Ever since I heard about Google making Google Glass a year ago, I have been super excited to try it out on a motorcycle. It was almost just about how I would expect it to be. It looked super awesome and futuristic having a see through display right in front of my eyes. As far as safety goes, it was rather strange having a lit display everywhere I looked. It got a little distracting at times, especially when checking my blind spot.
CHECK OUT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE RIDING AT NIGHT!
After using the glass… I am not sure how they will ever implement a HUD display that isn’t distracting to a motorcyclist. It’s a completely different ball game when you bring something foreign onto your field of view. About 15 minutes into my ride I thought “I should not be doing this.” (Which is never a good sign for safety. And Ive been riding motorcycles for 10 years!)
Getting the Glass into my helmet wasn’t too big of an issue (although I have heard that others have tried it with much less success.) The helmet I use is size XL from HJC. It’s one of my favorite helmets of all time.
Keep in mind that although I tried to make the video as realistic as possible, the human viewpoint extends a little farther than the edges of the screen. (Left and right as well as up and down relative to what you can see on the YouTube video.) I tried to make the viewing window of the Google Glass the same size relative to the real world objects portrayed in the video. But nature human vision will give you more to look at, and less focused on the view screen itself; it will seem less obstructive in real life. Also, remember that your left eye is completely unobstructed, and that helps out as well. The screen itself is a little different in real life as well, you can see a bit more of the prism around the display as you look into it. (Since the display is inside a cube.)
As I stated in the video, the hardest part about having the glass right in front of your face is when you are checking your blind spots. A quick glance over your shoulder suddenly has a screen obscuring your view of any oncoming cars that were hidden in your blind spot. At this point in time I believe that a handle bar mounted Motorcycle GPS system would be much safer. (And $1200 dollars cheaper.)
A hard part about using glass in a high stress situation like riding a motorcycle is that you have to ‘unfocus’ your eyes from the road to see the screen. Its not like texting and driving (*cough* not that anyone does that…) where you can partly use your peripheral vision to drive. Focusing on something 2 inches in front of your eye is much different than focusing on something in your hand an arms length away, and the time it takes to ‘refocus’ back on the road takes longer because of the extreme differences. While driving a motorcycle that delay can be costly.
Once the glass is in listening mode, I can start finding directions, stop the directions, find new directions, all without touching the side of the glass. So you can operate the whole thing while riding. Obviously this is much easier inside a helmet as you have less interference from the wind.
Click HERE for Current Google Glass Pricing on Amazon
If you have any questions about how Google Glass works or anything that YOU would like to see from the Google Glass, be sure to leave a comment below, and ill try to make it happen.
Share this video with your Motorcycle friends! They’ll get a kick out of it.