Prescience - not just improving the present!

PRESCIENCE

To quote that prescient genius Douglas Adams...

The Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses have been designed to help people develop a relaxed attitude to danger. They follow the principle "what you don't know can't hurt you" and turn completely dark and opaque at the first sign of danger. This prevents you from seeing anything that might alarm you. This does, however, mean that you see absolutely nothing, including where you're going.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-u9lnhx_Hk]

Well reality has finally caught up - well sort of!  The IRL - or In Real Life - glasses use polarised lenses to make television displays appear black. Wow (Not really!)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/embed/p06mmxcz/45707209

As a wearer of glasses that currently can be vari-focal and react-o-lite but still not polarising then I'm all in favour of improving face-wear.  The original Joo Janta's were the DB's but sadly what has followed no has not really been up to scratch...

Take Google Glass - I mean a fantastic idea but a bit of a disaster in reality - so much so that the previous url won't show much - unless you're into Corporate Glass and then there's some stuff for you to digest. They didn't create that much of a buzz when they came back in version 2...unless you're a corporate that is.... As an augmented reality tool for business there's seems to be a well defined niche but it's not a breakout consumer led product yet and the question is will it ever be?  and it's still butt-ugly!

Well at least it isn't as hopeless as Magic Leap.  I mean just strap  google Cardboard and a mobile phone to your head - it's the same effect and a small fraction of the cost - and you'll still look like a complete dork!  Actually you'll look a lot less of a cyborg if you adopt this cheaper route - just check out the main image on their website - scary or what?  No, I'm not going to put an image of it in this post - it's tooooo scary!

What's the problem here?

I mean, given that all you're basically doing is strapping a head-up display (HUD) to your face - and HUDs are 10 a penny!  So why hasn't someone added a wi-fi chip and spent a bit of time minitiarising this device so it fits on your face...?

HUD
Like I said...what's the problem here?

One thing that might be killing this hoped for development - well a couple actually...is the ignorance of the public who are prepared to accepts a few small increments in performance for a shed-load of extra cost - Apple, I'm pointing the finger squarely at you here!  Add to that the failure rate of projects on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo and you start to see there's a risk averse culture brewing!

That said you CAN find some out there but, consumer products?  I don't think so... $1,800 for a developer kit for the latest Vuzix designs...ouch!  And Snap's second generation glasses still only allow you to take photos - stunning (not!).

What we need are more Douglas Adams - not arrogant jerks like Enol Smuk - but people who can dream rather than find a nano-unit of extra performance or efficiency - revolution not evolution!!

...and when do we need it?  NOW!

PW @TheExperienceNetwork

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