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The Road to Ubiquity: Unpacking Barriers to Mass Adoption of Heads-Up Computing

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Kent Lyons, Ph.D.

Inovo Studio

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Quick Intro

Spent ~decade wearing daily

Dissertation on interaction w/ text/speech for HUDs

  • (Thad Starner’s 1st PhD student)

Silicon Valley over 15 years

  • Corporate Research (Intel, Nokia, Yahoo, Technicolor, Toyota)
  • Product (Tesla)
  • Startups (WatchPop, Inovo Studio)

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Several Shifts in�Computing Paradigms

  • Transitions
    • Mainframe to Mini to Workstation
    • PC to Laptop to Mobile
    • Next?

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  • Each shift resulted in different interaction paradigms
    • (Likely and effect not a cause)

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  • Christensen’s Innovation Theory in action

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Innovation Theory

Time

Performance

C. Christensen. May ’97. The Innovator’s Dilemma

Horseless Carriage

  • Buggy w/o the horse

Sustaining Innovation

  • Incremental
  • Radical

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Innovation Theory

Time

Performance

C. Christensen. May ’97. The Innovator’s Dilemma

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Innovation Theory

Time

Performance

C. Christensen. May ’97. The Innovator’s Dilemma

  • Auto Industry
  • Intel & Arm

Low-End Disruption

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Innovation Theory

Time

Performance

Sustaining Innovation

Low-End Disruption

Time

Different performance measure

New-Market Disruption

Compete against nonconsumption

C. Christensen, M. Raynor. Sept. ’03.

The Innovator’s Solution

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Innovation Theory

C. Christensen, M. Raynor. Sept. ’03.

The Innovator’s Solution

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(a bit of) Computing History

???

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iPhone & Android

  • Hard to remember but,�first iPhone was a bad “smartphone”
    • Did “smartphone” things poorly
    • Did the “wrong” things well

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iPhone v1 Case Study

  • PC Magazine
    • “Pros: Fun new interface for navigating multimedia. Huge screen looks amazing. Terrific Web browser. Syncs well with PCs and Macs. YouTube function is great. Functions flow seamlessly into each other. Built-in speaker for voice calling and music.
    • Cons: Poor business e-mail and PIM connectivity. Bad audio quality on phone calls. Tons of “GSM buzz” on nearby speakers. Virtual keyboard hard to type on. No phone functionality with iPod speaker docks.
    • Bottom Line: It’s the best portable media player ever. It’s possibly the most fun we’ve ever had with a handheld device. It browses the Web like a champ. But poor phone call performance and missing messaging options make us unwilling to recommend it as a phone. ”
  • Engadget
    • “But getting things done with the iPhone isn’t easy, and anyone looking for a productivity device will probably need to look on.”

M. Browning. Feb ’13. http://t.co/aOn8tpi2

  • Released June 07
  • Not 3G (2.5G)
  • No replaceable battery
  • Pre apps (March 08)

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All New-Market Disruptions

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Looking for the next iPhone: HUC?

Radical Sustaining Innovation

  • Same metrics of performance, just a different tech solution?
  • Same as iPhone only better? Unlikely

Low End Disruption

  • Cheaper and worse? No

New Market Disruption

  • Different metrics of performance
  • Compete against non-consumption

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Google Explorer Edition

  • Recruited early adopters
  • Explore what Glass might be useful for
  • They knew they didn’t know what it could be good for
  • Didn’t work out (corp. messaging issues)

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Notifications: Competing against smartphones & smart watches

Wearable camera: Competing against GoPro (+ social problems)

Pivot to industry use cases - but not Google’s market

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XR Headsets

The next iPhone? Or the next XBox?

Orders of magnitude difference in #s and amount used

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What are they good for?

What is the performance measure people (tacitly) care about but aren’t getting?

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Bar Test: Out at the Pub

Someone might pull out their phone for a few moments

Would they don a heads-up computing platform in the same social setting?

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Our phones are deeply integrated into our lives. A replacement would be as well, but in a different way.

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(Anti) Social Devices?

We are social creatures

HUDs might enhance connectivity to remote individuals, BUT they degrade in person, face-to-face experiences

Poor signals of usage. Poor mental models.

  • Are you recording me? Are you paying attention to me? What are you hiding?

Engineering social acceptance (Walkman)

Live in our intimate space. Might pass our phone to another, but not our wearable

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A Challenge

How might we enhance in-person face-to-face social interactions?

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(Very) Widespread Adoption

What are these devices good for?

  • Benefits (not features)

What are the right (new) measures of performance?

Who are the nonconsumers or nonconsuming contexts that are larger than existing ones?

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These are key open questions

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Thanks!

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kent@inovo.studio