You Will Want Google Goggles
[Philip Lelyveld Comment: Google may make HMDs (head mounted displays) cool by enhancing your experience of the world around you. Most HMDs are visors that isolate you from the world. The Google Project Glass viewer add information to the world around you, just has headphones give you a music track but don't block out sounds (unless you've got the volume cranked up).]
By the end of my meeting with Starner, I decided that if Google manages to pull off anything like the machine he uses, wearable computers seem certain to conquer the world. It simply will be better to have a machine that's hooked onto your body than one that responds to it relatively slowly and clumsily. ...
In fact, wearable computers could end up being a fashion statement. They actually fit into a larger history of functional wearable objects—think of glasses, monocles, wristwatches, and whistles. ...
One criticism of Google's demo video of Project Glass is that it paints a picture of a guy lost in his own digital cocoon. But Starner argues that a heads-up display will actually tether you more firmly to real-life social interactions. He says the video's augmented-reality visualizations—images that are tied to real-world sights, like direction bubbles that pop up on the sidewalk, showing you how to get to your friend's house—are all meant to be relevant to what you're doing at any given point and thus won't seem like distracting interruptions. ...
See the full story here: http://www.technologyreview.com/review/428212/you-will-want-google-goggles/?nlid=nldly&nld=2012-06-25