Two days ago, I received the most exciting comment on a Google+ post that I have ever received:

“Hi, thanks for applying!  We’d like to invite you to join our #glassexplorers program.  We’ll be sending you a private message with more details in the coming weeks – keep an eye on our stream at Project Glass.”

Heck-to-the-YEAH!

I am incredibly excited for the opportunity to try out Google Glass, along with 7,999 other people accepted into the explorer program, and any developers that preordered it at the original conference where they first publicly displayed them with the super awesome demonstration of skydivers, cyclists and others.  It was sweet, and ever since then I’d been excited about the various opportunities that they may provide once they become released to the general public.  If someone can stream a skydiving jump (with long range patch antennas, that is…), imagine what else can be done with them!

It will be interesting to see what Google’s criteria was for selecting users to test the program, or if it is all completely random.  Seeing as how Google “selected” someone via twitter to access the explorer program who said that:

#ifihadglass I’d cut a *****

It appears as though they may have completely randomized their selections.  No matter, the fact that I was selected, either via random or via intention, still leaves me absolutely stoked at the potential to do something really cool with it.  I’m curious to see the state of the glasses when we first get them, seeing as how they appeared to have selected a number of people without any development background, who would simply use the glasses, rather than develop with them.  So they would have to have at least a bit of an initial firmware deployment created, so that those who don’t want to do any development can at least get some use out of them.

But as for me, a developer, I am excited at the potential that it may unlock.  I have already been spending a considerable amount of time coming up with some possible uses for it, and look forward to learning about the development process for the glasses, the API, the available functionality that we are allowed, etc.  It should be a lot of fun, and will be a very educational experience in doing so.

The only unfortunate caveat to the entire process is the cost.  As is publicly known, it costs an initial $1500 upfront charge, plus travel expenses to attend one of their conferences in order to pick up the glasses.  It stinks to have to pay so much ahead of time, but I think that the ability to learn and experiment with them, as well as to be one of a few with a “geeky toy” that the general public is yet to have access to, makes it more than worth it to me.

These next few weeks are going to go by quite slow, waiting for my private message from +ProjectGlass.  In the meantime, I will continue dreaming and thinking about how to make the most use out of it!  Yes, I’m a geek, and I’m proud of it!

– admin