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Resistance Is Futile: Google Glass and the Cyborg Workforce of the Future
40:47 with Donna LichawGoogle Glass raises a number of questions: Should we design for it? *What* do we design for it? Who will use it? We'll explore how technology like Glass has already been prototyped, anti-prototyped, proven, and disproven for years in film, television, and literature. Learn how to harness these images to answer timely strategy questions and design products and apps able to transform the future.
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All right, welcome everybody.
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I'm Donna and I'm gonna talk to you today
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about two of my favorite things, science fiction and gadgets.
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And yeah, I think it'll be fun, I mean, I had fun
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working on this project, and I think it'll be a fun talk.
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[SOUND] what I'm gonna talk to you about.
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First, though, before we jump into, into the future, because
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we all wanna get there, is, let me tell you a story about this guy.
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This is, this is Martin Cooper and, he, does anyone know who he is?
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Any, anything about him?
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See one, one hand wanna shout out who, who he is
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>> The cell phone guy
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>> Yeah, the cell phone guy [LAUGH] he basically invented the first,
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first cell phone for Motorola and he was also or is a huge geek
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1:00
the thing about, Martin Cooper is that he idolized Captain Kirk.
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1:06
So he was young in the 60s, loved Star Trek, loved Captain Kirk,
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1:12
and was just, you know, kind of, kind of enamored, enamored of him.
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And this was a thing at the time.
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It's still even kind of a thing.
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1:22
William Shatner's actually in Vegas.
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1:24
Today, which is so crazy at the MGM.
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1:26
You should go see him.
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1:28
He's, got a finger or something.
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1:30
I don't know, he does stuff, one man show.
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1:31
But, people loved Captain Kirk, they even named their kids after him.
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1:35
Kirk Cameron is named after Captain Kirk.
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1:37
He was just, he was a thing, right?
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And he did really cool awesome things
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like, talk into this thing called a communicator.
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And he would say things like, beam me up, Scotty.
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And other cool awesome suave things.
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And, like a lot of people, Martin wanted to kind of be like Captain Kirk.
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He wanted to be all cool, hip, suave, and do stuff, like, communicate on the go,
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and, the thing about communication is, it's something
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that we all do, and in the 60s it's
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2:09
something that people did as well, but it
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just didn't happen in an electronic way on the
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go, and Martin would watch Star Trek, watch
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2:17
everyone with his communicator and think, I want that.
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Why, why can't I do that, so like any good fan boy
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or fan girl, he went ahead and he invented the first mobile phone.
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And, the good thing is that Martin was not alone, he was not
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the only one who wanted to do this mobile communication on the go, thing.
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In fact fast forward many, many, many, many years later
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and the whole world wants to do this mobile communication thing.
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We all want to communicate on the go.
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So why am I telling you about all of this, other than
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I love Star Trek and I love tech and all of that?
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It's because there's something that happens when we watch things on a
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3:05
screen or read about them in stories and it excites the imagination.
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We make it so.
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3:12
And this is Picard, not Captain Kirk, but I'm more of a Picard person myself, so
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I had to just, make sure that you know, we did give him some props today.
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This is what he would always say when he would you know, being on the
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deck and say make it so and everyone do whatever he asked them to do.
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But [COUGH] make it so.
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All right.
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It's this idea that we see things in the movie.
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Movies, fiction, it sparks our imagination and we
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wanna do what characters on the screen are doing.
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We want to be powerful like them.
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We also want to do things, when they are kind of
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familiar, and it amplifies what we know, to be true today.
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Oh, I had a talk on the phone.
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I wanna be able to talk on the phone, on the go to.
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This is what in Sci-Fi scholar scholars call this concept of defamiliarization.
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4:04
And so the idea with defamiliarization is that, in science fiction
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4:10
what we are actually seeing is not the future and it is not other worlds.
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It is our, world and is our present day that is re imagined.
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It's re imagined in ways that either tell us, what's wrong with our
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current society, time or place or that tell us, what things can be like.
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And so, when we see, what things can be like on the
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screen, we do what good humans do, we try to emulate it.
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We try to built it and we go and we, we essentially.
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Make it so, so this that's, that's me.
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This is kind of what, what I do on a daily basis.
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I am an advisor.
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I am a teacher.
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I'm a consultant.
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I help businesses figure out what digital products should be, how to
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make them better, how to, fix them when they're not working quite right.
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How to build things that are completely new, how
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to make sure, that everyone is on the right track.
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And for the last few years, I've been focusing a lot in the mobile
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and tablets face and so over the last year, one of the questions that
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started coming up a lot from clients and students alike, is this, this
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question that is you know, a lot of people are thinking about what, what about glass?
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Is that something we need to start thinking about?
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Do we need to, design for it?
