苹果(Apple) iPhone热潮就像是海啸一样，它是有血有肉的“下一件大事”，伴随着市场传言的轰鸣声，警告其来临；而 Google 的“眼镜”计划(Project Glass)则不同，他们以细火慢炖、半开放性的“社群设计”模式，致力创造一个全新的产品类别。
藉着Project Glass，Google旨在利用移动世界的“DIY”设计精神，而到目前为止他们也成功地吸引了不少开发者热情投入。据笔者了解，迄今Google眼镜 的长处有二：一是提供智能手机等级的显示画质(也就是不太好)，以及能做为科技宅男/宅女们向同伴炫耀的装备。
在不久前于 美国旧金山举行的Google I/O大会上，参加者挤满了由四位Google眼镜开发者主讲的座谈会现场；有数十位花了1,500美元加入Google的 “开发者(Explorer)”计划，而率先取得Google眼镜的开发者们，也戴着该装置现身。Google的野心很大，该公司想要打造的下一代移动设备，是让科技所扮演的角色，从“控制主导”转变为更具“服务”性质。
Google尝试以社群开发模式来完成目标的勇气令人钦佩，因为这也意味着它可能在大众面前失败；但Google却做到了“半透明化(semi-transparent)”──到目前为止，还没有人知道 Google眼镜的详细硬件规格(拆解报告在哪？)，而且Google也对该设备的主要功能与公开上市计划三缄其口，使之成为一种“封闭的开放计划”，一种“得按照特定方式进行的DIY设计”。
Google Glass开发团队
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据了解，Google将在短时间内向另外8,000名幸运儿提供Google眼镜，这些人是从1万名参加“If I Had Glass”竞赛的终端用户中选出来；藉由这种模式，使用者与应用程序开发者都将对Google的计划有所帮助。就像是微软(Microsoft)提供Windows试用版那样，Google将可获得免费的测试团队以及目标试用群。
可穿戴式计算设备已经是被讨论很长一段时间的话题，但是到目前为止还没有人推出主流产品，或是如此努力尝试。而如果Google眼镜失败，该公司至少也将获得宝贵的相关经验，而所有参与这个计划的成员也将在其中享受乐趣。从今年的Google I/O大会上，笔者整理出了11个有关于Google眼镜的重点，条列如下：
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
本文下一页：11个有关于Google眼镜的重点
相关阅读：
• [图文报道]Google I/O大会上有趣的新玩意
• Google眼镜原型产品开始分享给应用开发人员
• 谷歌眼镜使用礼仪：去厕所该不该摘掉？Z2lesmc
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● Google眼镜不是像GoPro运动摄影机那样的产品，开发者应该将之想成是一款640x360像素的显示器，而使用者所看到的画面会投射在前方7英尺的距离，而且是在稍微上方的位置。
● 有使用者提到Google眼镜无法显示网页内容，其实是因为显示在上面的网页无法读取；Google眼镜比较偏向是一种信息显示设备，例如在黑色背景上出现的反白提示。
● 一位开发者提到，他们的设计经验是环绕着微互动(micro interactions)，希望能让该技术与众不同；笔者猜想，这是因为与Google眼镜的处理能力有关。
● 虽然有率先试用Google眼镜的开发者表示，该装置可达到一整天的待机时间，但多数人还是将“更长的电池续航力”列为最大需求。
● Google眼镜是以Android 4.0.1版本为基础(Ice Cream Sandwich)，支持蓝牙、Wi-Fi，并配备一个micro USB连接埠。
● 不会有Android手机适用的Google眼镜仿真器，唯一取得该装置与其API的方法是花1,500美元、签署保密协议，成为“开发者”计划的一员。
● Google一开始是每月为该设备提供一次硬件更新，但现在看来已经停摆；在软件部分则是维持每个月更新一次。
● 隐私权问题对Google眼镜计划带来很大的影响(请参考美国国会的相关报告)。
● 脸部识别并不在目前Google眼镜的产品企划中，一位开发者表示，虽然曾经开发过相关原型，但仍需要先确定此类功能的使用优势，并审慎处理隐私权问题。
● Google眼镜的使用者在拍摄影像时，将会提供明确的“公众提示”，例如有按下按钮的动作或是发出语音指令，而届时显示器也会以一种可见的方式被点亮──当然，使用者也必须直视被拍摄的对象。
● Google正在寻找Google眼镜能为使用者周遭的人们带来益处的使用者情境，例如能提供有用的信息，希望能消除大众认为该设备将会使他们变成YouTube上恶搞影片主角的偏见。
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
编译：Judith Cheng
参考英文原文：Google Glass: 11 lessons in (semi) transparent design，by Rick Merritt
相关阅读：
• [图文报道]Google I/O大会上有趣的新玩意
• Google眼镜原型产品开始分享给应用开发人员
• 谷歌眼镜使用礼仪：去厕所该不该摘掉？Z2lesmc
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Google Glass: 11 lessons in (semi) transparent design
Rick Merritt
It’s still a pretty secretive project considering it involves 2,000 third parties, but I did manage to learn a few interesting lessons about Project Glass at Google I/O. SAN FRANCISCO – The Apple iPhone burst on to the scene like a tsunami, a fully fleshed out next-big-thing with little more than the roar of rumor to warn of its coming. Not so Google’s Project Glass, an effort to create a new category in the slow cooker of community design that is more or less in the open.
