Hype and Hope: Test Driving Google's New Glasses
Device Puts Data Into Field of Vision but Software Is Balky — Google's glasses are escaping from the laboratory. But they aren't ready for the real world yet. — I had the opportunity to test-drive the eyewwear on Monday …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google Glass has traveled fast from rumor to reviewer's face. The Google X heads-up display leak in December 2011 established what the hardware was, the first Project Glass video in May showed the intended experience, and an April Wired piece collected augmented-reality experts warning of serious technical hurdles. What changes with this Wall Street Journal hands-on is who is doing the evaluating: a mainstream outlet, not Google's own demo reel or specialist skeptics.
First-order effects
- Independent press testing now sets Glass's public reputation: the verdict that the device puts data into the field of vision but ships balky software reaches consumers through Forbes, The Verge, Droid Life and Android and Me the same day, all syndicating the same review.
Second-order effects
- The hands-on findings corroborate the hurdles the AR experts flagged in April, shifting pressure onto Google to mature the software layer before any consumer release rather than defend the hardware concept.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, head-worn computing will be judged on software reliability and everyday usefulness rather than display novelty — making the pace of Glass's readiness, not its existence, the open question for Google and any rival eyeing the category.
The trend: Wearable computing is crossing from laboratory demonstration to public scrutiny, where software polish, not hardware ambition, becomes the gating factor.