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How do we approach it?
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What do we do?
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And when people first started asking me this question.
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My initial answer was, cuz I'm a futurist but I'm also a skeptic.
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5:45
And my initial answer was, oh my God no stop.
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It's the, it's the Segway for your face, don't
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go there, this thing is gonna be a dud.
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5:56
Right so actually if you Google Segway for your face that is what comes up.
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[LAUGH] Basically lots of Google Glass photos
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they're the top of the search results.
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So, that was, you know, my initial thought was, this
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6:10
thing is a really, really, really silly device, who wants it?
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And you know, if you look, this is what Google wants us, wants us to think.
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Oh no, everybody wants it, so this is from a promotional trailer.
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[MUSIC]
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>> Okay Glass.
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Record
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a video.
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>> This is it, we're on in two minutes.
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>> Okay Glass, hang out with the flying club.
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Google photos of tiger heads.
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Ready?
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You ready?
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>> Right there.
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Okay Glass, take a picture.
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>> So, right.
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Take pictures of Google tiger heads and, you know, air balloons and
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balley and all this really, really fun, fun crazy kind of consumerish stuff.
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This is what Google was, has been telling us, yeah, this is, this is Glass.
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This is the future.
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This is totally awesome.
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This is running through fields and throwing your kids up in
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the air and taking pictures of them at the same time.
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And so, you know, of course I'm thinking, well, okay,
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something's not sitting right with this whole Google Glass thing.
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We're all kind of, mocking it a little bit even
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though all of our friends are thinking about buying one.
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And lots of labs are buying it, and figuring out,
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okay, yeah, we've got to build an App for Glass.
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But, growing up with science fiction and having
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watched many, many science fiction films through the years.
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I also, the other thing about me, is I have film background.
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I was a, film maker many years, while I also worked in Tech.
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I have two film degrees, for, for some reasons.
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So, it's what I do.
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I watch, I watch movies and then I figure out what cool things we
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8:01
can apply to, to the Tech, that we build and, you know, thinking about
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it I, my reaction was no this is silly but also, we've seen this
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prototyped in the movies a million times and Google wants us to see this.
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But what I've always seen, throughout, my career watching
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movies [LAUGH] is, is this, this is a still from Robocop.
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And, this is in what what we call in
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film dystopia, or we call in science fiction dystopia.
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It's the opposite, of utopia.
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It's the opposite of what we try to do as designers,
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as technologists, as people who build cool digital things and software Apps.
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Whatever we're working on, right?
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Not good!
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Why on earth, would Google be trying to tackle this thing that is supposed to
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be so awesome and you know, daisies and
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fields, when, dystopia is what we see, right?
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9:02
Awesome, that's what Google says.
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But, no.
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So something, something, you know, wasn't quite sitting right with me at the time.
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And I was ready to just spend some time doing a whole of research.
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9:13
Going back, figuring out, all right.
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What are all the instances of wearable face technology, in Sci-Fi
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that have appeared over the last several decades and how is it treated?
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What is this device really?
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Now, one thing I need to qualify here is when I talk about Google Glass.
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Have any of you ever used a Google Glass before?
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Just a couple.
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Oop, I see, I see one there.
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Okay.
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All right.
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>> [LAUGH] Batteries dead.
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>> Okay, that's what I was just gonna say.
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The battery is dead.
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Thank you.
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I was just gonna ask you all a second question which is how is it.
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So, Google Glass.
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It kind of, sort of, sucks.
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In it's current incarnation, it's a bit of a dumb device.
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10:03
The battery barely lasts long enough for people to complete
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the, the key tasks that they might be completing with it.
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Which I will talk to you about.
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It it has to be tethered.
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It, also the screen is terrible.
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I've used it and it, I've, it hurts my eyes.
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I can barely get anything done.
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Also there's a lot of sol, social stigma attached.
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It's not where it could be right now.
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10:26
So when I talk about Google Glass and I talk about wearable face technology.
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I'm kind of jumping ahead into the future talking
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about, what it could be if it worked really well.
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In other words if the battery lasted, if it had some more connectivity, if it
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had a little more power, if it
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had different gestural commands and better voice commands.
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If it also wasn't kind of a passive device and that have to be activated by us.
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If it could just do things.
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10:56
So, what, again, I'm talking about when I say can you Google Glasses, what are
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device like that could be in the future not necessarily its current incarnation
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but, going back through, [LAUGH] through this journey.
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I started at at, at Stat Trek, which as I, I love it.
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And you see a bunch of different instances of wearable
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face technology in, in Star Trek, and they often fit.
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Something like this.
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So, I am gonna show you a trailer from Star Trek, The Next Generation.
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It's an episode, called The Game.
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>> A
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harmless game becomes a dangerous addiction.
