All right, welcome everybody.

I'm Donna and I'm gonna talk to you today

about two of my favorite things, science fiction and gadgets.

And yeah, I think it'll be fun, I mean, I had fun

working on this project, and I think it'll be a fun talk.

[SOUND] what I'm gonna talk to you about.

First, though, before we jump into, into the future, because

we all wanna get there, is, let me tell you a story about this guy.

This is, this is Martin Cooper and, he, does anyone know who he is?

Any, anything about him?

See one, one hand wanna shout out who, who he is

>> The cell phone guy

>> Yeah, the cell phone guy [LAUGH] he basically invented the first,

first cell phone for Motorola and he was also or is a huge geek

the thing about, Martin Cooper is that he idolized Captain Kirk.

So he was young in the 60s, loved Star Trek, loved Captain Kirk,

and was just, you know, kind of, kind of enamored, enamored of him.

And this was a thing at the time.

It's still even kind of a thing.

William Shatner's actually in Vegas.

Today, which is so crazy at the MGM.

You should go see him.

He's, got a finger or something.

I don't know, he does stuff, one man show.

But, people loved Captain Kirk, they even named their kids after him.

Kirk Cameron is named after Captain Kirk.

He was just, he was a thing, right?

And he did really cool awesome things

like, talk into this thing called a communicator.

And he would say things like, beam me up, Scotty.

And other cool awesome suave things.

And, like a lot of people, Martin wanted to kind of be like Captain Kirk.

He wanted to be all cool, hip, suave, and do stuff, like, communicate on the go,

and, the thing about communication is, it's something

that we all do, and in the 60s it's

something that people did as well, but it

just didn't happen in an electronic way on the

go, and Martin would watch Star Trek, watch

everyone with his communicator and think, I want that.

Why, why can't I do that, so like any good fan boy

or fan girl, he went ahead and he invented the first mobile phone.

And, the good thing is that Martin was not alone, he was not

the only one who wanted to do this mobile communication on the go, thing.

In fact fast forward many, many, many, many years later

and the whole world wants to do this mobile communication thing.

We all want to communicate on the go.

So why am I telling you about all of this, other than

I love Star Trek and I love tech and all of that?

It's because there's something that happens when we watch things on a

screen or read about them in stories and it excites the imagination.

We make it so.

And this is Picard, not Captain Kirk, but I'm more of a Picard person myself, so

I had to just, make sure that you know, we did give him some props today.

This is what he would always say when he would you know, being on the

deck and say make it so and everyone do whatever he asked them to do.

But [COUGH] make it so.

All right.

It's this idea that we see things in the movie.

Movies, fiction, it sparks our imagination and we

wanna do what characters on the screen are doing.

We want to be powerful like them.

We also want to do things, when they are kind of

familiar, and it amplifies what we know, to be true today.

Oh, I had a talk on the phone.

I wanna be able to talk on the phone, on the go to.

This is what in Sci-Fi scholar scholars call this concept of defamiliarization.

And so the idea with defamiliarization is that, in science fiction

what we are actually seeing is not the future and it is not other worlds.

It is our, world and is our present day that is re imagined.

It's re imagined in ways that either tell us, what's wrong with our

current society, time or place or that tell us, what things can be like.

And so, when we see, what things can be like on the

screen, we do what good humans do, we try to emulate it.

We try to built it and we go and we, we essentially.

Make it so, so this that's, that's me.

This is kind of what, what I do on a daily basis.

I am an advisor.

I am a teacher.

I'm a consultant.

I help businesses figure out what digital products should be, how to

make them better, how to, fix them when they're not working quite right.

How to build things that are completely new, how

to make sure, that everyone is on the right track.

And for the last few years, I've been focusing a lot in the mobile

and tablets face and so over the last year, one of the questions that

started coming up a lot from clients and students alike, is this, this

question that is you know, a lot of people are thinking about what, what about glass?

Is that something we need to start thinking about?

Do we need to, design for it?

How do we approach it?

What do we do?

And when people first started asking me this question.

My initial answer was, cuz I'm a futurist but I'm also a skeptic.

And my initial answer was, oh my God no stop.

It's the, it's the Segway for your face, don't

go there, this thing is gonna be a dud.

Right so actually if you Google Segway for your face that is what comes up.

