Google VC Thinks We'll Want VR & AR in Contact Lenses -- Does Anyone at Google Actually Wear Contact Lenses?

As we ponder which virtual reality headset we're most interested in buying, here's an interesting interview with Joe Kraus, general partner at Google Ventures, who offers his insights on how Google's VC arm invests in virtual reality and augmented reality tech... and then drops this WTF bomb:

In the future, Joe sees that virtual reality is taking us down a path towards augmented reality, and that they both have a role. Ultimately, Joe wants a contact lens that’s possible to do full transparency and selective occlusion to do remote telepresence with AR, and he also wants lights-out VR to be able to completely transport himself into a virtual environment. He recognizes that the laws of physics may prevent this vision of coming true, but that we’ll be able to get pretty close with glasses or something akin to wearable ski goggles.

This is not even Google's only contact lens-related aspiration, because they're building a computerized contact lens project right now. (With help from a founding Linden Lab engineer who's now at Google, as it happens.) All of which makes me wonder:

Does anyone at Google actually wear contact lenses?

Literally everyone I know who wears contact lenses (including myself) complain from time to time about how painful/time-consuming/annoying/dirty/difficult/blurry they are to wear, and that's despite the fact that contacts have significantly improved over the last few decades. How could anyone possibly conceive of contact lenses as the most desirable form factor for augmented/virtual reality or computing... let alone vision correction? (It's fair to guess that most contact lens wearers would instead opt for Lasik-type vision correction if it weren't for the high cost or fear of frigging lasers.)

The same, of course, could be said for augmented reality integrated in glasses or goggles, which again points to the failure of Google Glass -- and the failure of virtual reality enthusiasts in general, who often predict that VR goggles will eventually be the size of average eyeglasses. But few people who wear glasses actually want to wear glasses if they had another option -- certainly not over an extended period of time. (I think this partly why 3D movie sales have been underwhelming, and movies are just 90-180 minutes.) Yet somehow, these basic, biologically irreducible facts of human vulnerability and comfort keep escaping many VR advocates - even after wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on projects which ignore them.

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Comments

[Pussycat Catnap]

As someone who has never worn contacts, but grew up seeing ads for them as they became a thing...

We've been sold on how convenient, easy, unnoticeable, and comfortable they "are".

So I suspect you're right - everyone at Google on this idea is like me, and has no actual idea what they're talking about on this subject...

Except... I at least recognize I don't know... and so I would try to be smart and defer to you and others who have told me that they don't live up to their hype. :)

[Pussycat Catnap]

There's actually a 20-something year old in my 'RL social group' who wears eyeglass frames (with no lenses) as a fashion statement...

So... who knows... they might be able to do it.

The problem people had with Google Glass is that it came across as a tool to spy on the people around you... Not that they were glasses...

[Wagner James Au]

Yeah I considered mentioning the fashion statement exception, but I think that's a very temporary phase - like wear them as a fashion prop for awhile on certain occasions. But I seriously doubt anyone wears them when no one else is in the room. :)

[Metacam Oh]

Normally Id prob agree with you about contacts being horrible but recently just started using Acuvue Hydraclear contacts and they are the best contacts ive ever worn. They take a second to put in and have no issues at all until late at night when Ive been wearing them all day and they dry up a bit. These contacts are so good I now wear them everyday no issues.

[Amanda Dallin]

I tried contacts years ago and one of my eyes swelled up really big. It was very painful and I looked like Popeye the sailors sister. The very experienced eye doctor said he'd never seen anything like it. Two eyes swelling wasn't uncommon but never one. I quickly went back to glasses and would never wear contacts again even though I'm sure they are better now. I would never try any kind of VR/AR in contacts.

I"ve worn glasses since I was 8 and can't see much more than 8 inches past my nose without them. A light weight eyeglass style VR device wouldn't bother me but eye glasses are as part of my everyday outfit as socks and underwear.

Goggles that totally cutoff the rest of the world though are a instant no-go for me for anything except a short event.

[Pussycat Catnap]

So if not contacts, goggles, iron masks, or glasses...

How will they get us to engage with VR?

Might it all wash out to being like the scene in Total Recall (I think) where as you walk by billboards they personalize to you... but are as such still seen by everyone else?

Cyberpunk used to propose the idea of putting chips in everyone - but this just seems unlikely as it would, rightfully, valid every "they coming to take you over" conspiracy theory people have ever been able to come up with...

This seems like the killer issue VR will have to solve before it can reach acceptance... And Google Glass kind of showed that even when you're the "cool hip brand", you can't just overcome this by force of will.

And yeah - Wearing glasses with no lens is a bit like a mood ring or pocket protector - it might be cool in its moment but it is all fad and can just as easily be extremely ridiculed on the flip of a dime.

I think any solution is going to require a huge amount of social engineering...
- And there are not many examples of massive 'intentional' social engineering working without a critical need being addressed. This is like teaching early humans to wear clothes... That didn't happen until somebody got too far from primordial pre-Ice Age Africa and realized it was freaking cold out there...

Human beings are just not trained to put an octopus on their heads without a pressing need.

[melponeme_k]

Not going to happen for me.

I can't wear contacts because they dry my eyes out. I never was able to wear them for more than 2 to 3 hours at a time. So I'm stuck with regular glasses.

Even still I wouldn't wear glasses with devices built into them. I need my eye wear to see the world around me so that I don't fall into a ditch or sink hole. Pasting unreal images over eye wear I need to navigate the world seems rather counterproductive to my life.

[RULosingHair]

I see no point in doling out the money to Linden Lab.

LL only wants to Cash Cow the SL1.0 situation with SL1.0 Die-Hards, and switch over to SL2.0.

LL wants to continue their predatory ways on SL2.0, since the TOS trick backfired on SL1.0.