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>> What if someone's trying to use the game for some purpose other than pleasure?
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>> And the crude fall victim to its evil hypnotic power.
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>> We can't trust anyone any more, not even the Captain.
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>> Can Wesley rescue the crew from total mind control, or is he next?
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>> We've got him, Captain.
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>> Let go of me!
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>> High Tech Nightmare on the next
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exciting episode of Star Trek, The Next Generation.
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[MUSIC]
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>> That's right.
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So, we have this utopia so far, basically film noir with robocop.
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We have now, High Tech Nightmare.
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12:14
This is still not good.
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12:15
Why would anyone say yeah I wanna build one of those, this is so cool, right?
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12:21
Still something's not sitting right and, a lot of the
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instances of this high technology again are of this genera dystopia.
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It's nightmare.
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Things go very very wrong when there's technology on your face so.
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[COUGH] Digging a little deeper all right.
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The cyborgs.
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The cyborgs are coming.
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Doesn't sound very awesome right?
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This is not what we do as technologists.
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This is, a character from Star Trek as well, the Borg.
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They are cybernetic beings that are connected and do very, very bad
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things and they have, they have technology on their face as well.
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Why would we want to be like this?
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13:04
So, this is actually not something bad, according to Thad Starner.
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Thad Starner is the lead engineer on the Google Glass team at Google, and
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this is the title of an article, a kind of a treatise he wrote in 1993.
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It was never published, because no one took it seriously.
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13:25
He sent it to Wired Magazine.
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Thought, oh my God, they're, they're gonna eat this up.
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And they did not publish it.
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13:32
It's, is basically a treaties for why, wearable face technology is going
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to transform us for the better and we're gonna have an amazing, awesome future.
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So, I'm gonna read you excerpt, from the treatise.
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So in it, he says, at first only a
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certain breed of technophile or time critical information consumer
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would be interested in looking odd to gain the
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power and convenience of such, such an interface would allow.
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The computer professional.
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These individuals use a computer every day and find it essential to do their work.
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Even if the system was just sold as an expensive toy, a market may still exist.
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So, a few key points I want to point out here.
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The computer professional.
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All right?
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These individuals use a computer every day and find it essential to do there work.
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14:27
And, the second point which is maybe as an expensive toy, this could hit.
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This could tap into a market.
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So, again I'm seeing all these dystopian visions of wearable face technology.
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14:41
Okay what about toys?
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Is Google Glass, could that be a toy?
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Cuz again Google's going for the consumer market, not really talking
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about professionals which I'll talk about in a moment, but first.
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14:52
[INAUDIBLE] How where we'll face technology
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toys are treated in science fiction.
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14:57
So, I'm gonna show you a clip from Back to the Future part two.
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15:02
>> Here you go.
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15:03
>> Oh boy oh boy, Mom.
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15:04
You sure can hydrate a pizza.
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15:06
[INAUDIBLE]
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15:06
>> Still waiting for the dehydrator, by the way.
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15:08
>> I'm just worried about Jennifer.
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15:12
Why isn't she home yet?
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15:14
>> I'm not sure, where Jennifer is, Mom, [SOUND] she should
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15:17
have been home hours ago, but having a hard time keeping track.
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15:20
>> Hey, fruit!
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15:21
>> Of her these days.
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15:23
>> Fruit, please!
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15:24
Thank you.
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15:24
>> Aren't you and Jennifer getting along?
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15:25
>> Oh, yeah, great, Mom, we're like a couple of teenagers, you know?
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15:30
[SOUND].
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15:34
Go ahead, [INAUDIBLE].
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15:34
>> Dad, it's for you.
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>> So, here we have it.
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Google Glass, you can make phone calls from your face.
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15:43
You can, play games from your face.
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15:45
Awesome, right?
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15:46
[LAUGH] No.
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15:47
So it's, it's similar to dystopia, it's similar to film noir and nightmares.
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15:52
This is comedy.
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It's a send up.
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It's, ridiculous.
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We don't want this.
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15:58
They look so silly, it's Michael J Fox playing, his
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16:02
kids and the girl with the wig and the whole thing.
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Right?
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16:06
This is, again, is this the future that we see and think, oh my God I want
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16:11
to be able to make phone calls from
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16:12
my face while sitting at the, the breakfast table,
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16:16
very very strange right so, a little bit
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16:18
in the toy sphere they're teenagers, games communication now
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16:23
does this kind of mockery stop us from
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16:25
still trying to build these devices on your face?
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16:28
No, we have a strong tradition of trying to build games
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for your face even though we mock it in popular science fiction.
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16:37
We have the Nintendo Virtual Boy from 1995 which, you know,
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I know it's a collector's item, and I think that's totally awesome.
