This article is from WeChat official account:qubit (ID: QbitAI), author: fish, sheep, Guhao Nan, from the title figure: vision China
You are the only master of time management with these black technology glasses.
Only US$249-RMB 1702.
Recently, this smart glasses named Specs appeared on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo, and was “sought after” by foreign technology media.
The main function is a bit special: Improve productivity and improve procrastination.
How to improve?
This glasses can recognize the content you are currently viewing through the built-in camera based on machine learning technology.
In addition, it can also combine the content of recognition and the monitoring of pulse and blood oxygen saturation to accurately judge your attention situation throughout the day.
What? Is this the rhythm of having glasses as a supervisor? Anti-fishing artifact?
What kind of amazing product is this?
Distracted? The glasses will find
Your failure is not that you are not good enough, but that there is too much interference from the outside…
The launch of this product is a Canadian startup company Auctify, whose Asian CEO said so clearly in the promotional video.
(I love to hear these words, it’s not my fault that I didn’t realize the freedom of wealth!)
The meaning of the words, the only difference between you and the master of time management is these glasses.
According to the previous news released by Auctify on the crowdfunding website, Specs glasses use a built-in machine learning algorithm to determine whether the wearer is currently “concentrating” on business.
Once you turn your gaze away, the glasses will send you a tone through the bone conduction headset that comes with it:
A long sigh~ I can only put down my phone and move on.
Specs glasses are more advanced than other apps designed to prevent wandering.They are not simply locking the phone screen, but judging whether your current behavior is focused.
In a product test video, Specs glasses can identify other distracting activities, such as chatting with others, in addition to identifying whether you are playing on a mobile phone.
It can be clearly seen from the test video that this pair of glasses judges attention based on whether the line of sight is on the book (or screen).
When all the books appear inside the camera lens of the glasses, the algorithm judges that the “productivity” at this time is “high”;
When only part of the book or other detection target appears in the lens, it is “disturbed” and the productivity statistics are also grayed out.
And when you completely look away, productivity immediately turns red, and the system will immediately remind you.
A slight movement of the line of sight will directly affect the system’s judgment.
But the amazing thing is that even in the “high productivity” statistical graph, there are many ups and downs. Can these glasses still detect brain waves?
According to the official information and product structure diagram, Specs glasses are mainly based on the visual solution, and the auxiliary basis is the pulse and blood oxygen concentration. There are no brain-computer interaction components.
So is concentration related to a person’s pulse and blood oxygen concentration?
The official explanation is provided.
Bracelet on the face
And to what extent this glasses can improve work efficiency is still questionable.
The Verge, an American technology media, raised possible problems with Specs.
First, the user must set the usage scene in the associated app, so that the glasses know what scene to remind you in.
According to Auctify, their model can now classify data into 50 common activities, such as watching TV, eating, reading, etc.
But after setting it up, the question arises. Is the judgment of Specs glasses really reliable?
For example, if you need to search for information on Twitter at work, the glasses cannot tell whether you are working or swiping on Twitter.
Moreover, Specs glasses are not really “anti-wandering”. Being in a daze with the target object, or simply closing your eyes and nap, can completely fool the algorithm.
The occurrence of human inertia cannot be saved by high technology.
From the test video, the algorithm currently loaded on Specs glasses may only be simple target recognition. In other words, it can only know that the book that appears in your field of vision is a book. As for whether you are reading a professional book or the “most Qiang Zuo Son-in-law”, it is not clear.
This is a big discount to its practicality.
After all, staring at the computer empty and wandering, thinking about what to eat at noon today, this is the traditional performance of senior social animals.
However, the inability to effectively improve work efficiency does not prevent others from selling goods.
Specs glasses cannot integrate brain-computer interaction, but integrated Bluetooth headsets and sports bracelets, not great
When you exercise, it will help you detect heart rate, blood oxygen and other data, and help you recommend an exercise plan on the app;
I’ll answer the call directly for youThrough the bone conduction headset built into the glasses.
This feature of important schedule reminder is easier to win.
How much power consumption is this glasses? Is battery life OK?
All the questions that came to mind most directly, the official did not explain at all…
But in the introduction of the kit, there is a glasses case that can be recharged and 4 spare batteries.
Except for the fundamental question, the other packaging is pretty decent.
But it is a bracelet worn on the face. This bracelet may not be strong enough to remind you. It is recommended to use it with the “Electric Shock bracelet” that was crowdfunded a few years ago to really help you get rid of procrastination, otherwise you will keep calling you.
And to be honest, $249, get glasses + bracelet + earphones, is it cost-effective?
Specs glasses did get a lot of attention. On the crowdfunding platform, more than $10,000 was raised in less than an hour.
If you fund the project now, you can still get the official sports expansion pack when it goes on sale in December this year, how about it? Would you like to think about it? (manual dog head)
Looking at the market, there is nothing you can hit
Although it is described as a flowery, it is only a crowdfunding product after all.
According to a survey conducted by the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform in 2015, about one-tenth of the projects that reached the fundraising goal on the platform failed to deliver a reliable product.
However, similar lightweight smart glasses have appeared on the market. For example, Focals, launched by North, a Canadian smart glasses manufacturer that has been acquired by Google, is officially on sale at a price of US$599 from (approximately RMB 4096)
Focals allows users to see information such as date, time, weather, and information through the lens. The battery life is 18 hours.
But in reality, this is not much “smart”. Its function is realized by using a small projector on the temples to project the phone screen onto the reflection area on the lens, and then form a holographic image that can be integrated into reality in front of the user’s eyes.
The temples are still very strong
From a functional point of view, compared to smart glasses, it is actually more like an external display of a mobile phone.
However, such a smart glasses without a camera weighs 68.3g—normal glasses usually weigh between 10 and 30g.
Like Specs, Focals also supports custom lenses with power. However, matching such a pair of glasses requires consumers to go to the store in person to perform 3D scan modeling.
After being acquired by Google, North has announced the termination of the Focals project. Focals 2.0, which was planned to be launched this year, has been cancelled and all related services have been stopped after July 31 this year.
In contrast, from the demo video released by Auctify, Specs looks much lighter, but the functions to be implemented are much more complicated than Focals.
As advertised by Auctify, there is really no portable smart glasses in the world that can realize the “smart” function of supervising learning and increasing productivity.
In view of the intermittent, short-term projection of Focals, and the battery life is only 18 hours, I kind of understand why Specs needs 4 spare batteries.
Although Auctify said that they have built a fully functional Specs prototype, the technology media The Verge still pointed out that the process from prototype to mass-produced consumer electronics is very challenging.
It is even more difficult to pack hardware capable of supporting such a rich function into such a small shell, and to combine machine learning to realize its key functions.
After all, the target detection glasses that can be mass-produced now basically look like this:
Microsoft HoloLens
And this:
Rokid AR glasses
Basically, it is for enterprise-level sales and applications…The price is not as cheap as a thousand yuan.