I’ve recently been reading a lot about Google Glass – a futuristic looking pair of glasses that have a camera and computer built right in. The video from Google really got me thinking about the possible applications of this kind of technology.

Up until recently a video camera was something you had to specifically bring with you when you went somewhere. If you are anything like me you have twenty minutes of camera footage of that time you went to Disney World buried in a cardboard box somewhere, and that’s about it. Then all of a sudden I was carrying a video camera around in my pocket all day long in the form of a smart phone. In the last year alone I’ve captured more video than the entire rest of my life combined. Most of them are 30 seconds long, an amusing snippet of that time we bumped into an escaped pig while walking the dog, or me jumping off the dock. The fact that I can capture video whenever I like means that I do.

The one thing my videos have in common is that they are static – I’m quite intentionally trying to keep the camera still, which means I am stood still too, a passive observer. I’d never really given this much thought until I saw the Google glass video and noticed just how dynamic it looks. The fact that you have both hands free means you can do highly complex things like fly a plane or fling yourself around on a trapeze (I do those things all the time!) and because the camera is tracking your field of view it creates a highly immersive video. I know that its a marketing video and the final output may look quite different, but I’m still pretty excited. I can’t wait to go skiing with a pair of these on! I think this is going to make for some highly interesting YouTube videos.

This doesn’t even touch upon the training aspects. I’m a keen squash player but I have picked up many ‘bad habits’ over the years. I’m not going to bring a camera and tripod to our Sunday training sessions to assess my game, but eye protection is mandatory. Throw on a pair of these glasses, hit record and I can re-live the game over and over, looking for mistakes or poor shot selection. I’m willing to bet that it will be easier to learn from a video that is my perspective of the game than it is from a wide angled abstract shot of me on the court making the exact same mistakes.

The one piece I am still unsure of is just how popular these specs are going to be on a day to day basis. The reality is you are going to look pretty daft wearing them. I’m worried that these will become the bluetooth headset of glasses, very practical and functional but an immediate ‘twat point’ for anyone wearing them.

I look forward to getting my hands on a store demo later this year and trying them out for myself!