Google shows off Project Glass augmented reality specs

Google has been showing off the expected capabilities of the augmented reality spectacles that it is calling Project Glass. The early concept designs show wire-framed glasses with a display above the right eye which shows off personal schedules and location-based information. Also included is a camera, a microphone for calls …

[Scott 1]

Processing power?

Apple's Siri (and several other imitators) work by shifting the voice processing off to the "cloud," meaning that your device just needs wifi/cellular to work. Of course, even with all the seemingly supernatural capabilities of the "cloud" (if the marketing folks are to be believed), my Android phone using Google's voice recognition services only gets it right about 25% of the time, often with comedic results.

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see the idiots wearing them while driving.

[ZweiBlumen]

Yeah, just what I was thinking! How many crashes in ten years time will ascribed to Twitter notifications?

[Colin Brett]

Call 999 (or 911)

Yes. And they won't be able to see you as they'll be concentrating on the display and not the road. The ambulance chasers will be going after Google rather than the driver.

BTW - wasn't this sort of thing in William Gibson's Virtual Light? (And probably many others before him.)

Colin

[Anonymous Coward]

Depends...

The point of augmented vision isn't to have something that looks like a Tomtom floating in your field of vision. The route indicator would be laid out on the road. Signposts would appear indicating your route.

Likewise twitter: if you're the sort of idiot who must read their SMS, etc the instant it appears, it's far better that you're reading some large text hovering over the road a couple of hundred metres away (eg motorway road signs) than changing your focus to a small screen inside your windscreen.

[Audrey S. Thackeray]

There's a possible application for this sort of thing there - linked to the vehicle's computer you could have info and warnings displayed so you couldn't ignore them.

Of course Google think cars will drive themselves eventually so the whole windscreen might as well be showing porn whatever the former driver would want to see.

[oregonensis]

Re: Processing power?

Yes, Siri shifts much of the work off your handheld and onto Apple, but let's not forget that even so the present Jesus mobe has a secondary processor just for cleaning up and compressing your voice and that Apple can't supply enough power on the server side to give you proper answers. So we're still going to need significant power in your eyeglasses.

[scarshapedstar]

Re: Processing power?

"Yes, Siri shifts much of the work off your handheld and onto Apple, but let's not forget that even so the present Jesus mobe has a secondary processor just for cleaning up and compressing your voice and that Apple can't supply enough power on the server side to give you proper answers. So we're still going to need significant power in your eyeglasses."

Google's handsets and servers aren't nearly so woefully underpowered as Apple's, though.

[bolccg]

Yes please!

I seriously dream of augmented reality vision. My wife thinks it's creepy but I'd seriously go whole hog and have "chipped" vision (c.f. Altered Carbon) with seamless audio and video integration to my perception. Imaging having a built in HUD that could play movies, scroll interesting facts about what you were looking at, highlight the right road to turn into, bring up the names of people you bump into, thus avoiding awkward moments where it becomes clear you've forgotten who they are.

Would seriously alter society though - for example a guy who remembers who everyone is can no longer stand out as a thoughtful and caring chap who knows his secretary's sister has a cat that just went to the vet because for all you know he could just be reading that off his implant. And the importance of learning information would be reduced if it could be called up at will (how do you stop someone cheating in an exam with the capability and, if they'll have the capability in their daily life, is it relevant to devise an exam that doesn't allow it?).

Big problem would be security (hello very irritating spam!) and bugs...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Yes please!

No fucking way would I get the "chipped" version. Can you imagine Anonymous sending 2 girls 1 cup at you every waking moment?

I'm definitely up for a serious and fairly unobtrusive HUD; but I'd want it disconnected from all the advertising shit first.

[Audrey S. Thackeray]

Sinister

Well, it might have been Dexter, actually who had the Fony Headcase surgically implanted ER system.

[toadwarrior]

Re: Yes please!

Your wife should divorce you now.

[Dr. Mouse]

Re: Yes please!

"My wife thinks it's creepy but I'd seriously go whole hog and have "chipped" vision (c.f. Altered Carbon) with seamless audio and video integration to my perception."

Apple's next product: The eyePhone.

(NB: credit must be attributed to Futurama for this one)

[Greg 16]

When he went into the bookshop and looked at the book, it missed out the part where an Amazon ad pops up offering it for half the price.

