Smart Glasses Experience

March 2nd

After a few months of anticipation following my Focals fitting at the Showroom, I was pretty excited to receive the glasses once they finally arrived. 

My experience unboxing the glasses brought about mixed feelings. On the positive side, I was impressed with North's packaging and the simple design of the components inside. It wasn't the most extraordinary product design, but I was impressed with the quality for a first generation product. On the downside, I could not get the glasses' display to calibrate properly. After exhaustively trying the "Alignment" process through the mobile app, I finally caved and contacted Support when I could not get a crisp image from the display. I remembered the crispness of the display at the Showroom, and wondered if production units were actually just a lower quality than those used for demos. Eventually, I decided that my pair was an anomaly, since the display was quite blurry. Once I followed the steps that Support promptly supplied me with, I was able to improve the quality slightly. At first, the glasses were unusable, but after more calibration I was able to improve the image quality enough to maintain usability. They're still not as crisp as I imagine they should be, but I am mostly able to use them all the same. 

March 3rd

I used the glasses today at my home and at Costco. I wore the glasses for a total of around 45 minutes today. 

At home, I familiarized myself with the basic interface and abilities of the glasses. It took a few minutes for me to get used to using the ring to control the display, but overall it was a pretty slick experience and was easy to adapt to. On thing I did find annoying was that I find myself clicking the ring's button by mistake often when I was intending to push the toggle to the left. 

One first impression that I have is that the display turns off quickly when left uninterrupted for a few seconds. In theory, I think this makes sense to avoid the screen interfering with the users' vision when not in use. More often than not however, I found it turning off before I was done interacting with it. I have not checked if this is a setting I can control, but I hope it is. 

I later went to Costco with my roommate for a few groceries, and wore the glasses to test them in the real world. Of all the functionality the glasses offers, I suppose I could see myself using a List ability to track grocery items in this situation, since it might actually be marginally more convenient than having to pull out my phone every few minutes to cross off items. However, I did not have time to set this up so I will have to give it a try next time. 

Overall, the glasses were an impedance to my trip at Costco. I think the main issue I had is that I didn't want the semi-frequent interruptions the glasses were providing. In some situations, I've found the push notifications for messages to be useful. But in the anxiety-inducing shopping environment that Costco produces, I found the heads-up messages to be distracting me from my task at hand. Also, I'm sure there were a few occasions that I was reading texts via the glasses and was annoying other customers by accidentally blocking an aisle. At the very least, the mere presence of the glasses reduced my ability to be fully aware of my surroundings.

March 4th

Today I wore the glasses for about 30 minutes, on my walk to and from the gym with a friend. 

I had one of my best experiences yet with the glasses today, as I was walking near a plaza of restaurants close to where I live. I was scrolling through the display and was provided information on a nearby restaurant. It was only a bit of contextual information, but it was very succinct and piqued my interest. Opening the card on the display showed a user's review of the restaurant, which included details on a good time to visit for food specials. I genuinely may have missed this information if the glasses didn't pick up on the nearby restaurant. And while I'm sure the review also exists on (and was probably pulled from) Google Maps, I am personally highly unlikely to be reading reviews for restaurants on my phone for food places that I don't know about. 

Another fun experience I had was using the daily trivia app on our walk. The multiple-choice style app is pretty basic, but was enough to keep us entertained for nearly our entire walk to the gym. In this case again, I could have always played trivia on my phone if I was interested. But, even if small, there is a marginal convenience to be hands-free in this situation, especially on a cold winter morning when I was able to keep my hands in my pockets. 

The downside to this experience is that the bright morning made it hard to read my display because of the glare from the sun. I'm not sure if this was partially caused by the clarity problem I'm facing with my glasses (described above) or if all glasses would fare the same in the sunlight, but at times the sun did render the glasses illegible. 

March 5th

Today I wore the glasses at home and out at dinner with a few friends to test the glasses in a social environment. 

The most memorable experience of my time with the glasses today was when I was frantically getting ready around my house to go out with friends. I was running around my room at the last minute, and received a message via Facebook Messenger from my friend: "I'm in the lobby - should I call the Uber to leave?". I actually found it very convenient to be wearing the glasses then, as being hands-free let me respond via voice without interrupting my preparation. 

I clicked reply and said "Sure, I'll be there in two minutes". The Focals translated the message accurately and even gave me perfectly-timed feedback that the message had been sent. The whole experience was seamless and pleasant...until it wasn't.