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16:47
But it's, it never took off, except now, as a collector's item and a geek thing.
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16:53
But, we still had Saga going for it.
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16:56
We had Atari, going for it and we still have
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16:59
Sony going for it, over and over and over again.
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17:02
And each of these instances, never, never, never panned out.
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The market just didn't exist.
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17:09
Does it stop us.
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17:12
No.
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17:13
No.
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17:13
We're still trying to, do something with this wearable face technology.
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17:17
We have Facebook buying Oculus Rift for two billion dollars.
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17:22
Which there's some strategy behind that.
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17:24
No one's quite sure what that strategy is, but
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17:27
I will still argue that Oculus Rift, a geek sensation.
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17:31
With 2.5 million, I forget, $2.5 million I think was
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17:34
the backing on Kickstarter, even though they didn't need that much.
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It was only 10,000 backers, that got it to that point.
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17:43
It's not a mass-market device that the general public cares about.
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17:49
So again, compare and contrast that to Google saying, oh my God, Glass, it's
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17:54
the wave of the future, it's a fashion item, it's gonna come in different colors.
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17:58
You can play with your kids, and take pictures.
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18:01
It's awesome, play games, do whatever you need to do, right?
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18:05
[SOUND] Perhaps not mass market.
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18:06
It has not worked before.
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18:08
And we just mock it over and over and over again in the movies.
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18:12
So, if games in your face doesn't necessarily make sense.
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18:16
It's either comedy or nightmare, what about this professional.
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18:21
This computer professional.
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18:24
So I'm gonna straight up list what Thad Starner lists in his treaties.
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All the different types of computer
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18:31
professionals, who could benefit from wearable face
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18:35
technology that helps you do things like, take notes without looking at a screen.
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18:42
Manage appointments on the go.
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18:43
Discover precedents in a court trial.
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18:46
Look up info, while seeing patients, automatic access to information, get up
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to the date minute stock information, yada, yada on and on and on.
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18:56
So, I'll tell you one thing, takes notes without looking at a screen.
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19:01
We had a conversation loss setting up my, my laptop.
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19:05
just, you know, 20 minutes ago.
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19:06
And I typed something real quick, and the comment was, wow, you can
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19:10
type without looking at the keyboard, and you know, I'm, I'm proud of that.
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19:14
I can type without looking at the keyboard.
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19:17
Most of us can type without looking at a keyboard.
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19:20
Not everybody.
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19:21
It happens.
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19:21
But, it's not a problem that we generally have.
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19:26
A lot of these are problems that we have, but not all.
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19:29
So, if you frame Thei Starters treaty
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19:33
something that was important in 1993 right?
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19:37
Taking notes, on the go, getting information on the go.
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These all were 1993 problems, they were really, really, really big problems.
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19:47
Get a precedent while your on, in a trial.
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19:49
You couldn't really do that in 1993.
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19:52
Because this is what 1993 was.
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19:56
You started to have these cool portable devices.
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19:59
We have the Newton, we have.
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20:01
Laptop computers, it was starting to look really rosy and great.
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20:05
But what you didn't have was internet connectivity.
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20:09
And so, what a lot of people like Thad Starner started to do, was jump
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20:14
ahead, millennia into their imaginations and think, wow well.
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20:20
To get connectivity, internet in your face.
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20:25
Of course, these were, these were duds, now these
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20:28
didn't seem to help anyone like the futurist, Thad
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20:32
Starner and, a bunch of other people who have
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20:34
been playing with cyborg technology for, for a while.
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20:39
But, if you think about a lot of the used cases that he talks about, what
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20:43
we have today, we've surpassed this and we
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20:46
now have, things like iPhones, iPads, Android devices.
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20:52
We just have mobile technology everywhere and it's all connected.
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20:56
And you know what?
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20:57
We use these devices, on the go.
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21:00
We do things like pull up information.
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21:02
When we need it, we can take notes on the fly.
-
21:05
We can kind of do a whole lot of stuff with
-
21:08
our mobile devices and companies like Apple and Android know this.
-
21:13
They are heavily marketing towards enterprise and computer professionals.
-
21:17
They want that market.
-
21:18
There was a statistic that came out recently, Apple.
-
21:22
Has finally cornered the enterprise market, which no one thought they would.
-
21:25
And most people now use iPhones in the enterprise.
-
21:28
Not really a problem.
-
21:30
So, still, again, what on earth would Google be
-
21:34
doing sinking all this money into this technology that,
-
21:37
it seems like is either scary dystopian or we
-
21:39
just don't need, because we already have solutions to them?
-
21:43
So.
-
21:44
Digging a little bit deeper, into, Science Fiction.
-
21:48
What I did find were three really distinct use
-
21:51
cases where, actually the technology is kind of awesome.
