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Apple Hires Expert in Wearable Computing

ehh its stupid prototype r&d. Pay a guy a million a year, and hope something comes of it, but most likely it never will
 
Punkwaffle said:
Once again, get off the idea of glasses and tiny screens and look at this:

sixth sense
Click to expand...

Projectors are glasses in reverse. It's still glasses. And there are compelling reasons to not always want to project light all over the place for others to see, when Augmented Reality can give you identically projected data that are personal and private.

You can have both, and they're going to be in the same pair of glasses.
 
I suppose, the result, if any, will be a kind of stylish sunglasses combined with some useful gadget (navigator, street view, face or motion recognithion, speed detector, way finder etc.)
 
Has an infinity focus HUD ever successfully been integrated into an eyepiece? I've never seen it - please correct me if I'm wrong.

...and regarding the 6th sense stuff... I REALLY don't want to walk around with a lanyard projecting stuff. Interesting concept, but I'd much rather use an augmented reality device like an iPhone for something like that.
 
brsboarder said:
ehh its stupid prototype r&d. Pay a guy a million a year, and hope something comes of it, but most likely it never will
Click to expand...

Since when is that Apple SOP?

If they had a (recent) history of it, then fine on that charge. But Apple since, oh, 13 years ago, doesn't buy anything or anyone unless they're serious about making some use of it.
 
batchtaster said:
Since when is that Apple SOP?

If they had a (recent) history of it, then fine on that charge. But Apple since, oh, 13 years ago, doesn't buy anything or anyone unless they're serious about making some use of it.
Click to expand...

These days, I wonder if Apple will buy stuff just so Google can't.
 
knewsom said:
...and regarding the 6th sense stuff... I REALLY don't want to walk around with a lanyard projecting stuff. Interesting concept, but I'd much rather use an augmented reality device like an iPhone for something like that.
Click to expand...

You understand that is a research prototype right? We have no clue what it will be implemented into, but cellphone will probably be among the first once pico projectors get small enough (probably the laser driven ones).
 
ddubbo said:
I suppose, the result, if any, will be a kind of stylish sunglasses combined with some useful gadget (navigator, street view, face or motion recognithion, speed detector, way finder etc.)
Click to expand...

I think sunglasses that serve as a peripheral to an iPhone/iPod touch would be great. Running apps like Nike+ could project your distance travelled, current speed/pace, heart rate, etc. There has also been a augmented reality game demonstrated recently where you shoot virtual hostiles placed in a real world environment (although the guy was wearing a backpack full of hardware).

Holding your phone in front of you isn't really augmented reality, but looking around naturally and being fed additional information is a lot closer. Of course I've never seen AR sunglasses that look like sunglasses, so the first step would be making something that people are actually willing to wear.
 
paradox00 said:
I think sunglasses that serve as a peripheral to an iPhone/iPod touch would be great. Running apps like Nike+ could project your distance travelled, current speed/pace, heart rate, etc. There as also been a augmented reality game demonstrated recently where you shoot virtual hostiles place in a real world environment (although the guy was wearing a backpack full of hardware).

Holding your phone in front of you isn't really augmented reality, but looking around naturally and being fed additional information is a lot closer. Of course I've never seen AR sunglasses that look like sunglasses, so the first step would be making something that people are actually willing to wear.
Click to expand...

That's where apple and Ives come in :cool:
 
In the future...

Great.

Now we'll have to suffer through thousands of posts in the future like:

* My iGoggles don't run Flash...
(response: It's 2018, Flash was outlawed 3 years ago by President Jobs.)

* I won't buy iEyes unless they come with a stylus!
(response: Stylus!?! You'll poke your eye out kid!)

etc etc etc
 
chadley_chad said:
Sorry, but when you can't buy an Apple with a Blue Ray drive or a core i7 machine for less than £1,500
Click to expand...

As wireless communication and entertainment becomes increasingly popular, I would gather that Apple does not see Blu-Ray as a necessary evil. If anything, burning DVD's will become a thing of the past as wireless communications will take precedent and forgo the of need for hard data (besides, there are probably landfills filled with plastic DVD/CD's, taking a step away from that direction is brilliant for e-waste awareness).
 
I think having a wearable computer could be a great idea if done properly, although its hard to imagine any type of wearable computer that wouldn't make you look strange wearing it out in public. To be adopted by the mainstream, I think it would have to be very small, maybe something you could clip onto your glasses or be a stylish pair of glasses itself. I think if anyone can make wearable computers stylish though, it's Apple and Johny Ives.

Also, people wear bluetooth headsets all the time nowadays, which is is some ways similar to a wearable computer like device.

I hope if its ever made they use this technology which I think could be the future of computer displays:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_retinal_display
 
Bodhi395 said:
I think having a wearable computer could be a great idea if done properly, although its hard to imagine any type of wearable computer that wouldn't make you look strange wearing it out in public.
Click to expand...

Think 'contact lens'.
 
Wearable computers have been used for years, from telephone repair techs to the military. Our little R&D group had a bunch of models demonstrated to us a few years ago. They were still too bulky at the time.

One problem in marketing this stuff is how to make it appealing to the general public.

I don't think many people would want to wear sunglasses all the time.

Even the Sixth Sense kind of setup still seems a little too geeky for mass consumers.
 
kdarling said:
Wearable computers have been used for years, from telephone repair techs to the military. Our little R&D group had a bunch of models demonstrated to us a few years ago. They were still too bulky at the time.

One problem in marketing this stuff is how to make it appealing to the general public.

I don't think many people would want to wear sunglasses all the time.

Even the Sixth Sense kind of setup still seems a little too geeky for mass consumers.
Click to expand...

LV gloves and Oliver Peoples shades :D (heck, if the Japanese have LV surgical masks, why not? lol)
swine-flu-louis-vuitton-mask.jpg
 
Talk about skunkworks type stuff...

This stuff sounds so secret they may never let this guy leave his dev lab let alone the Cupertino campus. I can see them sliding his food in through a slot in the door.
 
Michael73 said:
Talk about skunkworks type stuff...

This stuff sounds so secret they may never let this guy leave his dev lab let alone the Cupertino campus. I can see them sliding his food in through a slot in the door.
Click to expand...

Thats his problem, he CHOSE to go with the nice men in the black cloaks. :p
 
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