Deep Dive: Ivy Ross & Isabelle Olsson on the Early Days of Google Glass

In this installment of the Moonshot Podcast Deep Dive series, Astro Teller explores the origins of Google Glass with designers Ivy Ross and Isabelle Olsson.

They discuss the unexpected design and tech challenges the team faced creating such a bold new form factor, the surprising ways people ended up wanting to use Glass, how their backgrounds in art influenced their approach, and the importance of timing when creating new technologies.

For more on Glass’s early days, tune into Episode 9 of The Moonshot Podcast, “Supersenses”: youtube.com/watch?v=QlpF2QJNL5Y

00:00 - Introduction
01:43 - How Isabelle wound up at X
03:37 - How Ivy came to X
07:25 - The big challenges Glass was solving
11:04 - The origins of the Glass Explorer Program
11:43 - Glass’s public debut
14:46 - Ivy’s earliest memories of Glass in action
18:37 - How art influenced the design of Glass
22:19 - Glass’s second generation design
27:20 - From sunglasses to monocles: Early design debates
31:30 - Surprising “fringe” uses of Glass in industry
34:33 - Reinventing Glass for industry
35:47 - Why timing matters
41:45 - Memorable team traditions
44:50 - When Glass moved from X to Google
47:41 - Early explorations with the Google Watch
49:37 - Lessons learned from taking moonshots

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