Note: This blog post is the first part of a two-part series describing my experience using the Google Glass in the medical school setting. The events in this series occurred in January 2014 over a 2-3 week period. Enjoy and please let me know what you think!
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I bet not many people (yet) can say that they have my kind of morning routine: wake up, brush teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, and PUT ON GOOGLE GLASS! But that is exactly what I did this morning for the first time.
I am very fortunate to be the recipient of a Google Glass (a pair of Google Glasses?), which I will be testing out in the medical school environment for the next 2-3 weeks. Last night, I picked them up from Dr. Henry Wei, who had first offered me this opportunity. He briefly demonstrated the sophisticated controls, which, from the outside, looked like a series of head-bobbing and temple-tapping. (I had a moment's thought that Dr. Wei was actually Cyclops from the X-Men.) "There's definitely a learning curve," I was warned. Boy, he was not kidding!
First a little bit about me. I'm just your average medical student. As a second-year at Cornell, I am still in my "classroom years," only seeing patients one afternoon a week. I'm also not much of a techno-geek (which I mean in the most admirable way!). I know my keyboard shortcuts and can get around Best Buy, but when some of my best friends start talking about Corsairs and DeathAdders, I just nod along. So I think this will be a good test for the Google Glass, to see how well it can be applied to those of us who are not too hot or too cold in tech-savviness.
So as I walked to school, I tried to get Google Glass to do some cool stuff. "OK, Glass," I said. Nothing happened. The purple screen floated mockingly above my right eye's visual field, depicting the time and a prompt to say, "OK, Glass." "OK, Glass," I said again, a little bit louder this time. Still nothing. Weird, last night it had worked perfectly to bring up a scrolling menu that allowed me to verbally take a photo. "OK, GLASS!!!" I think I must have shouted, because people glanced at me uneasily, bunched their jackets, and briskly hurried past. A nearby flock of New York pigeons also took flight. Maybe I should try this again, I thought to myself, when I am away from loud traffic and high-strung Upper-East-Siders.
At school, I walked into my 8:00 class. PBL (Problem-Based Learning) was always a fairly relaxed, yet oddly educational, atmosphere. Our instructor, Dr. F, was about to continue leading a case discussion about a sick patient with kidney problems. As I walked in, the 9 other students turned their heads. "Whoa, what's that you got there?" "Is that Google Glass?" "Can I try it on?" So I spent the first 5 minutes of class passing the Glass around to those who were interested, trying not to think about my embarrassingly futile commute. It was good that people only wanted to put it on and see the floating screen. Had they asked me to take a picture, Google a fact, or – heaven forbid – shoot Cyclops lasers, I would have had to sheepishly decline.
As the class progressed, I tried to figure out the Glass's controls. A flick of head upward turned it on. An invisible, touch-sensitive panel on the side of the frame let me scroll up, down, left, and right by simply swiping in that direction. A tap of the frame allowed me to select options. I turned to face my friend next to me. Click. I took a picture of him! "What might you look for in this patient if you suspected Alport Syndrome?" asked Dr. F, possibly noticing my inattentiveness. "Alport Syndrome patients have a mutation in the Collagen IV gene, which can also result in impaired vision and deafness," I rattled off, subconsciously pulling a Hermione Granger. "Very good! Did you just look that up on your Google Glass?" No, no I didn't. Because I don't know how.
When will I ever get the hang of this? I thought to myself. Oh well, at least I'll always know the time and never be late to class. My Google Glass will make sure of that.
To be continued!
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