[LAUGH] Basically lots of Google Glass photos

they're the top of the search results.

So, that was, you know, my initial thought was, this

thing is a really, really, really silly device, who wants it?

And you know, if you look, this is what Google wants us, wants us to think.

Oh no, everybody wants it, so this is from a promotional trailer.

[MUSIC]

>> Okay Glass.

Record

a video.

>> This is it, we're on in two minutes.

>> Okay Glass, hang out with the flying club.

Google photos of tiger heads.

Ready?

You ready?

>> Right there.

Okay Glass, take a picture.

>> So, right.

Take pictures of Google tiger heads and, you know, air balloons and

balley and all this really, really fun, fun crazy kind of consumerish stuff.

This is what Google was, has been telling us, yeah, this is, this is Glass.

This is the future.

This is totally awesome.

This is running through fields and throwing your kids up in

the air and taking pictures of them at the same time.

And so, you know, of course I'm thinking, well, okay,

something's not sitting right with this whole Google Glass thing.

We're all kind of, mocking it a little bit even

though all of our friends are thinking about buying one.

And lots of labs are buying it, and figuring out,

okay, yeah, we've got to build an App for Glass.

But, growing up with science fiction and having

watched many, many science fiction films through the years.

I also, the other thing about me, is I have film background.

I was a, film maker many years, while I also worked in Tech.

I have two film degrees, for, for some reasons.

So, it's what I do.

I watch, I watch movies and then I figure out what cool things we

can apply to, to the Tech, that we build and, you know, thinking about

it I, my reaction was no this is silly but also, we've seen this

prototyped in the movies a million times and Google wants us to see this.

But what I've always seen, throughout, my career watching

movies [LAUGH] is, is this, this is a still from Robocop.

And, this is in what what we call in

film dystopia, or we call in science fiction dystopia.

It's the opposite, of utopia.

It's the opposite of what we try to do as designers,

as technologists, as people who build cool digital things and software Apps.

Whatever we're working on, right?

Not good!

Why on earth, would Google be trying to tackle this thing that is supposed to

be so awesome and you know, daisies and

fields, when, dystopia is what we see, right?

Awesome, that's what Google says.

But, no.

So something, something, you know, wasn't quite sitting right with me at the time.

And I was ready to just spend some time doing a whole of research.

Going back, figuring out, all right.

What are all the instances of wearable face technology, in Sci-Fi

that have appeared over the last several decades and how is it treated?

What is this device really?

Now, one thing I need to qualify here is when I talk about Google Glass.

Have any of you ever used a Google Glass before?

Just a couple.

Oop, I see, I see one there.

Okay.

All right.

>> [LAUGH] Batteries dead.

>> Okay, that's what I was just gonna say.

The battery is dead.

Thank you.

I was just gonna ask you all a second question which is how is it.

So, Google Glass.

It kind of, sort of, sucks.

In it's current incarnation, it's a bit of a dumb device.

The battery barely lasts long enough for people to complete

the, the key tasks that they might be completing with it.

Which I will talk to you about.

It it has to be tethered.

It, also the screen is terrible.

I've used it and it, I've, it hurts my eyes.

I can barely get anything done.

Also there's a lot of sol, social stigma attached.

It's not where it could be right now.

So when I talk about Google Glass and I talk about wearable face technology.

I'm kind of jumping ahead into the future talking

about, what it could be if it worked really well.

In other words if the battery lasted, if it had some more connectivity, if it

had a little more power, if it

had different gestural commands and better voice commands.

If it also wasn't kind of a passive device and that have to be activated by us.

If it could just do things.

So, what, again, I'm talking about when I say can you Google Glasses, what are

device like that could be in the future not necessarily its current incarnation

but, going back through, [LAUGH] through this journey.

I started at at, at Stat Trek, which as I, I love it.

And you see a bunch of different instances of wearable

face technology in, in Star Trek, and they often fit.

Something like this.

So, I am gonna show you a trailer from Star Trek, The Next Generation.

It's an episode, called The Game.

>> A

harmless game becomes a dangerous addiction.

>> What if someone's trying to use the game for some purpose other than pleasure?

>> And the crude fall victim to its evil hypnotic power.

>> We can't trust anyone any more, not even the Captain.