With Project Glass, Google aims to leverage a sort of Arduino/DIY ethos in the mobile world. So far they have successfully grabbed more enthusiasm than the modest hardware probably deserves at this point.
From what I hear Glass is good at two things to date. Taking smartphone-class (poor) quality pix and videos and serving as a badge of conspicuous consumption that you are among the trendy nerdy.
Attendees packed the meeting room where four Project Glass developers spoke at last week’s Google I/O, including Proiect Glass software lead Charles Mendis (below). Dozens of developers and wannabes who are paying $1,500 to be part of Google’s “Explorer” program and get a pair of the spectacles were wearing them at the event.
Google’s ambitions are broad. It aims to create the next generation of mobile devices that shift the technology from being the master focus of your life to more of its servant in the background.
I admire Google for having the guts to try doing this as a community effort with all that implies for the potential of public failure. It beats sitting back to see what an Apple might do in a few years and then trying to replicate that in the open source world. That said, that whole Android (iPhone redux) thing has been pretty successful.
My beef is that it is a semi-transparent effort. No one knows the hardware specs yet—where’s the teardown! And Google is mum on the major features and general release plans. So it’s a sort of closed open effort, a do-it-yourself-our-way design.
Google will open the door to 8,000 more users “soon,” a diverse lot of end users chosen from 100,000 who applied in the “If I Had Glass” competition. “We are eager to see what they will do with it,” said one developer.
In this way, both users and developers will essentially be paying to help Google figure out how to make a product out of this project. Just as Microsoft used beta programs for Windows, Google is able to leverage the cool factor of early access into a free team of testers and focus groups.
Wearable computing has been around for a long time. So far no one has made a mainstream product in the category--or tried so hard to do so. If Glass fails, Google will at least have gotten some experience and a bunch of participants will have had some fun.
Now, the juicy bits—what I learned about Glass at Google I/O.
11 things I learned about Glass at Google I/O
Although many key details are still secret, here are a few things I learned at Google I/O about Glass:
· It’s no GoPro. Developers should think of it as a 640 x 360 pixel display. Users see it as if it were projected about seven feet ahead of and slightly above them.
· One user notes it will not display Web pages because they would be unreadable. Instead expect a sort of info-scrape—a few big white words on a black background.
· “We designed the experience around micro interactions…to get the technology out of the way” said one developer…and because that’s about what it can handle, I suspect.
· All day battery life is doable, says one “explorer,” but developers put denser batteries on the top of their hardware wish list.
· It is based on Android 4.0.1 (Ice Cream Sandwich), uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and sports a micro USB port.
· There will be no Glass simulator for Android phones. The only way to access the hardware and API is by ponying up $1,500 and signing the NDAs to be in the Explorer program.
· Google updated the hardware monthly at first, but now it seems pretty frozen. Software updates are still rolling out every 30 days.
· Privacy issues have heavily influenced the design. (Note subsequent reports on a Congressional letter to Google on this issue.)
· Example #1. Facial recognition is not in the current product plan. “We prototyped it early on…and I’m not scared of it, but I want to make sure there’s clear user benefit and we honestly deal with privacy,” said one developer.
· Example #2: Glass wearers give “clear social cues” when taking a pix or video. They touch a button on the device or say “OK Glass, take a picture” and the display lights up in a way others can see. Oh, and you have to be looking directly at your subject, of course.
· Example #3. Google is seeking user scenarios where Glass benefits someone near the wearer by giving them useful information—and allaying their paranoia about starring in the next YouTube spoof.
责编：Quentin
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