Towards an Augmediated Life

The new ideas that have been pushed forward for Google Glass look very similar to ideas that have presented for Augmented Reality (AR), while the AR approaches are delivered using the smartphone camera as an 'eye' portal.  In theory at least,  the eyeglasses of Glass provide a more convenient method.  Also, the broader idea of AR via Glass is not new, Steve Mann, who we talked to over a decade ago, has been examining the broad idea of head mounted cameras and interaction for thirty plus years.  Much more about that now in IEEE Spectrum.  Well worth the look there for fresh  ideas directly from an expert.   He cleverly calls it an Augmediated life, and writes:

" ... For a long time, computer-aided vision and augmented reality were rather obscure topics, of interest only to a few corporate researchers, academics, and a small number of passionate hobbyists. Recently, however, augmented reality has captured the public consciousness. In particular, Google has lately attracted enormous attention to its Project Glass, an eyeglass-like smartphone with a wearable display. I suppose that’s fine as far as it goes. But Google Glass is much less ambitious than the computer-mediated vision systems I constructed decades ago. What Google’s involvement promises, though, is to popularize this kind of technology.  It’s easy to see that coming: Wearable computing equipment, which also includes such items as health monitors and helmet-cams, is already close to a billion-dollar industry worldwide. And if Google’s vigorous media campaign for its Project Glass is any indication of the company’s commitment, wearable computers with head-mounted cameras and displays are poised finally to become more than a geek-chic novelty. ... "