Focals by North

Re:Focals by North by pg_bot on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @10:37AM (#18283704)

The thesis of this product seems to be that Google glass failed due to poor design. I think that's an idea worth exploring and the execution here does look promising, but I'll hold off on judgement until other people can review the device. Here are my immediate, unsolicited, uncollected thoughts:

There are many issues that I worry about with this kind of device, but battery safety and battery life are most important to me. Since you are strapping lithium ion batteries to your head, it could be fatal if there is a manufacturing defect or someone can remotely exploit the device. Getting the battery right is likely going to make or break this product.

Social acceptance is yet another large hurdle. People do not take kindly to surreptitious film making. We already have enough problems with people glued to their phones and those are at least stored out of sight.

I would try my best to ditch the ring. This is the palm pilot stylus all over again.

I was waiting for someone to do this, because I'd run the idea through my head and was uncertain of the outcome. I'm not sure if you will succeed, but I think you've made a decent product which is commendable. Good luck.

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Re:Focals by North by zawerf on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @12:34PM (#18284890)

The ring by itself could actually be useful.

That said, there's a huge list of failed smart ring companies which /r/shittykickstarters loves shitting on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBUWxROnqwA

https://www.reddit.com/r/shittykickstarters/comments/8j73df/...

https://www.reddit.com/r/shittykickstarters/comments/6o3xrx/...

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Re:Focals by North by anonfunction on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @10:56AM (#18283893)

>Social acceptance is yet another large hurdle. People do not take kindly to surreptitious film making.

I don't think these even have a camera.

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Re:Focals by North by servercobra on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @11:05AM (#18283959)

I don't think this has a camera, which makes me a little sad. That was probably my most used feature with Glass. I was usually taking pictures of my dog who hated cameras, and I could imagine it being great for baby photos too. The lack of camera is probably a conscious choice to make it less of a geeky gadget with privacy concerns and more of a mainstream device.

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Re:Focals by North by nine_k on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @11:34AM (#18284257)

Making a battery actually catch fire takes a faulty battery, a serious smashing, or a serious overheating, afaict.

Since the glasses are much lighter than, say, a phone, I suspect that damaging and thus shorting a battery as a result of a fall is less likely.

A bad charger, or a construction defect, may of course destroy the battery and set it to fire. If the phone industry is any indication, this happens pretty rarely, and is more or less a solved problem.

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Re:Focals by North by jonathankoren on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @10:58AM (#18283906)

There’s no indication that a camera is included at all. It appears to be merely a display device with Alexa and a joystick ring.

Millions of people carry lithium batteries. They’re fine.

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Re:Focals by North by ianwalter on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @11:16AM (#18284065)

I think the ring is brilliant actually. It's a practical solution to the many UI problems inherent with this medium.

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Re:Focals by North by simonebrunozzi on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @11:43AM (#18284350)

I've read not too long ago that Google glass version 2.0, or enterprise edition, was actually having some decent success/traction among workers.

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Re:Focals by North by zjacobi on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @11:53AM (#18284453)

Here's the Wired article about it: https://www.wired.com/story/google-glass-2-is-here/

Seems to give a huge productivity boost.

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