Google Glass Hack For Apple Fanboys Can Be Had Right Now

google-glass-for-apple-iphone

If you’re a follower of Apple hardware the upcoming Google Glass release probably doesn’t interest you much. But the concept is universally cool. If you want to have your own one-eyed voice-activated computer running iOS, then this is the hack for you. [John] calls it the Beady-i, and posted a step-by-step article on how he put it together.

The headpiece is shown on the left. It’s a combination of a pair of glasses with projection screens built-in, and a gaming headset. [John] cut off one of the lenses, and removed the remaining arm of the glasses. That arm was replaced with the frame of a gaming headset, which now wraps around the back of his neck to make sure the lopsided display isn’t going to fall off.

By combining the electronics from both the glasses and the headset, and terminating the connections with a docking plug he’s got what he was after. The lens displays what is shown on the screen, and the gaming headset lets him hear the device’s sound in one ear and register input using the microphone.

27 thoughts on “Google Glass Hack For Apple Fanboys Can Be Had Right Now

  1. The concept is not universally cool.

    The idea that a computer is constantly giving you input, recording your location, and generally moving from ‘tool’ to ‘crutch’ is actually quite scary.

    If you look at children these days, you can an impact on their ability to entertain themselves without a screen. They seem to have trouble playing with anything else. Encouraging that is not a positive way to go.

    I can see an application for such technology, but I don’t think consumers have an everyday use for them.

    1. Technology-as-crutch and “kids these days” posts are a lot more interesting when you include an example or two.

      And did you seriously just use the “I don’t see a use for them” line people kept repeating for smartphones, the internet, and computers?

    2. I’m 34 and *I* have trouble entertaining myself without a screen. Best I can do is books.

      Apart from sports. Although I do take my phone when running, I only use it to log the workout and call out my split times, and don’t actually look at it much.

    1. I don’t think so. The trick would be finding a wearable display that was both affordable and had support for HDMI since a lot of android phones have micro-HDMI already on them. The apple devices still have a composite out in the dock connector and MyVu made displays like this one that take advantage of that fairly affordable (under 200 on ebay if you poke around). As for the voice command side of things there are plenty of good speech to text apps in Play (I’ve messed with Vlingo myself but there are all sorts of different options)

      1. It’s $800, and back-ordered for a while it seems, but this display has an HDMI input. It may not be as cheap as this hack, but it’s cheaper than Google’s offering, and looks to have a much better resolution as well. I already bookmarked this to check when they are shipping again, because of this gem in the specs: Resolution: 1920 x 1080 native

        Seems like it’s nearly impossible to find HD+ resolution HMDs for less than $5000 these days. These don’t look bad at all.

        http://www.siliconmicrodisplay.com/st1080.html

    2. Most android phones don’t have TV out, however if you do have TV out and have a converter box in line, then it’s perfectly possible, hell you could write a driver that flips the display if you wanted to!

    3. As others are pointing out, it’s difficult to find HMDs compatible with Android phones. Most of these were designed to accept only composite or S-video, but only few devices, like older Archos ones or the original international Galaxy S, are capable of it. iOS devices, on the other hand, supported S-video since iPod Photo(4th) up to very recent models(iPad 3 I guess?).

      btw, I have this exact MyVu glasses I picked up in Akihabara, and I even tried hooking it up to an iPod touch 1G few years back, but I also use prescription glasses. Display cables running down my head, earphones in my ears, control box with video in and out, touch with video and power… that’s a whole bunch of cables. I think it’s cables that holds back uses of HMDs. It has to be in a single manageable package if you are to wear it.

  2. I’m sorry, I’ve been using a hacked myvu for years, How the fuck is this anything new?
    And what CAN you actually display on this? Tv shows? 1-sided video chat? This is no heads up display, This is useless.

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