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The Future of Smart Glasses

20th May 2015

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Abstract

The purpose of this research is to discuss the challenges and possibilities that are facing the

development of smart glasses, it will also discuss the development of smart glasses and whether

it will be used and in which fields it might be used. Smart glasses are expected to be a big market

in the few next years and it has caused a great improvement throughout the last few years, the

research will use Microsoft HoloLens as an example since it is the most developed smart glass.

The conclusion will summarize the advantages and disadvantages of smart glasses and what is

expected from its development.

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Future of Smart Glasses

Technology is all around us, people are using it in every aspect in our lives, but what if

we can go further, think about how you experience the technology, it’s like you are behind glass

screen, what if we can go beyond the screen, where your digital world is blended with your real

world, Smart Glasses can do this, it is the new pc, it will create a new ways to visualize our

work, share ideas, new ways to collaborate and explore places we have never been , but what are

the challenges and possibilities of Smart glasses through this essay Microsoft HoloLens will be

discussed as a substantial figure in the field.

The research will begin with a brief history of wearable technology. Then it will discuss types of

Smart Glasses and simple introduction to Holograms before discussing the development of

Microsoft HoloLens and who are going to use this technology after that it will focus on the

challenges that are faces the development of smart glasses and then the conclusion of this

research that will summarize the advantages and disadvantages of smart glasses.

History of Smart glasses development

One of the biggest things that contributed to the development of human civilization was

the technology which gains a great improvements in the last 20 years, and each improvement

makes the technology more close to humans and more easy to access. In the last 20 years, the

computers have seen a great development from stationary computer such as Mainframe

computer, minicomputer and Personal Computer to mobile computer such as Laptops and

Tablets then to wearable computers such as Smart Glasses, which opens the way to a new

product category on the market, the goal of this development was to blend the virtual world with

the physical world, or in other words merge online and offline world together, so it will allow
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people to be online while they are interacting with the real world so smart glasses have a great

potential to enhance the way people interact and communicate. (Mann, 2014).

Types of Smart Glasses. In 1990s, it was the beginning of virtual reality as many companies

tried to make it and failed. In virtual reality the user is completely immersed into a virtual world,

on the other hand augmented reality is about blending the virtual reality with real life which will

enable the user to interact with real world and virtual world.(Wasik, 2013)

Both augmented and virtual reality have the same goal of immersing the user, but both

system have a different approach, with augmented reality, user will still interact with the real

world while interacting with virtual object around them, with virtual reality, the user will be

completely isolated from the real world and completely immersed in a virtual world, so it seems

that virtual reality is better for Entertainment.

Holograms. Holography is the science or technique of making holograms, the holograms are

formed by split one laser beam into two which are the object beam and the reference beam, and

both meet on the holographic film where an interference pattern is recorded, there are many ways

to types of holograms and different ways to create a hologram.(Statt, 2015)

Microsoft HoloLens. Redmond 2015, Microsoft unveiled HoloLens, which is not trying to move

you to a different world instead it will bring your digital world to your real world, HoloLens

tracks user’s movement, also the user can use hand gestures to interact with holograms.

Holographic computing experiences with Microsoft HoloLens is different from

augmented reality and virtual reality which is, The difference between Holographic computing

and augmented reality is that users can see a screen of data that overlays the real world and this

data depends on where the user’s camera is pointed on while with holographic computing the

users are able to see holographic objects pinned to specific physical locations in the real world,
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Holographic experience are about delivering a mixed reality that will make digital life better and

keep the user connected to the world around him.

Will People Use The Smart Glasses?

It is too early to tell if the smart glasses will succeed or not since this technology is still at

its early development, However, according to Gartner’s Hype Cycle (2014) Wearable user

interfaces are at the top of the hype but with 5 – 10 years of development until it become a

mainstream, also it mentioned that “The Internet of Things and the concept of blurring the

physical and virtual worlds are strong concepts in this stage.” (Gartner, 2014).

Illustration 1: Gartner’s hype cycle 2014

Who will benefit from Smart Glasses?

Smart Glasses enabled the possibilities of doing many things that will make everyone

benefit from it like designers, developers, creator, commercial organizations and people who are

looking for a whole new way for entertainment will find a great value in Smart Glasses
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There is already an enormous amount of technology and programs on the market to

measure sleep, motion, food and body signals such as blood sugar, heartbeat, blood pressure, etc.

