Is it too early to start talking about Glass, Google's new eyepiece display? I don't think so. The small display, "card" and "timeline" metaphors, voice/visual interaction, new gestures (like blink!) and ever-present display will present new challenges and opportunities for designers and programmers alike.

Eric Redmond has spent the last few months working on the Mirror API, and peering into the gnostic Glass SDK. He's also writing a book about Glass (woops! that's a secret). If you want a peek at the future, or discuss why you think this technology will fail (unlikely), or just want to see what all the fuss is about, you don't want to miss this one.

If you happen to have a Glass device, please attend! It'll be great to have a few to show off.

Google's Jenny Murphy will be in Portland to share time with the Glass Explorers here! Bring your projects and your trickiest API questions. She'll see what she can do to help.

There's room for about 15 to 20 people, so please RSVP as soon as possible. Jenny will share the venue details and how to access it with those who RSVP 'yes' closer to the time of the event.

Note: Due to interest, this event is limited to Glass Explorers and those actively in progress building or collaborating with an Explorer on an app for Glass.

Private event: RSVP on Google Plus. https://plus.google.com/events/ccglompcou8p3f3ct1ddatu2clg

We all seem to have our little niches in this group, so how about a show-and-tell? Bring in your wearable devices, be it Google Glass, Nike Fuelband, or a hearing aid. There are so many categories of wearable computers, it'd be useful to see them all. If you've written some software for these devices, show that off too. So much the better.

Join us even if you aren't wearing, it's a good time to play around.

Smart watches are popping up everywhere. Apple, Samsung, LG, Motorola -- the list goes on. Manufacturers big and small are releasing a plethora of smart watches in the near future. This month's Google Glass / Wearables PDX meetup will focus on presentations and discussions around what we're finding out about these new devices. We're also going to have a short presentation on Android Wear.

Google Glass wasn't actually the first smart glasses / smart eyewear device, but Google certainly popularized the concept by focusing on consumer uses combined with a creative marketing campaign. At this month's Google Glass / Wearables meetup, we're going to look at Google's competitors. We'll have a presentation and discussion that covers the following: - What smart eyewear devices are available now? - What devices are coming later this year? - How do the features of these devices compare to Google Glass? - What are the price points? (Prices vary wildly!)

Since the coolest part about wearables is playing with new ones, let's have another show and tell! Glass will be present (of course), but so are some weirder ones. I'll be showing off Myo (armband), Mimo (smart onesie for babies), and Gear (smartwatch). I know some of us are avid wearable collectors, so bring them all! If you don't have any, come anyway and take a look at the future cyborg society.

How Next Glass Combines Science, Machine Learning, and Augmented Reality to Empower Consumers

Next Glass was founded in 2012 on the premise of using science and software to ensure beer and wine drinkers never taste another bad beverage. Through patent-pending technology, Next Glass is cataloging the taste profiles of tens of thousands of bottles of beer and wine by chemically extracting the “DNA” of each using high-res accurate mass spectrometry to develop the world’s only Genome Cellar™. These pure and objective taste profiles (we collect tens of thousands of data points from each bottle of beer and wine) are then coupled with sophisticated machine-learning software and user preference data to create an incredibly accurate recommendation and discovery engine. Next Glass leverages augmented reality functionality to deliver these highly-accurate wine and beer recommendations to users on their mobile devices.

Trace will explain how each of these elements (science, machine learning, and augmented reality) benefit beer and wine consumers and how Next Glass stumbled upon the idea to combine them to do so.

Doors will open at 5:30p. The food and drinks are provided by Bellagios and New Relic. The presentation will begin right at 6p. Then stick around for a special post-event happy hour! You'll get to taste some Oregon beer and wine ... then be one of the first to demo the Next Glass app live at the event, and receive priority access to the beta later this month!

Please RSVP via Eventbrite HERE

Trace Smith is the Chief Operating Officer at Next Glass. Prior to joining Next Glass, Trace was an Associate with Quad-C Management, a billion-dollar private equity fund specializing in investing in profitable businesses valued between $50 million and $500 million and growing them in partnership with management. During his time at Quad-C, he closed two leveraged recapitalizations, one buy-side transaction, and one dividend recapitalization, in addition to his other responsibilities, which included evaluating potential leveraged buyout transactions and monitoring Quad-C's portfolio companies. Prior to joining Quad-C in 2012, Smith was a Senior Analyst at Fennebresque & Co., where he focused on advisory work in transactions including mergers and acquisitions and private capital raises across multiple industries. Trace graduated summa cum laude with honors in finance from Wake Forest University, where he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa. He is also a graduate of Woodberry Forest School, where he was a Noland Fellow.

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