When I got downstairs and met my friend, I quickly realized that the message had never sent and there was no trace of it on my phone either. I'm still not sure what happened, but am now under the assumption that Focals must not have the ability to send replies via Messenger yet. It was a bit frustrating that, despite no reply ever existing in the first place, I was able to select "reply" with my glasses and receive confirmation that my text was sent. 

March 6th

After a few days of periodic use, I've noticed I'm starting to get used to the glasses and can interact with the interface pretty easily. 

Today I wore my glasses while working on a group project with friends. The most interesting part of today's use was the reactions of my friends to the glasses. 

First, while the glasses are admittedly very sleek compared to preceding wearable glasses, I would say the bulky frames are still objectively non-flattering on my face. I received numerous comments about the glasses and one friend even jokingly commented "you can't sit with us if you wear them". 

That was undoubtedly an overreaction to how much the glasses stick out, but it illustrates the point that the glasses are hard to conceal as an "accessory". From my experiences so far, they rarely fail to gather attention early on in conversations. This is likely at least in part due to the fact that I don't wear glasses normally, but I think it is also because they look highly curious, especially when I am interacting with them. 

On that note, one friend commented "you look weird when you do stuff on them". And later, another commented "I can tell when you're using them because it changes the way you walk". After the latter comment, I did notice myself walking at a slower, more erratic pace than usual. I guess this is largely unavoidable as interacting with a device requires at least some cognitive load that takes away from other functions. I'm probably still getting used to them to some extent, but I am curious if I'll adapt over time and be able to walk and interact seamlessly. We'll have to see if this type of reaction persists as I become more experienced with the interface.

March 7th

I was planning to wear the glasses today, but I noticed the image was misaligned. I began the Alignment process, but was unable to obtain as clear of an image as I previously had. To align the display, I was asked to move a red cross symbol in line with an identical green symbol using the joystick on the ring.

I noticed the two images started very far away from each other, which seemingly made sense as the glasses display was completely blurry. However, I was unable to superimpose the symbols using the joystick. As I was moving the red symbol closer to the green symbol, it seemed to eventually reach its boundary and would not move further. The glasses prompted me with auditory feedback to confirm this - every time I tried to move it further they played a low frequency sound to indicate that it had reached the limit. 

Needless to say, this experience was frustrating. I knew the glasses were misaligned, but the alignment flow would not let me correct the misalignment. As I progressed through the remaining alignment tasks, the same thing happened again. Then, I was presented with a very blurry image saying "Is this image clear?". The text was hardly legible.  I tried troubleshooting again and again, but it seemed like the glasses could not be properly aligned. I concluded that something must have shifted with the projector or the display.

I managed to improve it slightly by repeatedly doing the alignment process but the glasses are still blurry and give me a headache for extended use of the display. 

March 8th

One of the features I use the most with the glasses is "quick replying" to notifications. 

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, this functionality was not working for Facebook Messenger. Interestingly, the feature does work for Instagram and Slack. Today, while on the way to a group meeting, one group member messaged "we're here" via Slack. I was able to view the message in the glasses display. Additionally, the glasses generated a few automatic replies for me to send. The replies were short messages along the lines of "sounds good" and "thanks". I selected "sounds good" as I felt it fit the situation best, and I sent the quick reply to acknowledge that I knew they had arrived. 

When I got to the group meeting, I shared that I had sent the reply with the glasses and that I thought it had been pretty cool. The group member said that they figured it was a templated reply and that "it felt dismissive". I think that quick replies can be useful (especially if the options are context-dependant), but it seems like they can have an unintended social impact by seeming impolite. 

I can also imagine that it may seem even more dismissive if the recipient knows that you've chosen to send an effortless reply, instead of taking 10 seconds to type (or speak) a well-crafted, thoughtful reply. 

 

March 9th

I did not wear the glasses today. In the morning I had a few group meetings for my Capstone Design project, and in the afternoon and evening I was writing a post lab. I find the glasses to be obtrusive to my productivity when I am working and prefer to leave them off for long working sessions. 

March 10th

I wore the glasses to Toronto today on the GO train.

One of my favourite things to do with the glasses is the quiz game. I find the quiz is a fun way to pass the time and out of all of the features the glasses have, may provide the most value to me in the form of daily learnings. 

After I while, I noticed that I was receiving curious glances from the man across from me on the train - I had probably been staring off into space during the quiz. In hindsight, I can imagine that I would have looked peculiar as my facial expressions wavered with each correct/incorrect quiz answer. 

