Fidel Figures it Out: What will Google goggles do?


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SALT LAKE CITY — If you think texting while walking is dangerous, just wait until everybody starts wearing Google's futuristic, Internet-connected goggles.

There's been a lot of buzz ever since Google gave a glimpse of "Project Glass" in a video and blog post.

They aren't on the market yet, so I made my own prototype Google goggles just to get the idea, well, into my head. I'm imaging a smartphone you wear on your face, but more intuitive.

The real Google goggles will tell you what you might want to know about what you see. Information about your surroundings pop up before your eyes.

What if the moment you approached TRAX you instantly saw the train schedule?

Knowing the calorie count of everything you might eat is also a possibility, one that may just kill your taste buds.

Hate running into people you can't quite place? Not a problem with these glasses: Facebook profiles could instantly appear.

But there might be a bit of information overload. With so much information literally in your field of view, could it become too much?

I went to KSL's own tech guru, Randall Bennett, for some answers.

"I think the most interesting part of the Google glasses is they are a first showing of what wearable computing could be," Bennett said.

Wearable computing is a concept that has emerging for some time, alive and well before that in science fiction. It's the idea that eventually gadgets will become a part of us.

"The ability to overlay data specifically, so that it takes data off a computer and brings it into the real world; to me, that is a key part of this," Bennett said. "Whether the implementation matches exactly, we are not sure. But it is something we can picture ourselves using."

But how is Google going to make money off these glasses? Will the company be able to not only track but see your every move? Will ads start popping up for everything I look at?

"It is hard to say whether Google would use this as a way to gather more data about you, or whether they would use this as, more like Apple, where they just sell you a product," Bennett said.

As a product, I love the concept. But if Google ends up knowing more about me than even my wife does, I'm not sure if I am ready for that world.

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Steve Fidel

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