[Miek]

I was honestly expecting that to happen, or at the very least, a pop up from Google Shopping showing a price comparison.

Does anyone else feel a little icky after watching that corny video?

[Andrew Moore]

Exactly what I was waiting for too. Also when the subway service was suspended the HUD should have displayed 'WALK YOU LAZY BASTARD".

Finally, at the end when he says 'want to see something cool?', I was really hoping that he was going to throw himself off of the roof of the building and the last shot would be the rapidly approaching ground.

[Anonymous Coward]

'Finally, at the end when he says 'want to see something cool?', I was really hoping that he was going to throw himself off of the roof of the building and the last shot would be the rapidly approaching ground.'

LOL

Very 'Strange Days'

[BorkedAgain]

Snuff ending disappointment

So glad that wasn't just me... :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Too True I'm afraid

First news I saw for this was on Bloomberg, one of the industry commentators in the article was really excited about the potential for advertising and monetisation....you have been warned

[Haku]

Throw in some true augumented reality capabilities and we could do virtual graffiti on real walls and buildings - now that could get interesting walking down high streets and seeing user reviews and comments virtually plastered on the walls & windows of the shops.

[darkmage0707077]

Google Asks "What do I want?"

I answer:

An iron-clad, lawyer- and loop-hole proof guarantee in the usage agreement, local/state law and federal law - up to and possibly including a Constitutional Ammendment - stating that individuals, companies and governments are not allowed to track me or spy on me through these or other similiar devices in any way, shape or form without my prior opt-in consent, as well as an indipendent, sure-fire way of checking on a regular basis to make *sure* they're not, preferably a method I and anyone else can perform at home without outside help.

Also, decent battery life and light weight.

[auburnman]

Re: Google Asks "What do I want?"

Regrettably I don't think we'll ever get that. Aside from the fact that the interested parties funding the development of these toys are very interested in tracking your every action, the device of our dreams would need to do a lot of tracking of our behaviours to do what we want it to. We want a pocket device that sorts out what we tell it to as good as a human assistant for 90% of tasks, and to emulate human performance it would need to track damn near everything. Look at the issues with Siri.

You want it to remember context? That means logging your conversations, at least short term.

You want it to understand you? That means building up a profile of regional accents and your own voice.

A compromise between having a device that logs everything about you and a device that knows enough about you to be useful will need to be reached, unfortunately the companies with the big bucks are likely to always push one end of that compromise more heavily.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Google Asks "What do I want?"

I don't want any of those things, it sounds awful.

[Tomato42]

Re: Google Asks "What do I want?"

If only we had portable computers with multi gigahertz CPUs and tens of gigabytes of memory.

If only we could rent server space.

Oh wait, we can. But SaaS makes the company control software, not the user so we won't get the actual applications to our "hands".

[Nya]

Am thinking of it more as...

basically a close range wireless system which has a screen and battery in glasses frame, which sends all the grunt work to the Android phone in the users pocket which is providing all the processor, connectivity and storage....an add on for the next Nexus maybe and Jelly Bean?

[PacoBell]

No Duh!

"While these kinds of heads-up displays are popular in films and fiction (and dearly wanted by this hack), the poor sales of existing eye-level screens suggests a certain reluctance on the part of buyers."

The crap resolution on these early devices are severely limiting the kinds of apps that will truly revolutionize mobile interaction. Once we get 720p or higher, then a whole slew of possibilities opens up. Also, a solid, uncompressed, low-energy, short-range WirelessHD standard needs to emerge for this very purpose.

[Audrey S. Thackeray]

Re: No Duh!

And the apps will sell it - dashboard computers weren't something I remember being tremendously popular before Tom Tom et al gave us something more useful than a spreadsheet to look at.

[mraak]

Nausea

I got nauseous just by looking at YT clip.

[Fatty Eglon]

Worrying ...

Thing is ... Will this make us better humans. I Doubt it. Given time thid would happen.

Our humanity is already being sucked out of us by smartphones.

Just sit on public transport any given day and you'll know what I mean.

I feel depressed for the future.

[Atonnis]

Re: Worrying ...

I did and I don't know what you mean...

