Google Glass: Fashion statement or faux pas
People wearing Google's glasses are transported to a strange new world in which the internet is always present as they view the world. But for people looking at the people wearing those glasses, the view is even stranger - someone wearing a computer processor, a battery and a tiny screen on her face.
As Google and other companies begin to build wearable technology like glasses and watches, an industry not known for its fashion sense is facing a new challenge - how to be stylish. Design has always been important to technology, with products like Apple's becoming fashion statements, but designing hardware that people will wear like jewellery is an entirely different task.
In a sign of how acute the challenge is for Google, it is negotiating with Warby Parker, a start-up company that sells trendy eyeglasses, to help it design more fashionable frames.
They join others that are grappling with these design challenges, including big companies like Apple, Nike and Jawbone and smaller ones like Pebble, MetaWatch and Misfit Wearables.
On Wednesday, Google began accepting applications to choose a small group to buy an early version of the glasses, called Google Glass. It hopes to sell Glass to the broader public this year.
The glasses reach the internet through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which connects to the wireless service on a user's cellphone.
The glasses respond when a user speaks, touches the frame or moves the head. For Google, the glasses are a major step toward its dream of what is known as ubiquitous computing - the idea that computers and the internet will be accessible anywhere and we can ask them to do things without lifting a finger.
Google warns of technical bumps as people use the glasses, but it has already solved many of the technical challenges. The biggest obstacle now is getting people to use them. Although Google employees have been spotted wearing them, they receive strange looks.
Then there is that fashion hurdle. The frames now look like wire wraparound glasses with hardware along one side.
"If you look at other wearable pieces of functional technology, there's a reason they're not ubiquitous. There's a reason we all make fun of someone wearing a Bluetooth or a BlackBerry holster," said Daniella Yacobovsky, co-founder of BaubleBar, an online jewelry retailer. "Is it useful? Of course it is. Do I look like a tool? Yeah. I'm not going to wear it."
Google is doing other things to recruit the fashion-savvy, particularly women. It could open retail stores where people can try on the glasses, according to news reports. At Fashion Week last year, models wore coloured versions on the runway for Diane von Furstenberg.
Next, Google says it is looking for "bold, creative individuals" who want to try the glasses. People who want to apply have until Wednesday to write a post on Google Plus or Twitter telling what they would do with it.
"The big question is, why on earth would you put something like this on your head?" Babak Parviz, the leader of the Google Glass team, said in a previous interview. "If you do things that are very useful, it becomes fashionable."
People wearing Google's glasses are transported to a strange new world in which the internet is always present as they view the world. But for people looking at the people wearing those glasses, the view is even stranger - someone wearing a computer processor, a battery and a tiny screen on her face.
As Google and other companies begin to build wearable technology like glasses and watches, an industry not known for its fashion sense is facing a new challenge - how to be stylish. Design has always been important to technology, with products like Apple's becoming fashion statements, but designing hardware that people will wear like jewellery is an entirely different task.
In a sign of how acute the challenge is for Google, it is negotiating with Warby Parker, a start-up company that sells trendy eyeglasses, to help it design more fashionable frames.
They join others that are grappling with these design challenges, including big companies like Apple, Nike and Jawbone and smaller ones like Pebble, MetaWatch and Misfit Wearables.
On Wednesday, Google began accepting applications to choose a small group to buy an early version of the glasses, called Google Glass. It hopes to sell Glass to the broader public this year.
The glasses reach the internet through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which connects to the wireless service on a user's cellphone.
The glasses respond when a user speaks, touches the frame or moves the head. For Google, the glasses are a major step toward its dream of what is known as ubiquitous computing - the idea that computers and the internet will be accessible anywhere and we can ask them to do things without lifting a finger.
Google warns of technical bumps as people use the glasses, but it has already solved many of the technical challenges. The biggest obstacle now is getting people to use them. Although Google employees have been spotted wearing them, they receive strange looks.
Then there is that fashion hurdle. The frames now look like wire wraparound glasses with hardware along one side.
"If you look at other wearable pieces of functional technology, there's a reason they're not ubiquitous. There's a reason we all make fun of someone wearing a Bluetooth or a BlackBerry holster," said Daniella Yacobovsky, co-founder of BaubleBar, an online jewelry retailer. "Is it useful? Of course it is. Do I look like a tool? Yeah. I'm not going to wear it."
Google is doing other things to recruit the fashion-savvy, particularly women. It could open retail stores where people can try on the glasses, according to news reports. At Fashion Week last year, models wore coloured versions on the runway for Diane von Furstenberg.
Next, Google says it is looking for "bold, creative individuals" who want to try the glasses. People who want to apply have until Wednesday to write a post on Google Plus or Twitter telling what they would do with it.
"The big question is, why on earth would you put something like this on your head?" Babak Parviz, the leader of the Google Glass team, said in a previous interview. "If you do things that are very useful, it becomes fashionable."
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