-
21:56
So, I'm gonna walk you through each of these three.
-
21:59
And, what I'm calling it is the, the face text, [LAUGH] the face-tech context.
-
22:05
And, this is probably the, the, the
-
22:07
wordiest three points you'll ever see ever.
-
22:10
But, I'm gonna give a, a, a nod to Josh Clark and
-
22:14
his mobile mindset because, I like frameworks of three and I like.
-
22:18
Global mindset.
-
22:19
Basically, the idea is that there are three ways in which
-
22:22
we use mobile devices, I'm microtasking, I'm local, and I'm bored.
-
22:28
So again my question is well, the
-
22:30
face-tech context, what, what would that be?
-
22:33
Cuz it has to be something.
-
22:34
These crazy nerds in Silicon Valley, they're not.
-
22:37
Idiots.
-
22:38
[LAUGH] They're onto something, what is it?
-
22:41
So, but first, again, very wordy and if you have any recommendations as to
-
22:46
how I can shorten these, awesome, come up to me afterwards, I, I love ideas.
-
22:50
But, the first, I've got a job to do and want my hands free to do it.
-
22:55
So, this idea of work context, right.
-
22:59
Who has a job to do and needs hands free?
-
23:04
Soldiers.
-
23:05
So we have Terminator.
-
23:07
He needs his hands free so he can shoot people, and
-
23:10
beat people up, and ride motorcycles, and do really really cool things.
-
23:16
Terminator kinda kicks ass.
-
23:18
We like terminator, he's kind of a Frankenstein character
-
23:22
who we, we, we sort of, you know, love.
-
23:25
And he has technology in his face.
-
23:27
And he's pretty much a cyborg, half, you know, part human, part, part technology.
-
23:32
Another Frankenstein type of character, RoboCop.
-
23:35
We kinda love RoboCop too.
-
23:37
We love him so much that we're bringing him back for a, for a remake.
-
23:40
We love these characters.
-
23:42
And they do cool, cool, cool stuff, with augmented vision technology in their face.
-
23:50
So you can do things like, play and record videos.
-
23:54
Police officers, need to do that.
-
23:57
It's part of their job, often.
-
24:01
RoboCop can get the prime directive, right?
-
24:03
Can access information on the go.
-
24:05
Very, very important.
-
24:07
He needs this to do his, his job.
-
24:09
So again, very specific context of, I have a job
-
24:12
to do and this is gonna help me do my job.
-
24:16
When you're a soldier, if you're a police officer, it's not
-
24:19
that crazy to have augmenting technology helping you do your job.
-
24:24
So, suddenly what we see here is, is what is otherwise dystopian contexts, right,
-
24:30
this film noir, these creepy films that
-
24:32
are, really essentially horror films, they're horror sci-fi.
-
24:36
But just like Frankenstein, we love the main character and they're kind of.
-
24:40
You know, whether or not they chose that, that type of
-
24:44
life of cyborg living, they do cool stuff, so, the second
-
24:49
context, this is something again, very wordy but I'm gonna call
-
24:54
I'm mobile and shouldn't use my hands or avert my eyes.
-
24:58
So, this is something that we see a lot in science fiction as well.
-
25:03
With RoboCop we have, mobile navigation.
-
25:07
And you can basically get directions on the go.
-
25:10
See where you're going.
-
25:11
Everything's overlaid.
-
25:12
It's wonderful.
-
25:13
You have, Iron Man.
-
25:15
The same thing.
-
25:16
You can fly through the, you know, the sky and get wherever you need to go.
-
25:20
And you can also check your email at the same time.
-
25:22
Awesome [LAUGH].
-
25:22
But what was important is that you got to where you needed.
-
25:25
To get to.
-
25:26
And, you did it without necessarily averting your eyes.
-
25:30
And you can use your hands to, you know,
-
25:32
direct yourself while, while you fly and do stuff.
-
25:35
And, this concept is something that we see in science fiction a lot.
-
25:39
It's something that we see in the real world a lot.
-
25:42
It's this concept of the heads up display
-
25:45
or the HUD for short and that's essentially
-
25:48
what something like Google Glass could be, again
-
25:51
it's not there yet, it's not true augmented vision.
-
25:55
It just is a little screen in the corner of your vision.
-
25:59
But what it could be is something that helps
-
26:01
people, like soldiers or military or anyone who's just
-
26:06
traveling at a really, really high speed and really
-
26:09
should not avert their eyes or move their hands.
-
26:13
Not that foreign, no longer very dystopian even though.
-
26:18
The instances of these images in sci-fi might be in dystopian films.
-
26:24
So, again speed, motion, is the second context.