March 11th

One of the features I would really like to see on the glasses is basic Spotify song control. I noticed this pretty early-on when I was wearing the glasses but found that it would have been especially useful today, when I was wearing the glasses at home. My phone was in another room, and I would have liked to skip the current song. 

Going to get my phone to switch the song wasn't a big deal by any means. That said, most Bluetooth controlled smartwatches have had Spotify control for years, so I don't think this feature is a lot to ask for.

March 12th

Today I wore the glasses to the engineering Capstone Design Symposium. The symposium is a science fair style event where each group in the class demonstrates the work they've done over the course of their fourth year design project. 

Over the course of a few hours, I alternated between demonstrating our prototype and walking around to see what my classmates had built. Initially, I had planned to wear the glasses for the majority of the symposium. As I was at my own booth however, I found the glasses to be burdensome. First of all, I'm still not entirely habituated to wearing them - they are still a minor distraction even when the display is off. Since I don't always wear prescription glasses, and these glasses are quite heavy, I think this effect is pronounced. I'm curious to know if glasses-wearers have this experience as well. 

As I'm always conscious of their presence, I often feel like I'm not fully present when I'm conversing with others: the frames occupy a portion of my awareness in social situations.

Conversely, I find the glasses can be distracting to people I'm speaking with. I eventually removed the glasses during the symposium since I didn't want them to consume the attention of our booth's visitors. People find the glasses to be really interesting, and while this novelty can be a good conversation starter, it can also be a frustrating conversation to have repeatedly. 

Personally, I don't want the glasses to take away from the conversations I'm having and the social connections I'm forming. Maybe they could blend in to the background as the tech develops and becomes a bit less gimmicky, but for now they don't integrate well enough for me to want to wear them around others. 

March 13th

I had an interesting experience with the speech-to-text feature on the glasses today. 

I should start by saying that I find speech to be a useful means of replying with the glasses. When I'm alone, it's much faster than using my phone for most basic messages.

Today I used the feature while walking through a building on campus. A lady nearby heard me speaking and asked if I had been speaking to her. I was initially surprised because I hear people walking and talking on their devices all the time, and even when those devices are nearly unnoticeable (eg. AirPods). There have been many cases where I misinterpret the situation and look to see who is speaking to me, only to find someone speaking into a device. In this case however, it was potentially perceived as if I was initiating a conversation -  since the glasses blend in for the most part, there would not have been an obvious way to tell that I was speaking to someone else.

March 14th

I wore the glasses for an hour today, partially while I was at home and partially while I was on my way to play basketball. I had a dilemma today that I haven't had in my time with the glasses so far. Usually, I carry around my backpack when I leave the house as I have a laptop, book, and other student necessities. I can easily fit the Focals' storage case in my bag, however, I wasn't planning on bringing a bag to the gym, since all I needed was my shoes. 

My small dilemma was whether to bring my bag for the purpose of carrying the glasses case, or to leave the glasses out of their case next to my belongings on the gym ground. I ended up bringing the bag, because I did not want to risk leaving the glasses out by themselves, as they could have gotten stepped on or dropped - I once broke a pair of new headphones by carelessly leaving them exposed the same way. 

Having to bring an extra bag wasn't a big deal, but it made me reflect on how bulky the glasses' case is. The case is far from portable and is pretty inconvenient if you aren't bringing a bag along already. At the same time, I don't feel comfortable leaving glasses this expensive unprotected when they're off my face, for fear of breaking or scratching them. 

March 15th - 17th

March 15th was the first official day that I began "social distancing" due to COVID-19. Unfortunately, amidst the sudden academic and personal changes, I forgot to wear the glasses for a few days. 

I am naturally expecting less social interaction with the glasses until the end of the blogging period, but I will try to get useful insights from wearing them when possible.

March 18th

Today, I wore the glasses while I was working at home. I went on my laptop, and immediately became distracted by the reflection of my screen in the projector of the glasses. When wearing the glasses comfortably and facing the laptop at a head-on angle, the shiny surface on the inner right frame is angled to reflect the laptop display into my peripheral vision. This was really distracting - I couldn't focus with the glasses on and ended up removing them.

March 19th

I decided to wear my glasses while I went for a walk around Columbia Lake today. It was a few degrees below 0 and I wore gloves because I figured I would be out for at least an hour. On the walk, I noticed that it was really convenient to be able to interact without needing to touch a display. Phones and smartwatches would be a pain to use in cold weather, but the ring allowed me to interact seamlessly while keeping my hands warm. I wondered if there are any industry needs for needing to interact with a display in harsh environments or while being hands-free, as this could be a good use for this type of technology.