The future, revisited: a more realistic take on Google’s Project Glass?

A couple of days ago, I pointed readers towards Project Glass, an interesting--if perhaps a little stereotypically geeky--project from Google. Project Glass aims to create an augmented reality, heads-up display device suitable for use by the general public.

In our earlier article I linked to Google's official concept video, which suggested a variety of possible uses for a wearable, AR device. I must admit that something struck me as not quite right about the video, although I couldn't put my finger on it at the time--until, that is, an email arrived from my colleague, features editor Arthur Etchells.

Arthur spotted another video on YouTube that added that certain, missing something, and I'm sure you'll agree that the result is much more convincing. Without any further ado, I present 'ADmented Reality by Google', a too-close-to-the-truth parody created by YouTube user rebelliouspixels.

And it's not just the ads themselves that struck a chord with us. Another funny--if perhaps unintentional--aspect of the parody was pointed out by senior editor Shawn Barnett: the guy in the video completely ignores all the ads flashing about him, in much the same manner that we suspect people treat supposedly (but not really) "relevant" ads when browsing web pages. Ads that are truly relevant to what people are reading about on the page are usually welcome, but so much of what's supposedly "relevant" is just noise in the ether...

Got any thoughts you'd like to share on the viability of Google's Project Glass, wearable AR devices in general, and how they might impact your photography in the future? Drop news editor Mike Tomkins a tweet; I'd love to hear from you!