In 2012, Sergey Brin wore a prototype of Google Glass, what will be later known as Glass, to an event in San Francisco spearheaded by Foundation Fighting Blindness. It revolutionized the way that wearables were perceived but it also changed the way that the world would view smart glasses due to its miscalculations on how the general public would receive this new technology that Google had to offer.
Aron Ekstein, CEO of Designer Optics, weighs in on the design of Google Glass, and why it was met with so much derision on the internet, “We have to first understand the state of the world at that point: Social media wasn’t what it is today, and we were still in the transition stage of allowing digital technology to seep into our lives. So when smart-glasses were introduced on top of the smartphones we were still getting used to, it was met with resistance.”
It didn’t help that it wasn’t designed with aesthetics in mind. Many memes revolved around its design - and name - it could have been called Goggles, but they went with Glass. Mainly, many marketing materials saw ‘dorky’ businessmen sporting these wearables, which didn’t do it any favors.
Ekstein continues, “They paired up with Luxottica, the parent company for Ray-Ban and Oakley, among others, and it should have been able to tap into the fashion industry, but it was all too much, too fast.”
However, say what you will about Glass, this head-mounted augmented reality display is much a jab at making sci-fi into real life. It displays information based on the wearer’s oral instructions and in 2013, a small campaign was launched in the US, where pioneering Glass Explorers will be able to get their hands on the smart glasses at $1,500 USD. When these glasses were first spotted out in public, it began raising concerns about privacy laws, especially since each of them were mounted with a 5 megapixel still and 720p video camera.
According to reports, the general public were concerned about privacy matters due to Google Glass’ facial recognition features. It also raised concerns about potential breaches in security, which is why it is banned from many public establishments in America. Google made sure to smooth over any concerns regarding facial recognition by releasing only one app called MORIS, which allows strangers to be profiled and identified, with a $3,000 USD price tag meant only for police use. The same kind of technology has been adopted by China, where smart glasses similar to Google Glasses were released for the use of police authorities.
At this point in time, Google is the only company offering smart glasses to consumers, which is what eventually led to it backfiring. While society was ripe for embracing smartphones, it wasn’t ready for the sophistication of smart glasses, especially ones that are still in beta mode and costing $1,500 USD. If Google had waited a few years until after the full adoption of smartphones and spent more time perfecting their technology, it may have had a different outcome. But as it were, its failure led to the souring of the market’s desire for anything that remotely resembles Google Glasses, apparent in how many companies are currently releasing smartphones annually versus the amount of smart glasses available on the market.
“People are propelled by trends, and trends are perpetuated by the masses,” says Ekstein, “It’s apparent in how the market evolves. When we look at glasses that were worn in the 13th century, they were made from wood and leather. When scholarship was in vogue, glasses became a status symbol of wealth and education, which eventually made everyone desire them and they became mass produced in order to suit the global market instead of just the bourgeois.” The founder continues to explain, “However, it wasn’t until the 1900s did eyewear become a fashion accessory. Eyewear has gone out of fashion and come back into fashion many times over, often due to the media’s portrayal. Eyewear can be cool or geeky, depending on the style and the person wearing them. It’s become highly subjective, which is why there are so many designs - with the ones that were designed by notable designers being ripped off again and again, which is how technology adoption should look like. When something is successful, it will be replicated, unfortunately, this wasn’t the case with smart glasses.”
Google stopped making Google Glasses for two years and released an Enterprise Edition in 2017, followed by a second edition in 2019. Their foray into targeting a niche market that requires the features that Google Glass has to offer in order to make their work safer has helped it build towards a direction that may one day lead to Google Glass being adopted by the masses, but for the time being, it’s best utilized in manufacturing factories for more a more efficient work flow.
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