# Google Glass ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-glass/690150 "2014-06-05T20:05:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-glass/690150/1 "2014-06-05T20:05:11Z")
How on earth do people focus at that distance? I know I could never now, and I doubt I could when I was younger. It’s like what, an inch from your eye? Is there something I’m missing? ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-glass/690150/2 "2014-06-05T21:09:44Z")
It actually projects the image directly onto your retina, which is all the way in the back of your eyeball. Here’s a [cool series of infographics.](http://gizmodo.com/5994132/heres-how-google-glass-actually-works) ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-glass/690150/3 "2014-06-05T21:22:28Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > It actually projects the image directly onto your retina, which is all the way in the back of your eyeball. Here’s a [cool series of infographics.](http://gizmodo.com/5994132/heres-how-google-glass-actually-works) Wooh. The ultimate heads up display. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-glass/690150/4 "2014-06-06T08:00:50Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > It actually projects the image directly onto your retina, which is all the way in the back of your eyeball. Here’s a [cool series of infographics.](http://gizmodo.com/5994132/heres-how-google-glass-actually-works) Only really in the sense that _anything you look at projects an image on your retina_. The image is just focused so that it appears at a greater distance away than the eyepiece. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-glass/690150/5 "2014-06-06T09:37:18Z")
I have one very dominant eye (my left), so things like 3-D glasses don’t work for me. I wonder if I’d be able to use Google Glass? ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-glass/690150/6 "2014-06-06T09:50:47Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Only really in the sense that _anything you look at projects an image on your retina_. > > The image is just focused so that it appears at a greater distance away than the eyepiece. It projects an image purposefully sized and focused to arrive at your retina in such a way that it allows you to clearly see and focus on something significantly less than ~1" from the surface of your eye when you normally wouldn’t be able to. Better? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-glass/690150/7 "2014-06-06T10:15:17Z")
It creates a virtual image with an object distance that is further away than the lens. Your eye focuses this onto your retina, just like it does everything else. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-glass/690150/8 "2014-06-06T20:58:17Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > It creates a virtual image with an object distance that is further away than the lens. What’s the best, most succinct way to describe the method by which it accomplishes this? Because that doesn’t really tell you much about the how. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-glass/690150/9 "2014-06-06T21:02:03Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Wooh. The ultimate heads up display. The ultimate heads up display would be generated right into the visual cortex of the brain. This is the next best thing ;). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-glass/690150/10 "2014-06-06T21:27:31Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > What’s the best, most succinct way to describe the method by which it accomplishes this? Because that doesn’t really tell you much about the how. I don’t want to get into a pissing match over terminology - whatever you like. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-glass/690150/11 "2014-06-07T01:33:50Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > The ultimate heads up display would be generated right into the visual cortex of the brain. That would not actually work. Our visual experience is not an experience of an “image” in the visual cortex, and there is almost certainly no way to produce a coherent visual experience (i.e., experience of a scene or object, as opposed to phosphenes: random blobs and flashes of light, and maybe certain simple patterns) by direct stimulation of it (or, indeed, of any, many, or all of the brain’s visual areas, cortical and otherwise).