Shapeways – who had also worked on Dita’s dress – had collaborated to give the Victoria’s Secret models 3D printed angel’s wings.

The wings were actually designed by an architect and not a designer, Bradley Rothenberg, who first 3D-scanned Victoria’s Secret angel Lindsay Ellingson to ensure they will accurately conform to her shape. Shapeways then 3D-printed the filigreed snowflake wings, which were finally encrusted with the Swarovski crystals that give Victoria’s Secret their trademark bling.

A pair of black wings was also created by the team, which were worn by fashion’s new “it” girl, Cara Delevingne. These wings took a lot less time and effort to make than the snowflake ones as they weren’t as intricate and dramatic. But they were still as beautiful, giving Cara an edgy look as the wings fanned out in a ribbon-like movement as she walked down the ramp.

These results of 3D printing have proved to be beautiful and unique and the sophistication of the creations did not give away that the items were not handcrafted. This definitely sets a standard of the possibility of many industries combining to create distinctive and different products. It also changes people’s perspectives on the fashion industry; that something as technologically advanced as 3D printing can be incorporated and used to, perhaps one day soon, create wearable and fashion-forward wear.

Looking back to move forward

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

-       Socrates

Socrates set the bar for most of Western philosophy and dedicated most of his enquiry and examination to the growth of human character and morality. He was a firm believer that once we as humans accept our ignorance and lack of knowledge in understanding the world and life itself, we would then be able to truly acquire genuine knowledge.

So it’s understandable that he would think that in order to experience a better and fuller future, one must look to the past for guidance and a little direction.

Maybe looking at what we could have done better in 2013, or even what we did not do at all, will give us a better chance of getting it right in 2014. Dredging up the past might not always be the healthiest thing to do; but at the start of a new year, taking stock of the year before could save you just a little time and effort – or maybe save you from making the same mistakes twice without even realizing it.

Socrates knew this. He knew that making mistakes is vital to growing as a person and building one’s character. But he also realized that because we all want a good future for ourselves, one of the best ways to get it is to look at the past and let our actions and experiences guide us to making better decisions in the present.

It was also Socrates who said, “Know thyself.” And that’s pretty important too. For if we look at our past and the life we’ve lived so far, doesn’t that give us greater insight into who we are and so move us along to where we ought to be?

The Green Light

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. 

It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... 

And one fine morning-- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Live in the Moment

What sucks the joy out of our everyday lives is our notion of 'how life is supposed to be.'

We tell ourselves that we'll be happier when we're richer, skinnier, more admired, more successful, more loved.

And we constantly reject the present moment and postpone our lives.

Perhaps we should stop insisting that our lives be a certain way and instead embrace it the way it is right now?