Yet again, I read a post on The Times website relating to the actually (for me) quite exciting opportunities that Google Glass presents. As is so often the way, however, the possibilities suggested in the piece left me pretty cold.
So here’s my response and challenge to the ladies and gents at Google (not that I’m expecting to ever to from them):
You know, I’m physically pretty limited. I have type II spinal muscular atrophy, I’m coming up to 47 and, consequently, while in pretty good health, starting to rely quite heavily on technology (for example, I’m writing this using the latest Dragon NaturallySpeaking software—software I use to write all my novels, emails, blog posts … well, you get the picture). … Now, I see articles like this, time and again, and get pretty excited by the possibilities—only to be, consistently, extremely disappointed when I read about being able to “race” someone who has already ran 5 miles in a city on the other side of the world, augmented reality software that can tell me where to buy the ripest watermelon and so on. … There are some truly life changing possibilities to hardware/software such as this, for some of us, at least, but as long as companies such as Google continue to think in such blinkered (see what I did there?) terms, with the focus on profit and profit-making apps, the full potential will never be realised. … If the ladies and gents at Google REALLY want to make this hardware truly valuable … here’s my challenge: contact me. I’m pretty easy to find. I guarantee I can suggest numerous ways, not only limited to assistive technology, that will pretty much guarantee that Google Glass will find a considerable niche—at the very least.
© 2013 Gary William Murning