Is Computer’s Future a Glass House?

Google’s Project Glass is getting a lot of play lately, with Sergey Brin recently wearing a prototype while calling smartphones “emasculating,” and a Google video showing the computerized eyewear in action.

The video appeared a couple weeks ago:

Here’s another glass-inspired vision of the future that looks eerily like the “Minority Report,” only not as controversial and dark. It comes from Corning, a manufacturer of glass and ceramics products.

Corning’s 2012 video, the second of a two-part series, features a family going about its day. I prefer this video to the first Corning video because of the segment where a doctor helps in a surgery across the world (or at least that’s what I think is happening). That’s kinda cool.

In the Corning video, there’s background music but no speech, a throwback to Hollywood’s silent films. Apparently, the voice-enabled, ubiquitous Star Trek computer isn’t the future interface (sorry, Siri).

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Meanwhile, Apple wants to go back in time with a geeky iWatch that looks a lot like the calculator watch I wore as a kid but never used.

So what do these “Through the Looking Glass” videos tell us? You might want to invest in Windex.