>> Can Wesley rescue the crew from total mind control, or is he next?

>> We've got him, Captain.

>> Let go of me!

>> High Tech Nightmare on the next

exciting episode of Star Trek, The Next Generation.

[MUSIC]

>> That's right.

So, we have this utopia so far, basically film noir with robocop.

We have now, High Tech Nightmare.

This is still not good.

Why would anyone say yeah I wanna build one of those, this is so cool, right?

Still something's not sitting right and, a lot of the

instances of this high technology again are of this genera dystopia.

It's nightmare.

Things go very very wrong when there's technology on your face so.

[COUGH] Digging a little deeper all right.

The cyborgs.

The cyborgs are coming.

Doesn't sound very awesome right?

This is not what we do as technologists.

This is, a character from Star Trek as well, the Borg.

They are cybernetic beings that are connected and do very, very bad

things and they have, they have technology on their face as well.

Why would we want to be like this?

So, this is actually not something bad, according to Thad Starner.

Thad Starner is the lead engineer on the Google Glass team at Google, and

this is the title of an article, a kind of a treatise he wrote in 1993.

It was never published, because no one took it seriously.

He sent it to Wired Magazine.

Thought, oh my God, they're, they're gonna eat this up.

And they did not publish it.

It's, is basically a treaties for why, wearable face technology is going

to transform us for the better and we're gonna have an amazing, awesome future.

So, I'm gonna read you excerpt, from the treatise.

So in it, he says, at first only a

certain breed of technophile or time critical information consumer

would be interested in looking odd to gain the

power and convenience of such, such an interface would allow.

The computer professional.

These individuals use a computer every day and find it essential to do their work.

Even if the system was just sold as an expensive toy, a market may still exist.

So, a few key points I want to point out here.

The computer professional.

All right?

These individuals use a computer every day and find it essential to do there work.

And, the second point which is maybe as an expensive toy, this could hit.

This could tap into a market.

So, again I'm seeing all these dystopian visions of wearable face technology.

Okay what about toys?

Is Google Glass, could that be a toy?

Cuz again Google's going for the consumer market, not really talking

about professionals which I'll talk about in a moment, but first.

[INAUDIBLE] How where we'll face technology

toys are treated in science fiction.

So, I'm gonna show you a clip from Back to the Future part two.

>> Here you go.

>> Oh boy oh boy, Mom.

You sure can hydrate a pizza.

[INAUDIBLE]

>> Still waiting for the dehydrator, by the way.

>> I'm just worried about Jennifer.

Why isn't she home yet?

>> I'm not sure, where Jennifer is, Mom, [SOUND] she should

have been home hours ago, but having a hard time keeping track.

>> Hey, fruit!

>> Of her these days.

>> Fruit, please!

Thank you.

>> Aren't you and Jennifer getting along?

>> Oh, yeah, great, Mom, we're like a couple of teenagers, you know?

[SOUND].

Go ahead, [INAUDIBLE].

>> Dad, it's for you.

>> So, here we have it.

Google Glass, you can make phone calls from your face.

You can, play games from your face.

Awesome, right?

[LAUGH] No.

So it's, it's similar to dystopia, it's similar to film noir and nightmares.

This is comedy.

It's a send up.

It's, ridiculous.

We don't want this.

They look so silly, it's Michael J Fox playing, his

kids and the girl with the wig and the whole thing.

Right?

This is, again, is this the future that we see and think, oh my God I want

to be able to make phone calls from

my face while sitting at the, the breakfast table,

very very strange right so, a little bit

in the toy sphere they're teenagers, games communication now

does this kind of mockery stop us from

still trying to build these devices on your face?

No, we have a strong tradition of trying to build games

for your face even though we mock it in popular science fiction.

We have the Nintendo Virtual Boy from 1995 which, you know,

I know it's a collector's item, and I think that's totally awesome.

But it's, it never took off, except now, as a collector's item and a geek thing.

But, we still had Saga going for it.

We had Atari, going for it and we still have

Sony going for it, over and over and over again.

And each of these instances, never, never, never panned out.

The market just didn't exist.

Does it stop us.

No.

No.

We're still trying to, do something with this wearable face technology.

We have Facebook buying Oculus Rift for two billion dollars.

Which there's some strategy behind that.