I remember before smartphones were widely available and popular - 99.9% of everyone on public transport sat/stood/hung there staring off miserably into space trying to pretend no-one else existed, except for the danger they might represent.

[Audrey S. Thackeray]

Re: Worrying ...

Agree, Atonnis - I don't think we were better humans when we were hiding in trees at night worrying about what might be out in the dark and I don't think any of our inventions since has worsened us.

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally!

Porn and Viagra ads everywhere I look!

[dssf]

Re: Finally!

Imagine these tuned for sex... "Lat: 22.5453N; Long: 36.4255 W; Alt: 4,500 Hdg: 225; Spd: 475; Thrust: 2.5 G-Forces Per Cycle; PenetAngle: Unk/Indet; Gyrat:2.5kps; Durat: 2.5s; Nutat: 225 kN; AmbSnd: 27.8 dB; Humid: 68.7%; Own HeartRt: 148BPM; MateHeartRt: 179.33 BPM; Knock Factor: Indet; Orientat: F-t-F; Syncopat: Unconvent...

[Anonymous Coward]

So where's the battery?

Or is his ridiculous hairstyle some kind of new fangled wave power generator?

[jubtastic1]

Short version; I don't like it.

It looks doable, well, there would be a wire running from the glasses to a smartphone, and a wire running from the smartphone to a honking great battery pack, but it's just as doable now as its been for the last decade.

I'm just not sold on the idea though, I think if my input is going to be spoken I'd rather have audio cues, "message from Tom", "turn right at the next junction" etc than have to wear a clunky headset, I suppose I'm more drawn to the idea of a personal PA that doesnt speak until spoken to than the visual shotgun approach demoed here, I'm thinking that even though road signs are enormous great things it still takes a concentrated mental effort to decipher them when I'm speeding down the motorway whereas the voice from a satnav is effortless.

I can imagine groups of people staring into space, grunting their answers to unheard questions, the tippy tap of fingers on buttons and screens replaced with short bursts of random speech, is this progress? Do we do what we must because we can?

But mostly I'm thinking supplying an advertising company with a real time feed of where we are, who we're talking to and what we're looking at seems like a really bad deal even if they paid us to wear them.

[CmdrX3]

I'll believe it when I see it

How many of these concept videos do we see. It's a shame the concept very rarely makes it into reality, and when they do they are usually so far removed from what we expected from the concept video it makes you wonder why they bothered with the concept video in the first place. To put it another way.. I won't hold my breath.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I'll believe it when I see it

Reminds one of another company, holding a somewhat analogous position during the last years of the last century. I remember Microsoft showing off 'prototypes' that would wow reviewers, even though, just by looking at it, you'd know it simply couldn't be built.

Furthermore, I see this as evidence that Google has now well and truly been taken over by the engineers' hive-mind; even if they could bring something like this to market, and even if it would catch on, the ramifications for society would be staggering. Already people are becoming less social in the real world, but at least they're still forced to interact with it. With devices such as these, the necessity to interact with other people falls rapidly to nill.

As this is a prototype, the features involved are of the mundane Google variety. But imagine having a holographic assistant, telling you where to go, what's going on, helping you find the things (she tells you) you need. Imagine Siri, but with the holographically projected body of a slim, 19yo Chinese woman that knows all your needs and desires, better even than your parents or pet-hamster. How boring would conversation be to a person like that if the other person needs to 'download' the 'conversational parameters' i.e. possess a working knowledge of who you are and what you do, before anything of interest could be addressed.

Remember the old Futurama slogan: "Don't have sex with robots!" True in the future, true now.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't . . .

Oh, you've just not met the right robot.

[Gannon (J.) Dick]

et tu Google

Is it at all possible that the sensory enhancement of beautiful women has not been a recurrent theme in my adult life ? Let me put it another way ... the ugly like 'em dumber than a brick. Thanks Google.

[BorkedAgain]

Re: et tu Google

Eh?

Is there yet another way you can put it, at all? A way that makes some kind of sense?

[Gannon (J.) Dick]

Re: et tu Google

My dream girl has lousy vision, and I think mine is perfect. On Planet Google, we're both ugly.

[RAMChYLD]

Why stop at glasses?

