Nebraska outdoors through Glass

A beautiful Saturday afternoon.  A perfect opportunity for a nature walk.  An experience enhanced by Google Glass. 

My family and I headed out to our ranch in Northeast Nebraska to spend a gorgeous Saturday afternoon.  Armed with my iPhone and Google Glass, I decided to talk a walk around our farm pond. The shades that came with Glass were definitely needed in the mid day sun, and they did the job well.  I can definitely feel the learning curve beginning to diminish with my Glass and I thoroughly enjoyed the hour or so of exploring both nature and technology simultaneously. 

Our farm has zero wifi connectivity (and very little cell coverage) and so Glass was basically limited to capturing photos and video.  Again, it was nice that when I got back to town and connected Glass to wifi and power, that the images automatically synced via AutoBackup in my Google+ account. 

I did feel the desire to want to zoom from time to time, but the photos that I captured from Glass were definitely comparable to any images I captured with my iPhone.  Here are a few to see what you think: 

And check out a video clip of our farm pond here:

https://plus.google.com/108344371167418891002/posts/SEspKo7661Y

Interview with Holt County Independent

I had a blast talking with the Holt County Independent today about Google Glass.  We "geeked out," swapped stories, and envisioned the future with wearable technology such as Glass.  I'm looking forward to reading Amanda Greger's write up and sharing more with the residents of Holt County about the potential of Google Glass.

Summer ballgames

June is a month of ball games: baseball and softball games for my family.  O'Neill's two ball parks are on opposite ends of town.  This was last night in between my daughters' game enroute to my son's.  Somehow I used Glass to add a vignette effect to my original image and I was surprised with the ease of this effect.  

Original image #throughglass

The town of O'Neill #throughglass with added vignette.  

Once at the ball games, I found it easy to capture images and video once again with Google Glass.  I didn't even need to use the provided shades to filter the sun as the Glass image was still clear enough on a sunny June night.

Gutshall & Blumenstock Eyecare Through Glass

It was time for my annual eye exam and I couldn't wait to share what I have learned thus far with the benefactors of my Google Glass- Gutshall Blumenstock Eyecare.  Dr. Gutshall tried on the Glass and reiterated his excitement to keep on the cutting edge of anything dealing with optometry.  He spoke of  recent examples of Glass in other industries and believes it is part of their mission to support patrons with knowledge and expertise in this field of wearable technology. 

Dr. Gutshall tried on Glass and anticipates spending a more extended time trying it out in the near future.  But for now, he motivated me to Explore On.. and continue to share all the exciting discoveries and potential of Glass with all who are interested!

Learning with others through Google+ Communities

Exploring a new technology is never best taken on alone.  Rather, the field of technology innovation thrives on professional learning networks and human support systems to enhance each and every new discovery.  Google has an answer for these human learning networks as well-- Google+ Communities.

I have discovered and joined two Google+ Communities that I know will be extremely beneficial to me on this Google Glass learning journey.

The first is Glass Explorers

and the second is Google Glass in Education

There are many more to spend time exploring. There is even a community specifically for Glass Journalism Educators!

So pardon me as I can't wait to dig in to the resources and posts shared by these amazing communities of like-minded explorers of Glass.  I have a lot of learning to look forward to!

Magic Kingdom Through Glass

My family and I recently returned from our first family trip to Disney World in Florida.  While I wasn't brave enough (yet) to wear Glass on Splash Mountain or Space Mountain, I did venture to experience the final evening's festivities at Magic Kingdom with Glass on my head.

First off, it was somewhat surreal to hear many passersby point, stare, or comment when Glass caught their eye.  Many people have heard of it-- many more than in my small hometown community, at least! Even a Disney vendor, manning the cart that sold light up Mickey ears and glow in the dark Mickey sticks, inquired as to how I liked Glass.  Although he wasn't in costume, it still was odd for me to view any Disney employee not acting "in character," and actually acting as a normal, inquisitive human being.

Although the photos and video clips that I recorded that night in Florida are not first-rate (blame for that rests on the photographer!), they did allow for a sense of freedom to not have to pull out my phone or dSLR camera in order to capture something quickly.  It was very easy to command Glass to take a picture or video, and I got more adept at extending the video clips beyond the typical 10 second limit by pressing the camera button.

I was delighted beyond belief to find my Glass-captured media waiting for me in my Google+ Photos account, organized as one event.  What was even more exciting was the option that Google provided of automatically turning it into a "story" for me.

This is my first Google+ Story, created all with Glass:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/108344371167418891002/posts/bdGQ3ArtW15

Read more about Google+ Stories here:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/google-stories-and-movies-memories-made.html

Disneyworld with my family was a memory-filled event.  Thanks to Google Glass,  I have even richer memories to add to our collection!

Glass at OHS

O'Neill Public School students experimented with Glass on one of the last day's of the school year.  The kids had great ideas as to the future potential of Glass in education and we are looking forward to exploring more, together, during the 2014-2015 school year.

Glass Gallery

Glass passed the approval of the first people I shared it with… my family. As a matter of fact, my kids figured out more than I had in less time! (Quite normal with technology, I know). I took Glass to several classes which I teach at O’Neill High School and many students were eager to experiment. I decided to start a photo gallery of the many different faces who have tried out Glass for the first time. You can follow this image gallery here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kmorrow/sets/72157644076232726/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kmorrow/sets/72157644076232726/

First tasks

The first task I successfully completed on Glass was to take a photo.  One can use the button on the top of the frames, navigate through the Glass menus, or use voice commands to take a photo or video.  (I prefer the voice command: “OK Glass, take a photo”) I experimented with using the Wink feature to activate the camera.  It did work, but during this time when so many people are trying my Glass, I chose to turn it off. The image can then be sent to a contact or is saved to your timeline.  This support article was helpful for learning more about using Glass for capturing images: https://support.google.com/glass/answer/3079688?hl=en

One concern I have how quickly the power drains out of the device.  Quite possibly it could have to do with the fact that many people are testing it out and trying lots of things with it, but needing to recharge after just a couple hours does not seem normal or practical for a wearable piece of technology.  Glass also seems to get hot when recharging, and I fear that something is working harder than it should be inside.  I tried to Google the typical battery performance on Glass but welcome anyone else’s experiences to compare to mine.  

Out of the box

Dr. Gutshall dropped off the Google Glass invite and I immediately enrolled in the Explorer program. The process of completing the form was slick and simple.  In no time at all I was waiting for my Glass to be delivered via FedEx to my room.  And within a few short days it arrived!

My first impressions were favorable. Google created a well-designed system including the following components:

• Glass (frames with the eye piece above the right eye)
• charging cord
• ear piece
• shades (to use Glass outside in the sun)
• pouch

It is important to note that the glass piece can be adjusted forward and backward and the nose pieces on the frames adjusted as well.  When wearing Glass you should be able to see the entire display comfortably above your right eye. 

Glass powered up right out of the box.  With the “Welcome” message on the virtual screen in plain sight, I geared up my iPhone with the free MyGlass app and quickly connected the two. The process of connecting to wifi is clever, to say the least.  Using the MyGlass app the user chooses to add a network and connects in phone.  The app generates a QR code.  Then using Glass the user navigates to ‘Add a network’ and “scans” the QR code (in essence, takes a photo of it) to connect the device to the Internet.