A damn nuisance to themselves and everyone else in the air

[PompeyPaul]

I couldn't believe it when I saw this:

How It Feels [through Glass] - YouTube (http://youtu.be/v1uyQZNg2vE)

There is some damn fool flying with these Tom foolery devices on, with his scan obscured by images. I wonder how cool people will think it is when there is a major air prox incident due to him not seeing another aircraft. It is incredible that google would suggest flying in such a dangerous and incompetent manner.

I hope the CAA are watching and taking notes.

[wb9999]

It's not dissimilar to the heads up displays that already exists on some commercial air transport, so I'm sure the CAA are aware of it and are happy with it in principle (although Google Glass is different from a hardware perspective).

[Thecope]

The box I'm the top right is that what the user can see. If it I'd I see very little problems myself.if it was to be used for flight info not to watch something etc.

[manix-cs]

Did you post the correct link?

Cos if you did, I really can't see what the problem is.

[PompeyPaul]

Did you post the correct link?

Cos if you did, I really can't see what the problem is.
Have you considered taking further training?

[hoodie]

Have you considered taking further training?

Way to engender a sensible discussion. :roll:

That's killed any chance of a potentially useful or informative thread, right there.

[The500man]

It could be a very efficient way of getting information without looking at a knee board! I'd be interested in trying it out, and since it can record video honestly it could be excellent as a training aid for aeros.

[manix-cs]

Have you considered taking further training?

Sadly Hoodie you're correct.

Yes PompousPaul, I frequently undertake further training to further my skills.

Have you considered a lobotomy? That would be far more useful I think.

[Dop]

When I saw this video, I did think "Surely, if you're doing aerobatics, then you want to see what's in the sky, not a bunch of mates on video chat, so having a chunk of your peripheral vision taken up with a display showing something else would", I thought, "be a pretty bad idea."

Although of course the real problem will be hordes of people in the streets shouting "OK Glass, do *blah*" - it'll be worse than people going "I'M ON THE TRAIN!".

[The500man]

the real problem will be hordes of people in the streets shouting "OK Glass, do *blah*"


Yeah that's the future right there!

I was thinking for flying that you would use it for information purposes related to flying but I suppose it could be used for stupid distracting stuff as well. I don't think it would be a problem displaying still information, but moving stuff would most certainly be distracting. It's easy to move your head if you need to look where the screen is, much like you would with glasses frames.

[PompeyPaul]

Have you considered a lobotomy? That would be far more useful I think.
Hmm, where could I get one done? I'd want it done cheaply mind, I'm not made of money you know!

[manix-cs]

Hmm, where could I get one done? I'd want it done cheaply mind, I'm not made of money you know!

Cheapest way I've heard of is black and decker hammer drill with masonry bit, but to be honest, I wouldn't recommend it.

[piperboy84]

Not sure if I'm grasping this, is it a fancy pair of eye glasses that works as a video recorder? if so its a neat idea, but as I'm always dropping mine and standing on them when ducking under the flaps during preflight, these glasses would need to be priced the same as the ones I buy from Tesco in bulk at 3 quid for 2 pairs or I am not interested.

[PompeyPaul]

They are a neat AR (augmented reality) device. So, for example, you could load your flight plan and it's projected in front of you where to go. Horizon could also be projected so flying in bad wx becomes much easier. In fact good wx vis could be projected so it looks like flying in overlayed vmc.

Imagine approaching an airfield and repeating pattern entry instructions "join 24 right hand circuit" which is displayed directly in front of you.

Tcas could be projected too, to highlight traffic.

The software development system is out already and I thought it was kind of amazing. Expect a lot of app development from small developers similar to iPhone.

Although I admit I did open up by poking fun at the, often, inert conservatism of the flying community.

[Crash one]

Isn't that "innate"? or Innane?

[RTN11]

To be fair to the OP he's talking about these specs

Google Glass - What It Does (http://www.google.com/glass/start/what-it-does/)

which are hardly close to the certified military or civilian HUD which are certified for use in aircraft at the moment.

It's hard to tell from this promotional video how much of your vision is actually taken up with this projection of sharing what you're seeing, and I would imagine that like a mobile phone at the moment it could suddenly pop up with a notification which could fill your vision and be distracting in flight.

Also, since from the video it seems to be largely voice controlled, not really sure how this will work in a noisy cockpit.

Seems like a great invention with tons of applications, but probably not the safest thing to be wearing whilst flying a light aircraft and doing aerobatics, but it is quite hard to tell from the promotional material exactly how it works and displays in your vision, ie just in the corner like in the video, or across your entire field of vision like in the other promotional shots.

[wb9999]

The concept is the same as HUD in civilian and military aircraft - overlaying information over your view out of the windshield.

[fernytickles]

So "you" do Google's "Glass" marketing & pay them for the privilege? Call me dull, or cheap, but I think I'll leave that to others. I'd rather spend the $1500 on avgas.

The deadline for applications is February 27th. If you are chosen, we will reach out to you with an invitation to become a Glass Explorer (please remember to follow us so that we can contact you directly). Explorers will each need to pre-order a Glass Explorer Edition for $1500 plus tax and attend a special pick-up experience, in person, in New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles.

Cool gizmo tho'.