I'll skip on this for the day interface devices that allows one to interface his/her brain with a computer appears. This not only allows the user to have glassless HUD, but also listen to music without headphones.

Terminator. Because computer-assisted driving using the victim's hands is the next logical step from there.

[Gene Cash]

Perfect output device...

... for the "girls around me" app??

Make mine a trenchcoat.

[Anonymous Coward]

Explore?

Oh dear. They won't help me explore my world, but they'll certainly help google explore my world.

No thanks

[Ian Michael Gumby]

yawn..

can you say virtual light?

[Smokey Joe]

Early adopters...

...you can always see 'em coming.

[Silverburn]

Re: Early adopters...

You can see them, but they can't see you...their glasses just blue screened or are full of google ads.

[BorkedAgain]

Re: Early adopters...

Reckon they'll be made by Joo Janta, then?

[John Latham]

Weight problems?

Needs a hat for all the electronics and battery. Maybe one with a propeller on top. That would be "hilarious".

[Kevin 6]

Screw glasses I want a piece that looks like a DragonBall Z scouter that can hook into my tablet/netbook so I can use it while its tucked away (don't care if its wired)

[Anonymous Coward]

El Reg said it before and it's worth repeating ...

... Google Goggle glasses ARE WATCHING YOU

[frank ly]

Wear beer goggles all the time, .....

... they stop you from worrying about the future.

[deadlockvictim]

Google sell ads

Google is in the business of selling ads. That's how it makes its money.

Just think what a boon these internet-connected glasses will be to advertisers as you walk by a premises where the advertiser's products are being vaunted.

[foo_bar_baz]

Re: Google sell ads

They show you ads, but more importantly your data is the product they sell to advertisers. What kind of data can & will they gather from your glasses, for selling to others?

No thanks. Having an Android phone already makes me feel dirty.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you really want this, even if it's "free"?

1. Google will track everything you look at as well as where you are.

2. Google will serve augmented reality advertising into your eyeball so you cannot look away.

[Audrey S. Thackeray]

If it was that unpleasant I'd stop doing it.

There's already advertising everywhere we look - it might as well be personalised.

An opt-out would be even better - imagine virtual billboards that are only present when you are signed in.

[Crisp]

Where's the predator vision mode?

I want low-light, infra-red, ultraviolet, and various other vision modes. For uh... duck hunting.

[Pat 11]

i really thought i wanted this

But it makes me feel icky. There's no way to make the hud secondary to the real world, so the real world fades into the background. Horrible.

(oh, and coughwankerscough)

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm getting old....

...I saw this and thought "Why?"

Maybe the same reason I talk to people instead of reading drivel on twitter.

Maybe the same reason I choose not to tell people I've just watched a programme on TV and give it 3.5 out of 5.

Maybe the same reason I'd rather go to a quiet pub, get served in 30 seconds, talk to my mates (and even strangers!) rather than a trendy, overpriced one and be charged a fortune for shit service and piss poor beer.

yup I'm getting old.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I'm getting old....

No, you are getting wiser.

[Dr Zoidberg]

Who is this dipshit who needs Google Maps to navigate two blocks?

[Anonymous Coward]

More worryingly, WHO checks in their actual location???

[mangobrain]

Re. WHO checks in their actual location???

If you have an Android phone, open up Google+ and switch to the "Nearby" stream. It's just... depressing. Around here, at least. So many people seem to think it is a good idea to publicly advertise where they are and what they're doing, to complete strangers.

I'm surprised there hasn't been any backlash about the stalking potential, as there has been with other similar services - or perhaps there has been, and I just haven't stumbled across the articles...

[stanimir]

memento!

the glasses will fit perfectly a memento wake up:

- who I am?

- how many guys I killed?

[MacroRodent]

impractical like video calls

>While these kinds of heads-up displays are popular in films and fiction ...

Exactly. This case seems to be similar to video telephones: Just about every sci-fi film set in the future shows them in use all the time, but now that the technology is finally both available and affordable, not many people care to make video calls.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: impractical like video calls

Problem with video calls if they go on for a long time you have to maintain a happy and interested demeanor on camera even if your friend telling you about their latest holiday or fad is boring you to tears, with no vision no one can see you yawn (provided your quiet about it) or see you obviously watching the TV or something else on screen while saying "yeah", "really?" and "great" at appropriate intervals.