No one's quite sure what that strategy is, but

I will still argue that Oculus Rift, a geek sensation.

With 2.5 million, I forget, $2.5 million I think was

the backing on Kickstarter, even though they didn't need that much.

It was only 10,000 backers, that got it to that point.

It's not a mass-market device that the general public cares about.

So again, compare and contrast that to Google saying, oh my God, Glass, it's

the wave of the future, it's a fashion item, it's gonna come in different colors.

You can play with your kids, and take pictures.

It's awesome, play games, do whatever you need to do, right?

[SOUND] Perhaps not mass market.

It has not worked before.

And we just mock it over and over and over again in the movies.

So, if games in your face doesn't necessarily make sense.

It's either comedy or nightmare, what about this professional.

This computer professional.

So I'm gonna straight up list what Thad Starner lists in his treaties.

All the different types of computer

professionals, who could benefit from wearable face

technology that helps you do things like, take notes without looking at a screen.

Manage appointments on the go.

Discover precedents in a court trial.

Look up info, while seeing patients, automatic access to information, get up

to the date minute stock information, yada, yada on and on and on.

So, I'll tell you one thing, takes notes without looking at a screen.

We had a conversation loss setting up my, my laptop.

just, you know, 20 minutes ago.

And I typed something real quick, and the comment was, wow, you can

type without looking at the keyboard, and you know, I'm, I'm proud of that.

I can type without looking at the keyboard.

Most of us can type without looking at a keyboard.

Not everybody.

It happens.

But, it's not a problem that we generally have.

A lot of these are problems that we have, but not all.

So, if you frame Thei Starters treaty

something that was important in 1993 right?

Taking notes, on the go, getting information on the go.

These all were 1993 problems, they were really, really, really big problems.

Get a precedent while your on, in a trial.

You couldn't really do that in 1993.

Because this is what 1993 was.

You started to have these cool portable devices.

We have the Newton, we have.

Laptop computers, it was starting to look really rosy and great.

But what you didn't have was internet connectivity.

And so, what a lot of people like Thad Starner started to do, was jump

ahead, millennia into their imaginations and think, wow well.

To get connectivity, internet in your face.

Of course, these were, these were duds, now these

didn't seem to help anyone like the futurist, Thad

Starner and, a bunch of other people who have

been playing with cyborg technology for, for a while.

But, if you think about a lot of the used cases that he talks about, what

we have today, we've surpassed this and we

now have, things like iPhones, iPads, Android devices.

We just have mobile technology everywhere and it's all connected.

And you know what?

We use these devices, on the go.

We do things like pull up information.

When we need it, we can take notes on the fly.

We can kind of do a whole lot of stuff with

our mobile devices and companies like Apple and Android know this.

They are heavily marketing towards enterprise and computer professionals.

They want that market.

There was a statistic that came out recently, Apple.

Has finally cornered the enterprise market, which no one thought they would.

And most people now use iPhones in the enterprise.

Not really a problem.

So, still, again, what on earth would Google be

doing sinking all this money into this technology that,

it seems like is either scary dystopian or we

just don't need, because we already have solutions to them?

So.

Digging a little bit deeper, into, Science Fiction.

What I did find were three really distinct use

cases where, actually the technology is kind of awesome.

So, I'm gonna walk you through each of these three.

And, what I'm calling it is the, the face text, [LAUGH] the face-tech context.

And, this is probably the, the, the

wordiest three points you'll ever see ever.

But, I'm gonna give a, a, a nod to Josh Clark and

his mobile mindset because, I like frameworks of three and I like.

Global mindset.

Basically, the idea is that there are three ways in which

we use mobile devices, I'm microtasking, I'm local, and I'm bored.

So again my question is well, the

face-tech context, what, what would that be?

Cuz it has to be something.

These crazy nerds in Silicon Valley, they're not.

Idiots.

[LAUGH] They're onto something, what is it?

So, but first, again, very wordy and if you have any recommendations as to

how I can shorten these, awesome, come up to me afterwards, I, I love ideas.

But, the first, I've got a job to do and want my hands free to do it.

So, this idea of work context, right.

Who has a job to do and needs hands free?

Soldiers.

So we have Terminator.

He needs his hands free so he can shoot people, and

beat people up, and ride motorcycles, and do really really cool things.