[riverrock83]

Soooo much negativity...
Looks from the videos that it shows on a small section top right of one eye. The advantage of a HUD is that it can enhance the world outside, while you are still looking at the outside world. It means you don't have to look down into the cockpit to look at instruments - hence improving lookup.

With translucent screen placement top right only, it doesn't look like it can fully overlay the outside world - only provide some info top right, so it can't do "augmented reality" type things, which is what commercial / military HUDs do. It can only really provide additional info. So it couldn't put a circle round a plane in the middle of your vision which has been picked up on TCAS / FLARM etc (enhancing lookout) but it could provide a display of FLARM / PCAS / TCAS in the same way current machines do. It could show you your PLOG or a moving map - and so save you going "head in". It could display your speed / height.

I can see uses for it (or something similar), as long as limitations are known and you check that potential blind spot carefully. Bashing it blindly doesn't help anyone.

[Romeo Tango]

Looks a very useful cockpit tool. IMHO, If anything, it will help stop aeroplanes bumping into each other - more time looking out, less time looking at instruments.

[RTN11]

Looks from the videos that it shows on a small section top right of one eye.

That's how it looks in the videos, but here

Google Glass - What It Does (http://www.google.com/glass/start/what-it-does/)

it looks like it completely fills your vision, and could easily pop up with a photo or notification at an awkward moment.

It looks like a brilliant product, and will revolutionise mobile phones and social networking, I'm sure. Not sure it will do general aviation any good, and noone is saying at this point that it is even aimed at that. How would it integrate with a TCAS system?

This product seems to be designed for capturing your amazing adventures to share with your friends in a handsfree manner, and also to connect to a phone so you can easily make calls or share videos and receive facebook notifications or whatever.

There are already HUD displays on military and civilian aircraft, but these will have been designed, tested and certified for this particular use. I think what the OP was getting at is that wearing this device - which is not designed or certified for this purpose - could be a bit distracting, and possibly even block out a full field of vision when flying an aircraft.

[Crash one]

This doesn't look like it would be any use to aviation whatsoever. Another tech gimmick aimed at the moronic mobile phone, game playing market of 12yr old brain dead.

[riverrock83]

it looks like it completely fills your vision, and could easily pop up with a photo or notification at an awkward moment.


Look at the device itself. The screen is a square to the top right of the spectacles. It doesn't project - in fact - looks like the full glass fronts are optional.

[Resize to < 850 wide, please]

[MarcK]

This doesn't look like it would be any use to aviation whatsoever.
I'll bet you said the same thing when VOR was introduced.:hmm:

[RTN11]

But from the marketing photos, a big pop up will be displayed in the centre of your field of vision, with options like sending a message, or displaying a message you have just received. It must therefore be enough of an image to read text, even though it is coming from an eyeglass only partially covering one eye.

People on here seem to be talking as if this is a product aimed at aviation, syncing to TCAS or whatever. It just isn't, it's an extension of your mobile phone display with a camera fitted.

It looks a great device, could well see people wearing them every day. Obviously this is the first edition, and will modify over time into something which could well be great, but still a little distracting wearing an uncertified HUD while flying aerobatics, as they seem to have paid someone to do for their promotional video.

To be honest, the whole thing is just making me think of the Black Mirror episode where people have a chip that records everything they see, and then jealous partners can trawl through the material. May well have been an omen...

I'd also say this thread probably belongs in Jet Blast, since the only aviation content was about 7 seconds of someone flying a plane in the promotional video.

[PompeyPaul]

This doesn't look like it would be any use to aviation whatsoever. Another tech gimmick aimed at the moronic mobile phone, game playing market of 12yr old brain dead.:D:D:D
Absolutely love it!

[m.Berger]

As a pompey fan, you will not need a lobotomy of course but the idea of yet another labour making device getting between me and my flying makes me shudder. I don't want to be flying a little Airbus; all the fun is looking out of the window.

[riverrock83]

Thinking of looking out the window - I was thinking whether a device like this (or perhaps a fixed camera of some sort) could be used to see and avoid. Could a computer be "looking out" for you too?

In thinking about this - two options - analysing a series of still pictures - perhaps taken every few seconds. The system would need to analyse the pics, looking for planes. I suspect it would struggle to pick out planes relative to the ground and would have difficulty working out whether something was small or just far away, unless it had some sort of array of cameras and so was able to build up a 3d version of the outside world.

The alternative is to analyse a video feed, looking for any objects that are moving relative to the ground around you - which would presumably be other aircraft. This would probably have difficulty spotting the "constant relative bearing / constant danger" situations - just as humans do. Again - without multiple cameras / 3D its going to pickup a lot of sea gulls...

In either case it would need to describe the plane / location to the pilot for the pilot to see it themselves and decide on a conflict, and any action required.

However - I've just looked up the human eye's performance compared to a camera (here (http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/eye-resolution.html)). To be close to the human eye's performance, huge resolution cameras would be required - which would mean huge amounts of computing power to process the images / videos.

So we're probably back to using the Mark 1 eyeball...

[Weeds round the prop]

Much more worrying than any aviation concerns is the horror scenario of goons wearing these devices in road vehicles (of any variety). The dangers of mobile phone use whilst driving will pale into insignificance.
:eek:

[wb9999]

Weeds round the prop, the technology already exists in some makes and models of car. And it's such a non-event that nobody bothers to complain about it now.