Could This Be The Future Of Audio?

All of my tech friends are excited by Google Glass. If you don't know what that is, it's a new user interface for the phone that incorporates a augmented reality head-mounted display that projects all the information you can want directly in front of you via a small set of glasses without having to look at the traditional smartphone display. Much of this technology has been used for years in heads-up displays in aircraft, but bringing it down to the consumer level is very new.

In order to get Glass right now, you need to be a developer that will submit an application stating what you would do with the technology, along with up to 5 graphics, plus a fee of $1500. You can check out more about Google Glass here.

Many think that this technology is going to revolutionize our daily lives, thanks to the amount of information instantly available without the disruption of you life caused by looking at a cell phone display, plus the vastly increased battery life thanks to the more efficient Glass display. I agree, but I'm imagining it as an audio display device in the studio.

The View From Audio Glasses

Here's quick mock up I did based on the problem that engineers often have, especially when they're producing at the same time. Imagine a tracking session where you need to look at the musicians playing, but you also need to look at the console/controller and DAW at the simultaneously. If you had a glass display, you could see the level of each instrument and if something is overloading, what the compressor on each channel is doing, if there are any frequency clashes that you need to attend to, as well as the meter levels. You could also see the monitor and delay levels.

Of course, you could also change the display (not shown here) to show the individual send levels both the the cue and effects, the EQ settings for each channel, and the fader settings so you can adjust it all without ever taking your eyes off the band.

Of course, what I've created here was done quickly so it's very crude, but I'm sure an audio company with some slick GUI designers can come up with a work of art that takes us to the next level. Gentleman, you have my blessing to use this Audio Glasses graphic as a seed to the next generation of audio interface.

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