Combined with social media, where one can share one’s status, smart glasses could play a

special role because they equip one to document life as it is lived even more. This is also known

as life logging (Mann, 2014).

The group of people who think about, document and share their lives has increased at the

same rate as the technological development. There is no indication that the group will get

smaller. The “need” to document and show how much exercise one has done, how many fun

experiences one has had, and how much good food one has eaten is a trend that is only in its

gestation period (Nissen, 2014). So, we can also assume that smart glasses will enforce and

create synergy when it comes to life logging in different ways.

Challenges Lying Ahead

One of the challenges that faces the development of smart glasses is they have found that the

brain and the eye adapt quickly and, therefore, might be affected by prolonged use (Mann,

2013a). The same might be the case with prolonged use of smart glasses (Ackerman, 2013).

There is also a challenge with people acceptance, the history of technology tends to repeat itself

which is Every time a new product is launched it faces a lot of criticism. Even Socrates (Plato)

lamented the invention of written language because he imagined that written thoughts would stop

people from using their heads to remember things (Plato, 1925).

At the psychological level, there is a question of how this kind of interaction may affect our

ability to interact. The brain is stimulated by new forms of interaction and the use of new

technology and, thanks to its plastic properties, the brain can change (Pascual-Leone, Amedi,
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Fregni, & Merabet, 2005). Some scholars claim that the prolonged use of technologies such as

smart glasses, which may possibly create distance from other people, is in danger of reducing our

social skills because it stimulates the brain in new ways (Small & Vorgan, 2009).

Conclusion

In summary, smart glasses have the potential to become mainstream, it may be used in

many fields, for instance, healthcare, industry, 3d designs and entertainment, and this would take

3 – 5 years depending on other technology development. The user’s acceptance to the smart

glasses and the using of it in interaction with each other is the biggest challenge, also the voice

and gesture control is such an important challenge since all the command of smart glasses

depends on voice or gesture commands and if they did not work perfectly in the first time, people

will write it off.

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References

Ahmed, A. (2012, November 1). An Operating System for Life. Retrieved from

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2012/nov/02/operating-

system-for-life

Mann, S. (2014). Wearable Computing. Retrieved from

https://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/wearable_computing.html

Narain, A. (2014). Medical Technology: Google Glass And The Future Of Medical Education

And Practice. Retrieved from

http://www.themspress.org/blog/medical-technology-google-glass-and-the-future-of-medical-

education-and-practice/

Wasik, B. (2013). Why Wearable Tech Will Be As Big As The Smartphone. Retrieved from

http://www.wired.com/2013/12/wearable-computers/2/

Hempel, J. (2015). Project HoloLens: Our Exclusive Hands-On With Microsoft’s Holographic

Goggles. Retrieved from

http://www.wired.com/2015/01/microsoft-hands-on/

Statt, N. (2015). Microsoft's HoloLens explained: How it works and why it's different. Retrieved

from

http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-hololens-explained-how-it-works-and-why-its-different/
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Outline

Thesis Statement: Smart glasses are expected to be a big market in the few next years and

this technology have an opportunities and challenges which depends on the interaction of

consumers to the smart glasses.

I. Introduction

II. A Brief History Of The Development Of Wearables

III. Types of Smart Glasses

IV. Hologram

V. Microsoft HoloLens

VI. Will People Use The Smart Glasses?

V. Who will benefit from Smart Glasses?

VI. Challenges Lying Ahead

VII. Conclusions

References
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Annotated Bibliography

Project HoloLens: Our Exclusive Hands-On With Microsoft’s Holographic Goggles. (2015).

Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2015/01/microsoft-hands-on/

This article discussed the new smart glasses that is developed by Microsoft which is

HoloLens, the author interviewed Alex Kipman who is chief inventor of Microsoft

HoloLens to discuss the recent development of HoloLens and the challenges that are

facing the development of it, This is a helpful source for getting a deep details about

Microsoft HoloLens from its chief inventor.

Microsoft's HoloLens explained: How it works and why it's different. (2015).

Retrieved from http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-hololens-explained-how-it-

works-and-why-its-different/

This article discussed the new smart glasses that is developed by Microsoft which is

HoloLens, also the author gives some examples on other types of smart glasses and

why HoloLens is different from other smart glasses and how it works, this is a helpful

source knowing the difference between the types of smart glasses like virtual reality,

augmented reality.