# Sony Doing Glasses



## distant.star (Feb 17, 2015)

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Sony will go anywhere anyone else goes. Since Google has abandoned(?) the google glasses thing, Sony is getting in.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31502579

I suspect they're developing some bacon flavored products to compete with the fast food joints!


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## expatinasia (Feb 18, 2015)

I think you are being a little bit harsh. Sony has not only created, but also invented, some amazing stuff over the years.

We all know glasses are coming our way. Eventually.

Google made a splash, now others are having a go.

Personally I am really looking forward to someone (reliable) getting it right.

Imagine cycling with a HUD in a corner of your glasses, perhaps even rear view mirrors so you can see what is behind or along side. And that is just one small thing. 

I would bet that most of us will have a pair of "smart" glasses of one form or another within the next 10 years.

If it is Panasonic, Sony, or Oakley, I don't care. Though, I would prefer the latter! ;-)


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## Marsu42 (Feb 18, 2015)

expatinasia said:


> We all know glasses are coming our way. Eventually.



I didn't follow the debate recently, but at least over here (Germany) there was serious opposition to Google's glasses, the same goes for any kind of surveillance that isn't indicated as such or clearly visible. I faintly remember that for some time, mobile phones were forced or at least strongly suggested to make a loud "CLICK!" sound when taking a picture for the same reason.

Personally, I always state "those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear" :-> but maybe the evil Sonikon empire has analyzed the global market and found that a major investment in r&d is worth it after all.

Disclaimer: I can imagine very useful applications for the huds, and Sonikon's version is rather clunky and at least this model is visible different from normal glasses.


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## Coldhands (Feb 18, 2015)

To me it seems entirely reasonable for Sony to pursue smart glasses. Even is the market doesn't take off right away, having a slow selling product is still preferable to being left behind.

And as far as I am aware, Google hasn't abandoned project Glass, they've just ceased selling the original model. This is so they can go back to the drawing board and work on a new design behind closed doors, as opposed to the unorthodox approach taken with the first model where customers could buy what was essentially a prototype while it was still under development.


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## expatinasia (Feb 18, 2015)

Marsu42 said:


> expatinasia said:
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> > We all know glasses are coming our way. Eventually.
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Good point. That is one thing that always bothered me about those Google glasses, the question about whether you are being recorded or not. That would make me feel uncomfortable.

A pair of glasses without a camera, but with a HUD that can offer instantaneous translation or act as my eyes when I am on a bike, stuff like that, then I am all for it. Still some way off yet, but am looking forward to it!


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## tculotta (Feb 18, 2015)

dilbert said:


> Marsu42 said:
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Amen to that. Beyond the fact that you get all the justice you can afford, how many people, particularly those who were on the bottom rung either for ethnic, economic or racial reasons, have been wrongly accused of something and paid with years of their liberty or in some cases, their lives? To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, "I would rather see a hundred guilty men go free than one innocent man be jailed."


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## Orangutan (Feb 18, 2015)

dilbert said:


> Marsu42 said:
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+1

No one has "nothing to hide." Even if we never break laws, there is always something about our lives that would be an embarrassment in certain circumstances: an indiscreet statement in a private conversation, or even something more. No, as long as we humans are so eminently fallible, our lives should not be recorded without our consent.


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## canonistic (Feb 18, 2015)

expatinasia said:


> I think you are being a little bit harsh. Sony has not only created, but also invented, some amazing stuff over the years.



I still love my BETAMAX!
Seriously it was better than vhs but didn't succeed in the market.


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## Orangutan (Feb 18, 2015)

canonistic said:


> expatinasia said:
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> > I think you are being a little bit harsh. Sony has not only created, but also invented, some amazing stuff over the years.
> ...



If I remember, it didn't succeed because Sony botched the licensing strategy. Good tech, bad business.


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## Larry (Feb 18, 2015)

tculotta said:


> To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, "I would rather see a hundred guilty men go free than one innocent man be jailed."



That is easy to agree with on principle, ...but there is a fly in the ointment.

If the hundred and one are kept in jail, one innocent suffers a great wrong, ...but if the hundred and one are released, how many suffer great future wrongs at the hands of the hundred already-guilty-but-free?

Can't life ever be simple? :-\


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Feb 18, 2015)

Marsu42 said:


> expatinasia said:
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> > We all know glasses are coming our way. Eventually.
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If Sony were good at analyzing the market, they would not be in such poor financial condition. Yes, many people are concerned about being spied on, and Private Drones are starting to garner a lot of opposition. Unfortunately, a relatively small percent of operators are grossly misusing them.

I expect to see licensing and huge penalties for misuse required coming in the next 2 years.


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## Marsu42 (Feb 18, 2015)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I expect to see licensing and huge penalties for misuse required coming in the next 2 years.



That's the problem - if I see your drone flying over my garden with my gf sunbathing topless, I can (try to) track you. But how do I know your hud glasses are only showing you the way to the next bus stop, and not recording me? 

As far as I remember, Google was forced to remove the silent (or eye-controlled) picture snapping feature from their firmware in Germany. But when there's a demand, there'll be a supply ... unless it's illegal like "concealed carry" in parts of the country of our big brothers (pun intended, sorry, cannot help it ).


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## Khnnielsen (Feb 18, 2015)

Orangutan said:


> canonistic said:
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> > expatinasia said:
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That is true, but they redeemed himself with betacam and digibeta, so they got something out of the format-war.


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## justaCanonuser (Feb 26, 2015)

Marsu42 said:


> I didn't follow the debate recently, but at least over here (Germany) there was serious opposition to Google's glasses, the same goes for any kind of surveillance that isn't indicated as such or clearly visible.



Not only in Germany. One or two years ago, in a restaurant in San Francisco a woman (!!) has beaten up a guy wearing some pre-production Google glasses. This will happen more frequently and everywhere when such products hit the market, I am pretty sure. People get more and more paranoid about classic street shooting, and I had recently trouble because I've drawn (!!) somebody in my sketchbook in a German train - funnily not my "model" complained but a crank watching me. Fortunately he didn't notice that I've drawn him before when he pestered his environment with snoring. People really get crazy about their "rights" - but don't hesitate to post most private things on Facebook. Those wearing such products will experience quite often pure aggression, I am sure.


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## Don Haines (Feb 26, 2015)

Marsu42 said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
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> > I expect to see licensing and huge penalties for misuse required coming in the next 2 years.
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Unfortunately, in the paranoid world we live in, you are probably already being recorded... security cameras at the bus stop, in the bus, traffic cameras, security cameras at the front of each business you walk past... and how many governments are recording what we type on this forum????

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/110873-new-spy-drone-has-1-8-gigapixel-camera


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