It's either the most exciting technology product of recent years, or the 21st Century equivalent of the Sinclair C5.
它或许是近年来最让人兴奋的科技产品,也可能是21世纪的Sinclair C5(一种电池电车)。
It promises to reshape our relationship with the online world - or turn us all into cyborgs, invading each other's privacy with careless abandon. Say what you like about Google Glass, it's certainly proved a talking point.
它承诺将重塑人类与网络世界的关系,或者把我们都变成赛博格,由于无心的放任而侵犯彼此的隐私。说一说你对谷歌眼镜的看法,这无疑是一个讨论的热点。
I've spent the last 24 hours trying out Google's wearable computing device, talking to people who are developing apps for it, and gauging the reaction of onlookers.
我在过去的24小时里试用谷歌这一可穿戴计算装置,与为其设计应用程序的人们交谈,并观测周围旁观者的反应。
The product - which is still a long way from being ready for consumers - has been in the hands of developers for a few weeks now, and many of them have converged on San Francisco for the Google I/O conference.
尽管谷歌眼镜距离投放市场还有一段很长的路要走,但是它现在已经在设计者手上把玩了几个星期了。而且他们中的许多人还齐聚旧金山,参加谷歌输入/输出大会。
When I had a couple of hours to try it out I found that, like any new interface, Glass had some rough edges. The screen looks rather bigger and more useful than I'd expected, like a reasonable-sized TV seen across a room. But you need to learn a series of touch commands on the arm of the glasses, and often I found myself stuck halfway down a long series of menus, swiping back and forth and getting nowhere.
当我试戴了几个小时后,我发现正如任何其它的新触面,谷歌眼镜也有一些毛边。它的显示屏比我预想得还要大,还要有用,就像是观看房间另一侧一部尺寸合理的电视机一样。但是你需要学习镜架上一系列的触摸指令。我经常会发现自己被卡在一长串菜单之中,来回猛击指令,但却毫无进展。
At the moment, there is a limited amount you can do with Glass - it's like a smartphone without any apps - and for many of the functions you may be constrained by the quality of the 3G connection on the phone to which it is paired. You may also feel a bit daft walking down the street and shouting to yourself, "Do I need an umbrella tomorrow?"
目前,我们对谷歌眼镜的使用还十分有限。它就像一部没有任何应用程序的智能手机,而且你可能会受到与之匹配的3G网络的情况的制约而无法使用部分功能。你可能会觉得走在路上对自己大喊:“我明天需要一把雨伞吗?”有一点疯狂。
The voice recognition in the device is very smart - and even seems to understand my English accent - but again, once you leave a strong wi-fi connection, everything seems to become a little harder. And what about those privacy worries inherent in a device which can be recording without your subject knowing?
该装置的声音识别系统非常灵敏,甚至好像可以理解我的英国口音。但是,一旦你离开超强的无线网络,所有事情都变得困难许多。而且对于那些在无意中录入装置的隐私隐患,我们又该怎么办呢?
When I took Glass for a stroll on the beach overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, the elderly dog walkers there were more amused about a strange Brit talking to himself than anxious about their privacy, although the majority felt the whole idea was rather more creepy than cool.
当我戴着谷歌眼镜在海滩上漫步,并眺望金门大桥的时候,那里一些遛狗的老人家比起对他们的隐私的担忧更感兴趣的,是看一个正在跟自己说话的奇怪的英国人,尽管他们中大部分人认为这一想法与其说是“炫酷的”不如说是“恐怖的”。
Where Google's big idea impresses most is as a camera. Because it captures exactly what you see, you get the kind of pictures you often miss with a camera you have to ready for action. And when it comes to video, the footage is much steadier than what you often see from a shaky camera phone.
谷歌眼镜最棒的地方是它也可以被当作一个照相机使用。因为它可以精确地捕捉到你所能看到的一切,还可以获得你在使用普通照相机拍照时,按下快门那一瞬间所错过的照片。而当它被用作录像机时,连续镜头将比你在一部摇晃的手机照相机中看到的更加平稳。
We began our filming by visiting the world's most enthusiastic early adopter, the blogger Robert Scoble. He's certainly mastered the art of Glass photography - as you can see from his picture of us filming him.
我们去采访世界上最热情的前期使用者——博客撰写人罗伯特·斯考博(Robert Scoble)——以开启我们的拍摄之旅。他已经掌握了眼镜摄影的技巧,正如你从他的照片中所看到的我们正在拍摄他的情景。
Despite his promise never to go a day without the product - or something similar - he has a few words of caution. The price needs to be right, he says, and the product has to be able to do a lot more if it is to appeal to a wide audience.
将“每一天都离不开这个产品”或类似的豪言壮语放在一边,他也提出了一些忠告。他说,产品的价格必须合理;而且如果想要吸引更广泛的客户,这一产品要做的还有很多。
By the sound of it, there will soon be plenty more apps. Developers big and small are in San Francisco, showing off their projects. Rajiv Makhijani and two friends who won a Glass hackathon, are now developing a social gaming idea, which sounds to me like Foursquare meets match.com. Bigger players, including Twitter, Facebook and Evernote are also thought to be working on apps.
听起来,在不久之后将会有大量的应用程序出现。大大小小的开发商在旧金山纷纷展示他们的计划。拉吉夫·玛吉詹尼(Rajiv Makhijani)和他两个赢得Glass编程马拉松比赛的朋友正在完善一个社交游戏类的想法,在我听来,这跟Foursquare地理定位网站很相似。而包括推特,脸谱和印象笔记在内的大的开发商也正在应用程序上下工夫。
What strikes me in San Francisco is the sheer fascination and excitement of many people when they see Glass for the first time. It feels to me that we are ready for a new way of interacting with the web.
在旧金山给我留下印象最深的是当人们第一次看到谷歌眼镜时所表现出来的喜爱和兴奋。我感到我们正准备迎接一种与网络互动的新路径。
Google Glass may be clunky, and it certainly isn't going to win any fashion awards. There are serious debates to be had about its legal and social implications. But we may look back 10 years from now, and say this was the moment when wearable computing stepped out of the sci-fi films and into real life.
谷歌眼镜可能会带来恶果,而且它也并不时尚。对于谷歌眼镜的合法性以及社会影响,人们将会展开激烈的辩论。但是以现在为坐标原点,回顾过去十年,我们可以说这是可穿戴计算装置走出科幻电影进入现实生活的一个重要时刻。