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The Physicality of Glass
What the first moments of wearing Google Glass feels like - And how it’s helping some people to hear again.
Something I hadn’t realized about Google Glass until I picked mine up today is the physicality of the fitting. The folks at Google want your Glass to fit right, of course. They don’t want you walking around looking like the nutty professor, sure, but it also aids somewhat with the usability of Glass to ensure it fits you properly.
So it took about 20 minutes to fit mine properly. And for a good part of that time,I had two (very nice, helpful) employees fussing and tinkering with Glass to refine my fit. This isn’t an issue you experience, of course, picking up an iPhone, a tablet, a laptop. It’s much more personal. A person’s facial structure affects Glass, just like it would another pair of glasses, sure, but some adjustment is also necessary to ensure proper screen placement. You notice that one of your ears is lower than the other, so you have to twist Glass’s titanium frame this way and that to compensate for it. You’re reminded that your nose is a little larger (in my case), when you have to adjust the nose clips to fit you. An iPhone, you pick up. Glass, yes, it seems obvious, but you wear it. And you feel that.
Of course, presently, Glass’s form factor weighs somewhat heavily on the right-hand side. It’s not as heavy as you might think, but it’s enough that I’m sure it contributes to some difficulty in balancing it on your face. No doubt, future versions will be sleeker, lighter, easier to wear and balance.
Now, for something much more fascinating. Apparently, some people being fitted for Glass are hearing for the first time in their right ear. The Glass employee who fitted me (that’s her above) said some people who had become deaf in their right ears are now finding they can hear Google Glass on that side of their heads. How is that? Well, that thicker, right-hand side section of Glass it fitted with a “bone conduction transducer” - in other words, a speaker which transmits sound through the bone behind your ear. Since it doesn't cover your ear at all, Glass does this without blocking the environmental noise around you - avoiding a potential safety issue. (It may make wearing Glass while cycling or driving less dangerous…
