100 Years of Photographic Technology...

...in a single snapshot.

My friends Ric and Kent visited Bandelier National Monument on Veterans Day last week.  Kent was using his Kodak 2D View Camera to take some 8x10 B&W photos of the ancient ruins there.  Meanwhile, I used Glass to document his process while Ric used his Canon DSLR to capture the beautiful fall scenery. 

The result was a photograph that I've long wanted taken:  a view camera next to Glass. 

Click to view larger image.

It summarizes all that has happened since 1921 when Kodak introduced their 2D.  Ric took the raw image through a Fuji Velvia filter and then applied a sepia effect, some random scratches, and a border. 

As monument visitors walked past Kent's set up, he would joke about the massive camera being his "point and shoot camera."  I just kept on filming. 

We had an interesting discussion about the differences between composing a photograph with both eyes (either a view camera or a digital camera/smartphone with LCD screen) and with one eye (traditional 35mm film camera or digital camera with a viewfinder).  If nothing else, a viewfinder makes it trivial to take digital photos in bright sunlight. 

Now time to build that "ground glass" app for Android--inverted, soft-focus images for the preview to mimic the effect of previewing an image on ground glass in a view camera.

Photographing the D&SNGRR

This week I rediscovered just how useful Glass can be.  The situation was trip to Durango, Colorado to ride the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

Use case #1:  Directions to the condo.  Navigation... no problem.  Actually, this is kinda ho-hum now. 

Use case #2:  Weather forecast.  With a 70% chance of rain forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday, it looked very likely that we'd get an uncomfortably wet trip.  Flash flood alerts were posted for most of that time.  With Glass, the weather radar app gave me a useful animation showing the storms and how they were moving.  It was many times faster than using NOAA, iMap, or browsing to the Weather Underground.

Glass, Interrupted

I'm back in the blogging saddle again, having survived the run-up to retirement. 

June with Glass

The Graduation

After the trip to Berkeley and then to Portland, you'd think I'd be done for awhile.  Not so, on June 6-10 I flew out to Boston and took the bus to Hanover, NH for my nephew's graduation from Dartmouth.  It was my first trip back their in probably 15 years. 

The food was great, the wine flowed, nephews were amazing and amusing, and the people were great.  I was able to use Glass to take plenty of photos and videos of the entire weekend.  Lots of friends of the family were eager to experience Glass and, as usual, they were very positive. 

First, there was the Phi Beta Kappa induction...

Then an honors reception at the Physics Dept...

including a tour of the undergraduate lounge...

and Peter's lab.  

 There were shenanigans in the back seat of the car on the way to the farm...

followed by lots of great food.

All this led up to the big event, Commencement.  Here's a GG snap of the Dartmouth Green with the crowd of visitors.

The processional was led by a bagpiper...

and we watched from a shady hillside.  

Glass was a big hit at the after-graduation luncheon...

and it let me take some great candid shots.  

#goodtimes

Once Again...

Thanks, Glass, for letting me capture moments like this with my brother.  

 

3D Glass

Project Tango

It appears that Google is working on a small-format tablet that will do real-time 3D scanning.  That's huge.  I can't even image what this kind of technology can do to enable the visually impaired.

Now jump ahead a few years and bundle this kind of tech with Glass.  You now have a web cam/browser over your right ear and the 3D scanner/processor over your left ear.  Talk about situational awareness.

Feast

Looks like Glass and privacy is in the news.  I find that interesting because here in ABQ, I've not had any negative public experiences, even if my manager is uncomfortable when I use them for work-related tasks.  In bars, I ask the bouncer on entry if Glass is OK, for example, at Two Fools' Tavern. 

At Annie's Soup Kitchen, they ask, "Where's your Glass?" when I don't wear them. 

Aztec Animal Clinic are using my #throughglass pieces in their social media and want more.  Here's Dr. Barb, the best vet in the entire world. 

Even the local food trucks are happy with my Glasswork. 

The issue will continue to work its way out as society comes to grips with the implications of pervasive, ubiquitous cameras.  As it is, security cameras, traffic cameras, and just plain smartphone cameras make the case against Glass pretty weak. 

I'll Stop Counting Now

Der Bunker

Finally got the Sandia-owned set of Glass back and took it out to the ersatz weapons storage igloo.  Took some nice stills and a couple minute-long videos.  Again, I'll have to await formal review and approval before I post them here.

The Sandia Glass appears to be stuck in XE12, so I expect an upgrade will be pushed over sometime this weekend.  Still not sure how it's handling Bluetooth... the iPhone says it's connected; Glass says it has no data.  Hmmm? 

Der Trompetenbaum

It's summer at last with temps in the 80s during the day and in the upper 50s at night.  I took this quick snap between rain squalls late this afternoon.  For two weeks each spring this catalpa is glorious, framing the south view from our pool. 

Then for the rest of the year it sheds spent blossoms, seeds, seed pods, and, in the fall, a ton of huge leaves.

Memorial Day Weekend

I'll be visiting my brother who suffers from PSP this Sunday, dropping by the National Cemetery en route to leave flowers on Dad's grave.  On Monday I'll be having Mom over for lunch... hamburgers hot off the grill.

Stand by for plenty of family photos.

Day 102

Stop me before I Blog again

OK, I really should be taking a break from this 100 days of Glass thing, but it's a habit now.  In Glass news, the device discharged its battery while sitting in its case all morning.  The CPU segment of the device was oddly warm.

Meanwhile, the company-owned Glass is safely locked inside a colleague's lateral file cabinet.  The key is coming home with another colleague who was supposed to reach ABQ late this afternoon.  Instead, she is safely in Denver with cancelled flights due to severe weather.  Might have to do tomorrow's mock inspection with just an iPhone.

