I wrote before that I am quite bullish on certain professional and niche personal applications of Google Glass but find the adoption strategy puzzling. Having just tried Glass for the first time I feel quite comfortable with both of these assessments which I had made prior to a first hand experience.

Glass is easy to wear and operate and the one I tried projected in way that did not force me to look up. I could completely see myself skiing or sailing with Google Glass (wondering if any of the America’s Cup teams will try this). Having relevant information projected right into my field of vision, take pictures and video and query various systems makes immediate sense in those contexts. That will very clearly also be highly relevant to many work environments from a warehouse or factory to an operating room (many of these will require some kind of always on mode).

Yet at the same time I also found this is not an experience that most people are likely to be ready for in their day-to-day lives (and by that I mean both the wearer and “second hand” Glass). Having additional information displayed makes you quite self conscious and those you are observing even more so. I can see that going away over time but that time will not be measured in weeks or even months.

Nonetheless Glass is a powerful glimpse of the future and a well executed piece of hardware. It will be interesting to see how long Google can and will enforce restrictions on Glass applications.