Learned this with Skype video chats

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: impractical like video calls

It just makes people more honest.

[Audrey S. Thackeray]

Re: impractical like video calls

Video calls are currently more expensive, aren't they? (Have to confess I've never made one on a phone).

On Skype where it's free the people that I know who use it do make video calls as the default option.

[Filippo]

texting while driving

It has a GPS. It knows your speed. Just prevent the user from doing anything too distracting while going faster than 10 kps or something.

The main obstacle I see to this tech is that it's really pointless. What it really does is sparing you the effort of fishing the smartphone out of your pocket, but in return you have to wear heavy glasses all the time. Not worth it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: texting while driving

Oh, nice one Einstein.

So I couldn't text on a train, or on a bus, or as a passenger in a car then?

[fatchap]

Re: texting while driving

You could but then your glasses would not be syncing up with your car to plot the most advertising efficient I mean fuel efficient way of getting to where you want to go.

[Paul Ireland]

Less AR, more alternative screen HCI (human computer interaction)

I'm not so interested in augmented reality (AR), but I am more interested in alternative screen technologies and a computer/browser device that is easier to use in awkward places, e.g. browsing and reading articles on the web whilst lying down sunbathing on holiday, standing up on a long overcrowded train journey, trying to work at home outside in the garden on a sunny day.

Wouldn't this type of screen be a battery saver too, compared to normal larger screens?

As for that video clip, I thought it funny that Google were suggesting that this product was for the same sort of people who think they can learn to play Ukulele in a day!

I was also a bit worried what this guy was doing going near a ledge atop a high building. Was the despair of modern technology getting to him?

[Anonymous Coward]

Presumably wearing them gives Google the right to record everything you see?

[Anonymous Coward]

are we sure this isnt just an april fools that they missed their deadline on???

[Anonymous Coward]

Crosseyed - which way is left?

Have they learnt nothing from The Jerk ??

[Andy 70]

another childhood dream goes down the swanny. i used to think i really wanted something like this, the idea's for it's uses go on and on.

but in reality the it'll track you, look at what you're looking at, hear what you're hearing, and sell all the info to the highest bidder.

nothing serves _YOU_ anymore. you are the product. not quite how i imagined a technological utopia of my future.

[Peter Mc Aulay]

Styling

Another reason why these things have traditionally failed to gain any traction with the mainstream is that they look incredibly dorky.

[Hasham]

Loving it

I actually see these glasses replacing mobile phones entirely someday. You'll only put them on when you need to though, just the same as you only take out your phone when you need to. Well, some of us do that...

With regards to the concerns about driving with these things on, by the time these glasses are adopted I think driving a vehicle yourself will be a thing of the past, or approaching that, in developed nations at least.

[macanics]

Tom Scott has already foreseen some of the everyday consequences of this - http://www.tomscott.com/glasses/

[Chizo Ejindu]

Yeah, ooh aah, that's how it starts...

To anyone thinking this is a good idea (i'm looking at you bolccg), that' we'll all end up with AR implants or other such in-body tech, i HIGHLY advise you to watch one the Black Mirror series of dramas written by Charlie Brooker, particularly the one called The Entire History of You. If you still feel that same way after watching that then... well i guess there's no hope.

Oh and by the way, if any of you like watching X-Factor, Britain's Got Talent etc, i recommend watching the episode called 15 Million Merits. You'll never look at reality talent shows the same again!

[Lamont Cranston]

Re: Yeah, ooh aah, that's how it starts...

I wouldn't recommend that anyone watch The Entire History of You, on the grounds that it was cack-handed tosh.

[GrantN]

Re: Yeah, ooh aah, that's how it starts...

Speaking of implants, this reminded me a lot of the Commonwealth Saga series of books by Peter F. Hamilton . Of course, in those stories people's "virtual vision" wasn't in the form of glasses but instead was wetwired directly into them. But I thought it was a rather good idea actually.

[bolccg]

Re: Yeah, ooh aah, that's how it starts...

Evidently the concept doesn't appeal to everyone (apparently someone was so against it that they want my wife to divorce me!) but really I see it as inevitable.

