Director of Google's secret X lab that the lab's focus is now on Project Wing
Head of Google's secretive X lab defends Glass headset
against privacy campaigners - and explains why engineers now wear fluffy socks
to work
Dr Astro Teller described Google Glass as 'poster child'
for privacy issues
Director of Google's secret X lab said it used cameras
that already existed
Speaking at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival
in Austin, Texas he insisted we'll 'be seeing a lot more' of the technology
very soon
The 44-year-old added that the lab's focus is now on
Project Wing
By Mia De Graaf In Austin For Dailymail.com
Published: 18:48 EST, 17 March 2015 | Updated: 09:30 EST, 18 March 2015
Dr Astro Teller, director of Google's secret X lab, has
described Google Glass as the 'poster child' for privacy issues - but insisted
we'll 'be seeing a lot more' of the technology very soon.
Speaking at South By Southwest Interactive Festival in
Austin, Texas, on Tuesday, the 44-year-old defended the headset by saying it
just used cameras that were already in existence.
He also slammed the way people use Google[x] to highlight
privacy concerns.
Speaking to DailyMail.com after the talk, Dr Teller also
gave a rare glimpse into the workings of Google[x], and made a rallying call
for diversity in every industry.
'Google Glass did not move the needle,' he explained.
'It was literally a rounding error on the number of
cameras in your life.'
The 'smart glasses', which act as a computer screen in
front of your eyes, sparked furious debate when they were rolled out to the
general public - which Dr Teller concedes was a mistake.
In a bid to get feedback on the first prototype, 'we did
things which encouraged people to think of this as a finished product'.
HOW GOOGLE'S DELIVERY DRONES WORK
Project Wing's aircraft have a wingspan of approximately
1.5m (4.9ft) and have four electrically-driven propellers.
The total weight, including the package to be delivered,
is approximately 10kg (22lb).
The aircraft itself accounts for the bulk of that at
8.5kg (18.7lb).
The hybrid 'tail sitter' design has wings for fast
forward flight, and rotors for hovering for delivery and vertical take-off and
landing.
Dual mode operation gives the self-flying vehicle some of
the benefits of both planes and helicopters.
It can take off or land without a runway, and can hold
its position hovering in one spot to gently drop packages.
Packages are stored in the drone's 'belly' then dropped
on a string before being gently lowered to the ground.
At the end of the tether, there's a little bundle of
electronics the team call the 'egg,' which detects that the package has hit the
ground, detaches from the delivery, and is pulled back up into the body of the
vehicle.
And though it has disappeared from the market for further
testing, he assured DailyMail.com 'you'll be seeing a lot more of Google Glass
very soon.'
Another source of controversy is the self-driving car,
with fears that technical glitches - even by accident - could pose as a
significant safety hazard.
Laughing, Dr Teller dismissed that theory.
'People text when they're meant to actually be driving.
So imagine what they do when they think the car's got it under control.
'The assumption that humans can be a reliable back-up for
the system is a total fallacy.'
For now, the focus is on Project Wing, autonomous drones
which could deliver products across a city within minutes.
Dr Teller revealed the firm will make a major
announcement on Project Wing's progress later this year.
Among the current crop of experiments, dubbed
'moonshots', is the self-driving car, a giant kite-style wind turbine that
hangs from a string, autonomous drones, and Project Loon, which aims to bring
internet signal to the four billion unconnected people in the world using
balloons.
Dr Teller, the so-called Captain Of Moonshots, told South
By Southwest Interactive Festival that the company has had to fly in
helicopters to every end of the Earth - from the Arctic Circle to the South
Pacific - to retrieve balloons which exploded during initial experiments for
Project Loon.
'We designed our early balloons to fail,' he said.
'But what was not ideal was going to pick them up.'
And in their desperation to speed up the manufacturing
process of the 60-foot balloons, they even tested the engineers' socks to see
which made them more agile and therefore more efficient.
'We got the techies to wear thin cotton socks and do a
line dance,' he laughed.
'Then we got them to put on the fluffy socks and line
dance again… Now they all wear fluffy socks.'
A moonshot is something akin to JFK's mission to get a
man on the moon by 1961, Dr Teller explained.
It has to tackle a problem that improves the state of the
world, have a key technical obstacle that needs to be solved, and be
environmentally friendly and efficient.
And no idea is off limits - if it fits the criteria.
'You'd be surprised the number of people that come up to
me and say 'let's get rid of corruption!',' he said.
'I say, 'yeah sure but that's not a moonshot'.'
The key component, Dr Teller declared, is diversity in
the company.
'People throw around the word 'diversity' like it's a tip
at a restaurant.
'But really, having people who have different mental
perspectives is what's important.
'If you want to explore things you haven't explored,
having people who look just like you and think just like you is not the best
way.'
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