-
26:29
The third, third context is again, very wordy but I'm gonna
-
26:33
call it, I'm impaired and wanna do what able-bodied people can do.
-
26:39
So here, we have a, you know, I think this is a question that I, I had a lot.
-
26:44
Which is.
-
26:45
Well this is always so dystopian, these images are awful, nightmarish.
-
26:49
What about someone like Geordie, from Star Trek.
-
26:54
He's kind of awesome and in fact, in the episode The Game, where that crazy
-
26:59
Google Glass takes over the ship and, and
-
27:01
there's mind control and everyone's mind is controlled.
-
27:04
He's the only one who survives that whole fiasco because, his visor is awesome.
-
27:10
He can't see without it, he can see suddenly, it's pretty, pretty cool.
-
27:17
So, one example, another, and I'm gonna call this a
-
27:20
kind of disability, this is from They Live, it's a
-
27:24
John Carpenter movie from the 80s and it's kind of,
-
27:29
if you haven't seen it, I just, go watch it immediately.
-
27:32
But, the idea is that you have these alien invaders on Earth who have been living
-
27:38
dormant for decades and they've taken over the
-
27:41
planet, and you never know who they are.
-
27:45
Until one day, Roddy the Rod Piper he's in it.
-
27:47
He finds these amazing super sunglasses and he puts them on and
-
27:51
he sees that, half of the people out there are actually aliens.
-
27:55
And, they are telling you to do things.
-
27:58
Like the billboards actually say, to obey and
-
28:01
consume and do all this other crazy stuff.
-
28:04
And worst yet, they're all using iWatches.
-
28:07
And it's awful.
-
28:09
So, he has to save the day.
-
28:10
He becomes kind of a, you know a
-
28:12
soldier type but, kind of, you know, this visibility.
-
28:15
In this case, he didn't see without these glasses.
-
28:19
He wasn't fully able-bodied like the, the ruling class of this world.
-
28:24
So.
-
28:25
Again this kind of concept of, I can be really really awesome, with this thing.
-
28:32
But, in this instance, what happens, sunglasses
-
28:36
at night start to get really weird.
-
28:38
And people start realizing oh.
-
28:40
He's got the sunglasses.
-
28:41
So, even face technology that makes you
-
28:44
awesome still can't always be so conspicuous.
-
28:48
But, again, make you able-bodied.
-
28:51
So in terms of Thad Sterner's break down, if we look at this
-
28:55
a little bit deeper, are there any use cases that he talks about?
-
28:59
In other words, was he onto something, perhaps.
-
29:02
Are there use cases.
-
29:03
That might make sense.
-
29:05
That Google might be thinking about, or that they maybe are not thinking about and
-
29:10
are omitting from all of their PR material, and all of their crazy videos.
-
29:16
That, might make something like this actually useful.
-
29:20
So.
-
29:21
Breaking it down, a little bit, we have
-
29:23
okay, doctors, looking up information while seeing patients.
-
29:29
Does it fit a context, yes, they've got a
-
29:31
job to do and maybe they shouldn't avert their eyes.
-
29:36
Although the jury's out on something like this because.
-
29:39
Do you absolutely have to use face technology if you're a doctor and talking
-
29:44
to a patient, or can you pull out a tablet or a clipboard and do it that way?
-
29:49
So, it's important to note, even if it
-
29:52
makes things easier, there are certain interpersonal rules
-
29:54
that we have as humans where, you know,
-
29:57
sometimes maybe, I shouldn't have hurt my eyes but.
-
30:00
If there's this funny thing in between my eyes and your eyes, it
-
30:04
can be an affront so, you do need to be careful with that.
-
30:07
But, scientists, automatic access to information, sure, someone
-
30:13
in a lab, a surgeon, someone doing stuff
-
30:17
where you need information in the moment and
-
30:19
you might have your hands busy with something else.
-
30:22
Great.
-
30:23
Repair people get overlaid visual instructions.
-
30:27
Why not?
-
30:27
That could be really cool.
-
30:29
There, I had a, a contractor over a few months ago and he was
-
30:33
talking about putting a, a closet into one of my closets, and he said.
-
30:38
The instruction booklet, if I have to put
-
30:41
the closet together and keep going back to the
-
30:43
instruction booklet, cuz I've never done this type
-
30:45
of closet, it's gonna take me twice as long.
-
30:49
So I will charge you twice as much.
-
30:52
How cool would it be if you just had
-
30:53
instructions overlaid and you could just put it together, right?
-
30:56
He would get paid less, but that's another story.
-
30:59
I would get to pay less.
-
31:00
[COUGH] >> Perhaps.
-
31:01
Or you would be smart and charge twice as much and
-
31:03
take half the time but again, could save time and energy.
