Burris: Google phone to add to confusion

By LARRY BURRIS

I was walking down the hall the other day, and a young lady sitting in a chair, said, "Good morning, how are you today" as I walked by. So I said, "Pretty good. How are you," but then I realized she wasn't talking to me at all. She was talking to someone with her Bluetooth device. Ooops. The same thing happened a few hours later, and in fact seems to be a pretty common occurrence.

So, how many times have you been walking along and you think someone is talking to you, when they are actually talking on their mobile device to someone else? Very embarrassing.

Well, apparently it's about to get a lot worse.

It seems that Google is developing a set of glasses that are actually computer screens that only the wearer can see. Sounds a lot like virtual reality glasses don't they?

But here's where it gets interesting: the computer screens…in your glasses…won't be controlled by your voice, they'll be controlled by head and hand gestures. That's right, you'll move your head or hands in certain ways to move the screen up and down, to enter numbers and letters.

So, picture this: you sit down on a park bench beside someone, and they nod in your direction and put out their hand. You nod back and put out your hand as well. Except they aren't communicating with you, they're surfing the Internet.

And it gets worse still: what if they are nodding and gesturing and talking at the same time? How will you know what to do next? If they aren't talking with you, you're going to look like a real idiot if you respond. And if you don't reply, and they really are talking to you, you'll look rude.

There is an old saying, "Say what you mean, and mean what you say." Now it looks like it's going to be, "Let me try to guess what you mean, whatever you are, or are not, saying."