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Google has taken the wraps off techno-glasses which
add emails, Google searches and even directions over your view of the
world.
The glasses - unveiled via a Google Plus page, Project Glass, are
voice-controlled, and offer GPS directions as well as email and video
chat through a built-in screen directly in front of a user's eyes.
The glasses are a product of Google's 'Google X' blue-sky ideas lab -
and the search giant is looking for ideas to improve them.
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'We think technology should work for you—to be there when you need it
and get out of your way when you don’t,' says Google.
The glasses appear to run a variant of the Android operating system,
using the same microphone icon and other recognisable parts of Google's
mobile OS.
The glasses layer information 'over' the world, and offer directions -
as well as allowing users to 'locate' one another in the real world, as
with Google's current Latitude system.
'A group of us from Google X started Project Glass to build this kind of
technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you
back in the moment, 'says Google.
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'We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a
conversation and learn from your valuable input. So we took a few design
photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video
to demonstrate what it might enable you to do.'
Various leaks had hinted that Google wanted to move into wearable
computing.
'Many of the features - voice commands, embedded camera, Google Maps
integration - have been previously rumored, but it’s compelling to
actually see them in action. Whether they will work quite as well in
reality is, so far, uncertain,' says ZDNet.
No release date has been confirmed for the glasses - nor has Google
explained exactly how the glasses work.
'Google X' is where the search giant's scientists work on wild,
out-there ideas.
'Google has always invested in speculative R&D projects - it's part of
our DNA,' said a spokesperson when the first news of the lab leaked.
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'While the possibilities are incredibly exciting, the sums involved are
very small by comparison to the investments we make in our core
businesses. In terms of details, we don't comment on speculation.'
The lab is reportedly located in Google's Mountain View, California
headquarters - known as 'the Googleplex'.
Engineers are free to work on projects such as connected fridges that
order groceries when they run low - or even tableware that can connect
to social networks.
Other Google engineers have reportedly researched ideas as far-out as
elevators to space.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin is reportedly deeply involved in the lab.
His business card is said to be simply a piece of silvery metal
decorated with the letter X.
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Brin, a robot enthusiast, once attended a conference via a robot with a
screen showing his face.
It's not unusual for tech companies to have 'ideas labs' hidden away
from their ordinary workers - at Apple, for instance, Jonathan Ive's
design lab where devices such as iPads are perfected, is guarded as if
it was a weapons facility.
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