Futuristic Google Glass has people talking but some are less than wowed

'I'm just a tech nerd who builds computers and writes code,' said Fawcett, one of those who has to have the latest gadget.

Since getting the futuristic device in October, Fawcett, 31, says it has gone from being a novelty to an indispensable utility for him.

'I wear it every day,' he said. 'Except at home, when it wouldn't really make much sense.'

When he gets up in the morning, he checks for traffic conditions before making the hour commute to his job as a parts manager at Harley-Davidson in Ocala. On the way, he gets weather reports, Twitter updates and scans email and text messages.

Fawcett is one of several people in Gainesville who owns a Google Glass device - a 'wearable computer' attached to the right earpiece of a featherweight, flexible frame. It uses smartphone technology and voice commands to allow the user to access information from the Internet 'hands-free' on an LED screen the size of a thumbnail over the right eye.

It also has a touch pad on the side of the device that allows the user to scroll through a timeline. And it has a front camera that shoots still shots and videos from the viewer's point of view, or POV - Fawcett's favorite feature.

'First-person POV is a killer,' Fawcett said. 'I was even able to record my engagement.'

Google first sent the devices to software developers and engineers last year, then invited the public to buy the product as part of its Explorer and Friends of Google programs. Last week, it sold the product to the public for 24 hours.

'We have several thousand explorers,' said Maggie Shiels, a representative for Google.

Google Glass uses existing Google applications such as Gmail and Google+, as well as apps made by third-party developers. Apps are available for weather, travel, exercise and GPS, with other apps in development - including a face recognition app and apps with medical uses.

While the device has been praised - TIME magazine called it the best invention of 2012 - other technology types are not as impressed and have found fault with Google Glass, questioning the market it's targeting and the purpose it's supposed to serve.

Duncan Kabinu, 48, managing partner at Starter Space, an incubator/workspace in Gainesville for startup tech companies, said he's not sure what niche or need Google Glass is expected to fill.

'As in any startup company, you are trying to solve a problem,' he said. 'What problem are you solving with Google Glass? I haven't been compelled to do anything with it.'

Kabinu said he saw an advertisement for one app that allowed a person to photograph a pair of shoes, for example, and find out where those shoes were being sold locally.

'Besides that, other than personal stuff like emails and the Web, I haven't seen somebody come up with something that blew me away,' Kabinu said.

Kabinu said a friend of his has a pair he never uses and that it might be a technology that people are not ready for yet, especially at the price.

'At $1,500, I didn't want it to sit on my desk and do nothing,' Kabinu said. 'Why bother?'

Kabinu also wears prescription glasses. When Google Glass first came out, it didn't offer prescription frames, though it now has a small selection.

As other critics have noted, Kabinu said he was concerned about the privacy issues related to the camera feature.

The camera is 'more of an invasive tool than anything else,' he said. But that could be corrected if the camera had a flashing warning light to let people know it was on, he said.

Other critics have raised concerns about the safety of driving while wearing Google Glass. A lawmaker in West Virginia has introduced legislation banning driving with Google Glass, and in California, a man was ticketed for driving while using his Glass device.

The idea of a wearable computer has been kicked around for decades, and other glasses are in the market as output devices, not complete platforms, said Sumi Helal, 54, director of the Gator Tech Smart House at the University of Florida.

'Early complete wearable systems include the Xybernauts,' said Helal, who has a model from 2001 in his lab. 'It's pretty clunky but impressive as a 2001 wearable computer.'

Google invited him to buy the Glass, but he said he couldn't justify spending $1,500 on technology that was still under development.

Nonetheless, he said, his class next fall likely will include some apps using Glass.

'The problem with Glass is that while it is an exciting product, its market is uncertain,' Helal said. 'This is the case despite Microsoft and Samsung running after Google to catch up.'

Some people locally are using Google Glass to test its scientific and professional applications.

Steve Johnson, a 24-year-old lecturer at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications and visual coordinator in the college's office of communications, has been experimenting with Google Glass as a storytelling tool with his students.

'Especially as we are being asked to put more and more classes online, this is great tool for an educator to use when you really have to bring a student to a hands-on environment but can't,' Johnson said. 'It is much more effective than worksheets and bullet points.'

For example, he said, he has used Google Glass to show students which cameras he chooses for particular photos he takes at football games. He has also used the camera to shoot video and stills of football games, the UF marching band, even his commute to work.

The Google Glass that Johnson uses was purchased last fall by Matt Sheehan, director of the College of Journalism's Innovation News Center.

'Part of our mission here is not only to do the daily but to see what's coming next,' Sheehan said.

Experimenting with new devices helps discover what they mean not only for gathering and delivering the news but how the audience consumes the news and engages with the news outlet, Sheehan said.

Ben Crosier, 30, is a doctoral candidate in social psychology at UF who will start his postdoctoral work at Dartmouth this summer. He is using Google Glass in connection with his research - to mine data, pull information from video, audio and proximity settings using Bluetooth to see what people are doing, where they are doing it, and who they are doing it with, and plug in that information to computer modeling to predict how people will act.

Crosier said it's a great research tool because of all the sensors built into it that are constantly gathering data.

'As a data collection tool for social scientists and marketers, we can learn so much about people, what they're interested in, who they are with, where they are,' he said. 'And then we can directly bomb them right into their eyes with advertising tailored right to them, where they are and who they are with.'

But as a socially accepted tool, it's got a ways to go, Crosier said.

'They are really cool to use, but they have some aesthetic issues around them. They are clunky, goofy-looking, and if you wear them outside, you can't walk 10 feet without someone asking to try them on.'

Crosier also said Google has some public relations work to do, most of which will go away eventually.

'Once a lot more people get their hands on them and they become more normal, the less special they will seem and a lot of the PR problems will dissipate,' he said.

Crosier doesn't agree that there is a serious privacy issue with the camera.

'It is so obvious when you are wearing Glass outside, there is zero hiding,' he said. 'So anyone worried about clandestinely being filmed? I am not too concerned about that, because you stick out like a sore thumb.'