Goodbye smartphone! The future belongs to face computers. It sounds strange as you write it, but current developments lead one to believe that this future is not as far away as it seems.
With experiments in the smart glass direction, Google, at least with their new attempt at Google Glass, but also Facebook and Ray-Ban, as well as Snap – the developers of Snapchat – are proving that the dream of supercomputers in our field of vision is not as far away as it seemed at the beginning.
In the beginning, existing smart glasses were really far from a good solution. They were heavy, underpowered, and the fact that they had a camera continuously pointed at the environment didn’t help either.
However, with the latest generations and the first reviews of Facebook / Ray-Ban sunglasses, a new wind seems to be on its way. Of course, one must not forget the many negative effects of smart glasses when considering this. Despite everything, you give yourself into the hands of tech corporations, which with the launch of the glasses see everything you see and hear everything you hear. But with the smartphone, we are actually not that far away from that and yet it is our daily companion.
But despite all the aspects, the advantages are enormous. You literally bring your digital surroundings into your field of vision. Attention shifts from constantly staring at the ground while we stare at our smartphones to more open exchanges. Finally, technologies such as augmented reality and mixed reality can come into play and unleash their added value that was previously not really tangible.
We still have a long way to go before smart glasses are truly fit for society. But the current experiments by technology companies large and small raise hopes for a new future. It will still take some time and especially the social acceptance will take some time. But then we will be faced with a revolution that I regard with respect, but which I am also looking forward to.