Terminator kinda kicks ass.

We like terminator, he's kind of a Frankenstein character

who we, we, we sort of, you know, love.

And he has technology in his face.

And he's pretty much a cyborg, half, you know, part human, part, part technology.

Another Frankenstein type of character, RoboCop.

We kinda love RoboCop too.

We love him so much that we're bringing him back for a, for a remake.

We love these characters.

And they do cool, cool, cool stuff, with augmented vision technology in their face.

So you can do things like, play and record videos.

Police officers, need to do that.

It's part of their job, often.

RoboCop can get the prime directive, right?

Can access information on the go.

Very, very important.

He needs this to do his, his job.

So again, very specific context of, I have a job

to do and this is gonna help me do my job.

When you're a soldier, if you're a police officer, it's not

that crazy to have augmenting technology helping you do your job.

So, suddenly what we see here is, is what is otherwise dystopian contexts, right,

this film noir, these creepy films that

are, really essentially horror films, they're horror sci-fi.

But just like Frankenstein, we love the main character and they're kind of.

You know, whether or not they chose that, that type of

life of cyborg living, they do cool stuff, so, the second

context, this is something again, very wordy but I'm gonna call

I'm mobile and shouldn't use my hands or avert my eyes.

So, this is something that we see a lot in science fiction as well.

With RoboCop we have, mobile navigation.

And you can basically get directions on the go.

See where you're going.

Everything's overlaid.

It's wonderful.

You have, Iron Man.

The same thing.

You can fly through the, you know, the sky and get wherever you need to go.

And you can also check your email at the same time.

Awesome [LAUGH].

But what was important is that you got to where you needed.

To get to.

And, you did it without necessarily averting your eyes.

And you can use your hands to, you know,

direct yourself while, while you fly and do stuff.

And, this concept is something that we see in science fiction a lot.

It's something that we see in the real world a lot.

It's this concept of the heads up display

or the HUD for short and that's essentially

what something like Google Glass could be, again

it's not there yet, it's not true augmented vision.

It just is a little screen in the corner of your vision.

But what it could be is something that helps

people, like soldiers or military or anyone who's just

traveling at a really, really high speed and really

should not avert their eyes or move their hands.

Not that foreign, no longer very dystopian even though.

The instances of these images in sci-fi might be in dystopian films.

So, again speed, motion, is the second context.

The third, third context is again, very wordy but I'm gonna

call it, I'm impaired and wanna do what able-bodied people can do.

So here, we have a, you know, I think this is a question that I, I had a lot.

Which is.

Well this is always so dystopian, these images are awful, nightmarish.

What about someone like Geordie, from Star Trek.

He's kind of awesome and in fact, in the episode The Game, where that crazy

Google Glass takes over the ship and, and

there's mind control and everyone's mind is controlled.

He's the only one who survives that whole fiasco because, his visor is awesome.

He can't see without it, he can see suddenly, it's pretty, pretty cool.

So, one example, another, and I'm gonna call this a

kind of disability, this is from They Live, it's a

John Carpenter movie from the 80s and it's kind of,

if you haven't seen it, I just, go watch it immediately.

But, the idea is that you have these alien invaders on Earth who have been living

dormant for decades and they've taken over the

planet, and you never know who they are.

Until one day, Roddy the Rod Piper he's in it.

He finds these amazing super sunglasses and he puts them on and

he sees that, half of the people out there are actually aliens.

And, they are telling you to do things.

Like the billboards actually say, to obey and

consume and do all this other crazy stuff.

And worst yet, they're all using iWatches.

And it's awful.

So, he has to save the day.

He becomes kind of a, you know a

soldier type but, kind of, you know, this visibility.

In this case, he didn't see without these glasses.

He wasn't fully able-bodied like the, the ruling class of this world.

So.

Again this kind of concept of, I can be really really awesome, with this thing.

But, in this instance, what happens, sunglasses

at night start to get really weird.

And people start realizing oh.

He's got the sunglasses.

So, even face technology that makes you

awesome still can't always be so conspicuous.

But, again, make you able-bodied.

So in terms of Thad Sterner's break down, if we look at this

a little bit deeper, are there any use cases that he talks about?

In other words, was he onto something, perhaps.

Are there use cases.

