In 1996 I was the third person to go to work for Blue Marble Geographics in Gardiner, Maine. The three of us worked in the loft of an old barn. I remember getting up one morning and looking at the thermometer – it was -30 degrees F.
It’s too long a story for this format, but what came out of that interaction with early adopters of GPS was the need for a handheld personal navigation device that could display full size digital USGS topo maps. Four years later, 2 patents and an award winning business plan that combined GPS with newly emerging microdisplay technology it seemed like we were poised for greatness.
Unfortunately micro displays never made into the consumer market, but that isn’t stopping Google from launching Google Glass. In general consumers are resistant to the idea of eyeglasses – ask the 3D TV investors. It will be interesting to see if Google can change that with their upcoming Hackathons. Thanks to an old friend for the heads up.