-
31:08
Construction engineers, right, visual instructions data in
-
31:12
the field, lot of different contexts so,
-
31:17
surgery.
-
31:17
We are starting to see stories like this, surgeons are starting to use Google Glass.
-
31:23
In the operating theatre.
-
31:24
Again, it's currently not the greatest device, so their batteries
-
31:28
die very quickly, but they're able to stream videos, of operations.
-
31:33
And this is something that's very important to surgeons with learning.
-
31:37
They broadcast a lot.
-
31:39
Kinda like, we broadcast [LAUGH] a lot of, you know, case studies, for example.
-
31:43
They broadcast while they're doing things.
-
31:45
Could it be something that someday, a device like
-
31:48
Glass could actually overlay real information on the go.
-
31:50
And have better voice commands [UNKNOWN] commands.
-
31:53
Absolutely, and you know the thing about surgeons and face technology and
-
31:57
doctors and face technology, is they already wear technology, on their face.
-
32:04
They've been doing it forever since technology on your face came out and
-
32:10
was a thing and they don't look silly, in that context, when they're wearing scrubs.
-
32:16
They're in a theater, they're doing stuff, not that crazy, so of course, why not.
-
32:25
In the field, firefighters, construction engineers.
-
32:28
They all wear technology on their face already.
-
32:32
Could it help firefighters so they don't have to
-
32:35
look at maps and figure out where they're going?
-
32:38
Could you be in a building and just have automatic information telling you
-
32:43
what floor you're on, where you're going, where the nearest exit is, where there's.
-
32:47
You know, there is heat, body heat, million and million
-
32:50
applications, does this firefighter look silly wearing something on his head?
-
32:55
Oh, no we are used to it, and again he's got a job to do, it's all good.
-
33:02
High speed, mobility.
-
33:04
So, extreme sports.
-
33:06
There is a lot of technology currently being developed for, even consumers.
-
33:13
Skiers.
-
33:14
It's a huge market.
-
33:16
Professional skiers?
-
33:18
Sure, they would go for something, that's their job.
-
33:21
But even consumers, they get into gadgets.
-
33:22
They'll spend a few thousand dollars on something that
-
33:25
might help them on you know, a long trek
-
33:27
or figure out speed, or how to bet, you
-
33:30
know, get better jumps and all this other stuff.
-
33:33
There is a lot out there.
-
33:34
Again, Glass can't do much for skiers right now, but.
-
33:38
It could and there are developers working on even more specialized devices just for
-
33:44
skiers so again, mobility, great jobs, awesome.
-
33:50
Immobility.
-
33:52
We're starting to see this as wow, this is from a, an article that Google put
-
33:57
out, that talked about how Google Glass is helping people with disabilities.
-
34:02
Do things, like access information on the go.
-
34:06
That, where they, they couldn't before.
-
34:07
So this is, someone who really was otherwise very, very limited and
-
34:12
now can do things like get directions or pull up voice commands.
-
34:16
Even just talking on the phone when you don't have hands, motion, coordination.
-
34:20
Anything like that.
-
34:21
It's a really, really big deal.
-
34:24
So again, disability, something we see in
-
34:26
the movies and something that absolutely makes sense.
-
34:30
But, if you also think about this whole concept
-
34:32
of defamiliarization, whereas science fiction in the movies, just tells
-
34:37
us what's going on today, it's reflecting our current society
-
34:42
and what could be and how it could be better.
-
34:45
This is something that sci-fi didn't make up.
-
34:48
And necessarily, we have this, we have a strong tradition of developing technology,
-
34:55
wearable technology for people who want to be able more able-bodied.
-
35:00
It's not weird when you see someone with a
-
35:03
hearing aid or someone with a disability, wearing technology.
-
35:07
We accept it.
-
35:08
And it makes them kind of awesome and that's okay.
-
35:11
But, the thing about wearable technology and the important thing when actually
-
35:16
desi, designing devices like this is that they still have to be inconspicuous.
-
35:21
Even wearable technology for disability, the idea is you want it to be more
-
35:26
and more invisible so, while early iterations might be very conspicuous.
-
35:32
Ideally it's like Roddy the Rod Piper and They
-
35:34
Live, everyone's gonna know you have sunglasses on at night.
-
35:37
In that movie, they end up becoming contact lenses.
-
35:41
That is when the device really gets awesome.
-
35:44
So you can fight aliens with contacts, no one knows it, everything's great.
-
35:50
So, again, these three, three use cases.
-
35:53
One thing you might be wondering is, okay, is
-
35:56
something like Google Glass really only just a practical device?
-
36:01
What about all the use cases that, you know, the media's talking about.
-
36:06
You see you know.
-
36:08
People like the New York Times coming up with apps of, yeah it's gonna
-
36:13
be awesome, you can get news on your face while you're on the go.