That might make sense.

That Google might be thinking about, or that they maybe are not thinking about and

are omitting from all of their PR material, and all of their crazy videos.

That, might make something like this actually useful.

So.

Breaking it down, a little bit, we have

okay, doctors, looking up information while seeing patients.

Does it fit a context, yes, they've got a

job to do and maybe they shouldn't avert their eyes.

Although the jury's out on something like this because.

Do you absolutely have to use face technology if you're a doctor and talking

to a patient, or can you pull out a tablet or a clipboard and do it that way?

So, it's important to note, even if it

makes things easier, there are certain interpersonal rules

that we have as humans where, you know,

sometimes maybe, I shouldn't have hurt my eyes but.

If there's this funny thing in between my eyes and your eyes, it

can be an affront so, you do need to be careful with that.

But, scientists, automatic access to information, sure, someone

in a lab, a surgeon, someone doing stuff

where you need information in the moment and

you might have your hands busy with something else.

Great.

Repair people get overlaid visual instructions.

Why not?

That could be really cool.

There, I had a, a contractor over a few months ago and he was

talking about putting a, a closet into one of my closets, and he said.

The instruction booklet, if I have to put

the closet together and keep going back to the

instruction booklet, cuz I've never done this type

of closet, it's gonna take me twice as long.

So I will charge you twice as much.

How cool would it be if you just had

instructions overlaid and you could just put it together, right?

He would get paid less, but that's another story.

I would get to pay less.

[COUGH] >> Perhaps.

Or you would be smart and charge twice as much and

take half the time but again, could save time and energy.

Construction engineers, right, visual instructions data in

the field, lot of different contexts so,

surgery.

We are starting to see stories like this, surgeons are starting to use Google Glass.

In the operating theatre.

Again, it's currently not the greatest device, so their batteries

die very quickly, but they're able to stream videos, of operations.

And this is something that's very important to surgeons with learning.

They broadcast a lot.

Kinda like, we broadcast [LAUGH] a lot of, you know, case studies, for example.

They broadcast while they're doing things.

Could it be something that someday, a device like

Glass could actually overlay real information on the go.

And have better voice commands [UNKNOWN] commands.

Absolutely, and you know the thing about surgeons and face technology and

doctors and face technology, is they already wear technology, on their face.

They've been doing it forever since technology on your face came out and

was a thing and they don't look silly, in that context, when they're wearing scrubs.

They're in a theater, they're doing stuff, not that crazy, so of course, why not.

In the field, firefighters, construction engineers.

They all wear technology on their face already.

Could it help firefighters so they don't have to

look at maps and figure out where they're going?

Could you be in a building and just have automatic information telling you

what floor you're on, where you're going, where the nearest exit is, where there's.

You know, there is heat, body heat, million and million

applications, does this firefighter look silly wearing something on his head?

Oh, no we are used to it, and again he's got a job to do, it's all good.

High speed, mobility.

So, extreme sports.

There is a lot of technology currently being developed for, even consumers.

Skiers.

It's a huge market.

Professional skiers?

Sure, they would go for something, that's their job.

But even consumers, they get into gadgets.

They'll spend a few thousand dollars on something that

might help them on you know, a long trek

or figure out speed, or how to bet, you

know, get better jumps and all this other stuff.

There is a lot out there.

Again, Glass can't do much for skiers right now, but.

It could and there are developers working on even more specialized devices just for

skiers so again, mobility, great jobs, awesome.

Immobility.

We're starting to see this as wow, this is from a, an article that Google put

out, that talked about how Google Glass is helping people with disabilities.

Do things, like access information on the go.

That, where they, they couldn't before.

So this is, someone who really was otherwise very, very limited and

now can do things like get directions or pull up voice commands.

Even just talking on the phone when you don't have hands, motion, coordination.

Anything like that.

It's a really, really big deal.

So again, disability, something we see in

the movies and something that absolutely makes sense.

But, if you also think about this whole concept

of defamiliarization, whereas science fiction in the movies, just tells

us what's going on today, it's reflecting our current society

and what could be and how it could be better.

This is something that sci-fi didn't make up.

And necessarily, we have this, we have a strong tradition of developing technology,

wearable technology for people who want to be able more able-bodied.

