Untapped Cities’ #MyNYC Update – Inside Google Glass Basecamp in NYC

Inside Google Glass Basecamp in Chelsea Market, one of three pickup locations for the pilot Glass Explorer program

It has been just under three weeks since our IndieGoGo campaign to raise the funds for a new project called “#MyNYC” ended. Through the generosity of the Untapped community, we were able to tell Google, “Let’s do this.” And that’s exactly what we did.

Over the weekend, we responded to an invitation from Google that would whisk us into uncharted territory – the guarded elevators in lower Manhattan’s Chelsea Market. On the building’s eighth and top floor, we were greeted by a host of gainfully employed twenty somethings, all future-d out with their own pairs of Glass.

After a brief photo shoot on the company’s guest couch, we were brought into the Google Glass Basecamp, where all Android-coded dreams come true. Spread out across the spacious room were Glass “fitting” stations, where explorers pick their poison and try them on for size. We chose charcoal, an ode to the season’s greatest past time: illegal cookouts on upper Manhattan rooftops.

With the pleasantries out of the way, it was finally time to get our first taste of techie time travel. To set the scene, our Glass expert took us to the loft’s balcony, where a sweeping view of Chelsea would be the very first thing we saw (and captured) on the device.

For the next half hour or so, our expert showed us the ins and outs of the device, from voice activation tricks to a handful of simple gestures that manipulate the device’s secret touch pad. She explained how it was possible that the user (and the user alone) was hearing audio from Glass without headphones: a bone conduction speaker that sends sound waves through your skull. It’s as terrifying and marvelous as it sounds (pun intended).

By the end, we were assured that our efforts to get in early on Google’s next personal technology marvel were not in vain. As we scale the learning curve, we can begin to plan just how #MyNYC will come to life for the Untapped Cities community. Until then, we’d love to enable you to learn as we learn. So we’ll be posting weekly pieces that feature how we’re using Glass to explore New York City from a brand new perspective. Contact us through our contact page or submit to us on Twitter with the hashtag #MyNYC  to suggest places or events we should take the Google Glass to.

We’d love to thank our contributors once again, and we’ll be reaching out to you over the next few days to fulfill our IndieGoGo perk promises. We can’t wait to take this journey with you.

OK Glass, it begins!