-
36:17
There was a series where a bunch of journalists, all tested it out.
-
36:21
You'd see, an in gadget journalist walking down the street reading the
-
36:24
New York Times and they would say, yeah this is really cool.
-
36:27
I can get headlines, I just got an email notification, yeah, yeah.
-
36:30
This is, this is awesome.
-
36:32
Right and so, is that something again that
-
36:35
we see traditionally in science fiction, I would argue
-
36:38
no, unless it is kind of nightmarish, but,
-
36:42
if you think about it within the framework of.
-
36:46
These three key areas, right?
-
36:49
Got a job to do, want my hands free, to do it, I'm mobile and
-
36:53
shouldn't use my hands or avert my eyes
-
36:56
impaired and wanna do what able-bodied people do.
-
36:59
Could there be a context for a brand like New York Times, building apps for.
-
37:05
Wearable devices like Google Glass.
-
37:07
And, I would say, absolutely.
-
37:10
If you design an app for impairment, let's say.
-
37:14
It ends up being a completely
-
37:16
different design problem than designing something for.
-
37:19
I've got a job to do and need my hands free to do it or, I'm mobile.
-
37:24
And right now, we've got, an app for I'm mobile, so
-
37:27
I can read the news while walking down the street, which I
-
37:30
would argue is not a problem that most, anyone has and
-
37:35
not one that can't be solved by just pulling your phone out.
-
37:37
It's not really that, it is dangerous to.
-
37:40
You know, read with your phone while crossing the street.
-
37:42
But, it's not a huge, huge problem.
-
37:44
But impairment, let's say you can't use your hands.
-
37:48
If you could read the New York Times from your face, that
-
37:50
could be really, really pretty cool, but a completely different design problem.
-
37:54
Again, different kind of budget line would come from the New York Times.
-
37:57
The design team would approach it completely differently.
-
38:00
You'd have more focus on voice commands and other things.
-
38:02
So.
-
38:02
Again it's really important to know what context, which we are designing for.
-
38:07
Because when we're not designing for really,
-
38:10
really important problems that people actually have.
-
38:14
It ends up being, you know, we have nightmares and then we also have comedy.
-
38:18
We're, we're mocking this.
-
38:20
We think this stuff is really, really silly.
-
38:22
You, you hear people talking about Google Glass
-
38:24
and it's not usually in a context of.
-
38:27
That's so cool.
-
38:27
I want one.
-
38:28
It's usually, what's the point?
-
38:30
Or we, you know, we just mock it, like on Saturday Night Live.
-
38:34
But, the thing is, it's starting to be adopted.
-
38:38
We can mock it all we want, but you
-
38:40
have, so for example, the New York City Police Department.
-
38:44
They're doing a, a test on right now of, of Google Glass.
-
38:47
Is it creepy, nightmarish, dystopian?
-
38:50
I would say yes, maybe, [LAUGH] maybe a little bit.
-
38:53
But they're not thinking of it like that, it's helping them do
-
38:56
their jo, they're gonna see if it can help them do their job.
-
38:59
But, already just from recording on the go whether
-
39:02
you're violating human rights or not, they do that.
-
39:05
Police officers do that in the United States, so if they can do
-
39:09
it a little bit more easily, why wouldn't they adopt devices like this?
-
39:14
Because, you know, when you think about new technology, right?
-
39:17
So,
-
39:20
if it helps, helps you do stuff.
-
39:22
We can mock the Segway all, all we want.
-
39:25
But, it's being adopted.
-
39:27
Police forces across the world are adopting
-
39:29
Segways because it helps them do their job.
-
39:32
Are we as consumers running out to by the newest Segway?
-
39:35
No.
-
39:37
Absolutely not.
-
39:38
Did Segway hope that we would all run out
-
39:41
to buy a Segway when they first thought of it?
-
39:44
Absolutely, but again it's a different type of context.
-
39:49
Not really necessary for every day life.
-
39:52
So, in terms of this type of technology being
-
39:56
adopted again, I would argue that yes, resistance is futile.
-
40:01
At least it could be a little bit amusing if not, you know, creepy.
-
40:05
We can hopefully laugh at it which is, is great.
-
40:08
But it's gonna be, the future.
-
40:11
It's our job to make sure that we design responsibly.
-
40:15
That we think about the context in which people are actually gonna use it.
-
40:19
And that we do what designers, developers and
-
40:22
technologists do every day, which is solve problems,
-
40:25
not just throw things out into the world
-
40:28
cuz they're cool, even though that's really fun.
-
40:31
Throw things out into the world because they're cool
-
40:33
and they solve problems that people, we actually know have.
-
40:38
Thank you.
-
40:42
[APPLAUSE]
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