It's not weird when you see someone with a

hearing aid or someone with a disability, wearing technology.

We accept it.

And it makes them kind of awesome and that's okay.

But, the thing about wearable technology and the important thing when actually

desi, designing devices like this is that they still have to be inconspicuous.

Even wearable technology for disability, the idea is you want it to be more

and more invisible so, while early iterations might be very conspicuous.

Ideally it's like Roddy the Rod Piper and They

Live, everyone's gonna know you have sunglasses on at night.

In that movie, they end up becoming contact lenses.

That is when the device really gets awesome.

So you can fight aliens with contacts, no one knows it, everything's great.

So, again, these three, three use cases.

One thing you might be wondering is, okay, is

something like Google Glass really only just a practical device?

What about all the use cases that, you know, the media's talking about.

You see you know.

People like the New York Times coming up with apps of, yeah it's gonna

be awesome, you can get news on your face while you're on the go.

There was a series where a bunch of journalists, all tested it out.

You'd see, an in gadget journalist walking down the street reading the

New York Times and they would say, yeah this is really cool.

I can get headlines, I just got an email notification, yeah, yeah.

This is, this is awesome.

Right and so, is that something again that

we see traditionally in science fiction, I would argue

no, unless it is kind of nightmarish, but,

if you think about it within the framework of.

These three key areas, right?

Got a job to do, want my hands free, to do it, I'm mobile and

shouldn't use my hands or avert my eyes

impaired and wanna do what able-bodied people do.

Could there be a context for a brand like New York Times, building apps for.

Wearable devices like Google Glass.

And, I would say, absolutely.

If you design an app for impairment, let's say.

It ends up being a completely

different design problem than designing something for.

I've got a job to do and need my hands free to do it or, I'm mobile.

And right now, we've got, an app for I'm mobile, so

I can read the news while walking down the street, which I

would argue is not a problem that most, anyone has and

not one that can't be solved by just pulling your phone out.

It's not really that, it is dangerous to.

You know, read with your phone while crossing the street.

But, it's not a huge, huge problem.

But impairment, let's say you can't use your hands.

If you could read the New York Times from your face, that

could be really, really pretty cool, but a completely different design problem.

Again, different kind of budget line would come from the New York Times.

The design team would approach it completely differently.

You'd have more focus on voice commands and other things.

So.

Again it's really important to know what context, which we are designing for.

Because when we're not designing for really,

really important problems that people actually have.

It ends up being, you know, we have nightmares and then we also have comedy.

We're, we're mocking this.

We think this stuff is really, really silly.

You, you hear people talking about Google Glass

and it's not usually in a context of.

That's so cool.

I want one.

It's usually, what's the point?

Or we, you know, we just mock it, like on Saturday Night Live.

But, the thing is, it's starting to be adopted.

We can mock it all we want, but you

have, so for example, the New York City Police Department.

They're doing a, a test on right now of, of Google Glass.

Is it creepy, nightmarish, dystopian?

I would say yes, maybe, [LAUGH] maybe a little bit.

But they're not thinking of it like that, it's helping them do

their jo, they're gonna see if it can help them do their job.

But, already just from recording on the go whether

you're violating human rights or not, they do that.

Police officers do that in the United States, so if they can do

it a little bit more easily, why wouldn't they adopt devices like this?

Because, you know, when you think about new technology, right?

So,

if it helps, helps you do stuff.

We can mock the Segway all, all we want.

But, it's being adopted.

Police forces across the world are adopting

Segways because it helps them do their job.

Are we as consumers running out to by the newest Segway?

No.

Absolutely not.

Did Segway hope that we would all run out

to buy a Segway when they first thought of it?

Absolutely, but again it's a different type of context.

Not really necessary for every day life.

So, in terms of this type of technology being

adopted again, I would argue that yes, resistance is futile.

At least it could be a little bit amusing if not, you know, creepy.

We can hopefully laugh at it which is, is great.

But it's gonna be, the future.

It's our job to make sure that we design responsibly.

That we think about the context in which people are actually gonna use it.

And that we do what designers, developers and

technologists do every day, which is solve problems,

not just throw things out into the world

cuz they're cool, even though that's really fun.

Throw things out into the world because they're cool

and they solve problems that people, we actually know have.

Thank you.

[APPLAUSE]