Late in the afternoon I received an e-mail from one of the participants at last week's INMM conference on Information Analysis in Portland.  He thanked me again for the opportunity to try on Glass.  I sent him some of the pics that I had taken through Glass, for example, here he is with Dr. Sullivan of the University of Illinois (the other speaker who was also a Glass Explorer). 

Day 100

The Odometer Rolls Over

There it is, the big "100" in the title.  Although I'm three months behind on my Plone Metrics posts, I managed this effort with only a couple days that slipped over the midnight mark by a few hours. 

Now that I'm back from Berkeley and Portland, I'm concentrating on getting ready for our field exercise comparing mobile ICT with manual methods for arms control inspections.  With Syrian chemical weapons attacks still in the news and negotiations with Iran hitting a snag, it's clear that arms control and nuclear nonproliferation are still critically important issues.  The question is where does Glass fit and how can it help? 

On "All Tech Considered" tonight they discussed how the Internet and activist blogging is affecting the behavior of states and nations.  With Glass you don't have to hold up a cellphone camera or even have a GoPro's black box on your helmet in order to capture a moment.  While Glass is still clunky and geeky, in a crowd it can be difficult to spot (at least the black and beige styles).  I can see where Glass could really enable accurate and timely recording of events... in Afghanistan, in the Ukraine, in November.

In five more years, the functionality of Glass will fit within standard frames.  In ten more years, wearable systems will be more like embeddable systems with digital contact lenses and implants.  The great wave is here. 

Day 99

100 Days of Glass

Officially, it's over.  This is my hundredth day of blogging about my experiences with Glass.  Instead of spending it with Glass on my head all day, it ended up an almost Glass-less day:  a few mundane household chores this morning, lunch with Mom at Annie's Soup Kitchen (where they often ask about Glass), cooking up Chicken Dijonne in the crock pot, prepping for Thursday's mock arms control inspection, and finishing the day with Game of Thrones. 

Day 98

A "Normal" Saturday

Slept in, then had a shot of coffee and managed the daily cat pilling without losing too much blood.  The turtles were out, so they got strawberries for breakfast.  Then Kent came over to discuss various handyman projects around the house. 

The first grilled hotdogs of the season came off the propane for lunch.  Spent a bit of time moving the Gardenias out of the house and Plectanthrus out of the greenhouse and under the junipers.  Then the Pool Whisperer (Cal) came over to open the pool. 

Day 97

Fryday

After an uneventful day back at the office (first time since May 2nd), I had time to do some turtle herding in the backyard.  Found #10 and Trudy in the Iris bed.  Naughty, naughty.  Distracted them from their illicit affair with a couple raw shrimp, which they eagerly devoured.

Meanwhile, here's a collection of photos of the Dragon Boats that ply the Willamette River.  Taken Wednesday after lunch, by evening dozens and dozens of crews were rowing them up and down the river.

Day 96

Back to Blogger Desktop

Whew!  Finally back to a Blogger interface that will accept embedded photographs.  Time to bring this blog up to date with imagery. 

Had a great time in Portland at INMM:  made contact with one of my sponsors at the State Dept., met lots of new people, saw my first SafeCast radiation monitor in the wild,

gave a well-received presentation, and had a Glass trifecta.  Here's my colleague, Mike McDaniel, giving his presentation on the first day.

That evening there was a mixer and Glass made for great cocktail conversation, whether at the pasta bar, 

or just around the table.  

Here's Dr. Clair Sullivan, the other person who brought their Glass to the meeting.  

And here she is in action on the final day for the final presentation before the closing plenary panel discussion.  

Tamara Patton also has a pair and was present, but she left them in New York.  :-/  Either way that made for 3 people who had Glass in an obscure group of about 50 nonproliferation specialists.  Amazing. 

Day 90

Almost There

Had an early Mom's Day luncheon with Mom today.  I didn't take Glass and regretted it.  Fortunately, I had my Droid.

This car was not only parked in the striped portion of a handicapped zone, but on the access ramp.  Mom (93 with a walker) had to climb down a 6" curb to get to my car.  Hope the management at Le Peep (good guys) tracked the driver down and then called 242-COPS.

Day 89

Blogging from the Desktop

Time to get caught up on embedded photographs now that I'm back at my desktop.  Funny how the Blogger app for mobile fails with my Droid whenever I specify a location or attempt to add a photograph.  It's not Glass's fault, but you'd think there'd be some level of compatibility between the desktop editor and the mobile editor.

Day 85

May the 4th be with you

Star Wars Day started out beautifully with time spent feeding and weighing turtles, watering plants, and getting in touch with the garden.  Below is a picture of the Columbines #throughglass. 

Day 84

The Garage Sale, Part 2

It's Saturday and technically the second day of the Great Matthew Meadow Neighborhood Association Garage Sale.  Up early and setting out tables for the first wave of buyers around 8:00.  Later in the morning I did a quick bike ride around the neighborhood and found these entrepreneurs.  Too bad I didn't have an extra 75 cents for a Krispy Kreme. 

Day 83

The Garage Sale

This morning saw the beginning of the Matthew Meadow Neighborhood Garage Sale.  We had a steady turnout...

Day 82

Take the Long Way Home

(Supertramp, 1979)

I left NISAC late and decided I'd head off base by one of the western gates.  When I got to the end of the runway, I took a left on the spur of the moment.  That leads to the South Gate, almost to Rio Bravo.

Day 81

Dust, Haze, Cinders

A cold front from eastern NM pushed an enormous air mass full of dust raised by the weekend winds into the ABQ area overnight.  The Sandia Mountains were barely visible and air quality alerts were issued. 

After lunch with my old college buddy McGoey, I paused for a couple photos on the way back to the office.  I took several and deleted all but one.  Now, while looking for the image to include it in this post, the pic appears to be gone.  Curious.