Seriously - imagine being a stay behind in a world where people around you have all the world's publicly available information (and much private information) better than at their finger tips. What a huge disadvantage you'd be at to reject it. How could you comptete in the business arena, for example, with someone who "knows" everyone and can pull up every document invisibly? Plus other technology would come to assume it is a starting point of interoperability (sorry, you can't come in on this conference call because none of our desks have phones anymore because we're all chipped...) And then there's the entertainment prospects - truly immersive computer games, movies and what have you (plus songs that will cut out when the announcer on the train tells you you're at your stop!).

Evidently all the above will freak some people out and I mentioned the risks of bugs and security when I put up my first post. But consider this - 30 years ago if you'd suggested networking up all our private networks (including some of the most sensitive systems in the world), lots of people would've said that, aside from the technical issues, the security risks would make you insane to do it. But it's done and it's everywhere and the internet has been revolutionary. People may be concerned about different bits of differnt things about it but it's not going anywhere but forward now.

You could say the same thing about GPS (why would you want your car to track where you are?!), mobile phones (your boss will have the expectation he can get in touch with you anywhere?!!), television (nobody will read!!) and whatever.

The issues with "chipped" or "wetwired" systems or whatever you want to call them are real but, to put myself on the record, I really can't see that this will stop it (and in 50 years, easy, I reckon everyone will have them).

Just my 2 cents (hopefully nobody will drag out and slay my offspring for this...)

[Alex King]

Oh No! They're tracking me and everythng I buy and look at!

They are already.

Personally I think they could be a useful, hands-free alternative and/or companion to smartphones and sat-navs which, like these, you can always switch off or leave at home if you like.

Yes, I'm obviously a naive fool, blah, blah, blah.

[Vin King]

I, for one...

Welcome our new AR overlords. I've been looking forward to a big player trying to productize AR for a while. If Google can solve some of the technical issues with the technology and get a product out to the consumers for the cheap with good quality, other companies will have to follow suit, and the AR revolution will begin. Smart phones will become relegated towards off interface computing and auxiliary input.

[Anonymous Coward]

Are they available in prescription?

Having been staring at CRT and LCD for many years, my eyes are already knackered. Whats going to be the eye strain on focusing between the HUD and the real World? What about us glasses wearers? Will the glass be available to your prescription? Bi focal?

This looks like a fun technology (fun, not necessarily useful). I think they'll only be any good for people with decent eyesight though.

[Gannon (J.) Dick]

Re: Are they available in prescription?

I think those bifocals would be real important when you are using that Microsoft Coffee Table/White Board gizmo we all have in our Living Rooms now. I'm sure MS and Google will cross-license, for the good of humanity.

[John A Blackley]

Ah, the balanced approach

"But it is early days yet."

So let's all take this early opportunity to pee all over the concept.

[Doug Glass]

Augmented Reality

Saw this is "Caprica", "Brainstorm" and any number of sci-fi tomes. Just another toy for the marginally literate whizzy kiddies and fanbabies.

[Anonymous Coward]

Article link FAIL

I've said it before and I'll say it again - if el reg insists on using youtube links in its articles, all that those of us who are marooned behind corporate firewalls can see is ...

'URL contains inappropriate content and is blocked'

Gee, thanks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Article link FAIL

Perhaps you should read this sort of article when you are not (nominally) at work.

[stanimir]

Re: Article link FAIL

install a VPN/Proxy at home and connect through. Or just use 3G.

[spold]

Not really that new, and...

Kinda bindun ... see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EyeTap

Lawyers will love it - little Jimmy has bad eyesight - ah must be the glasses! Class action lawsuit!

Police will love it - access to video for a criminal investigation - like having millions of roving surveillance cameras.

Seems to be sitting on some possibly dodgy patents - a lot of the VR companies explored this in the 80s and 90s and could never find a market, but I bet there are some prior patents being dusted off.

As a privacy professional I'll love em too if they ever become real - keep creating the work google!

[Stevie]

Bah!

Great. Another thing for idiots to do instead of watching the road while they drive.

[Anonymous Coward]

If there was any way

When we imagined this kind of technology with a fond excitement at the prospect we imagined a piece of hardware, that serves us, that brings data to us to make our daily lives easier. In reality we merely become vessels, drones of the corporate giants that use our own experiences to put into their latest algorithms to gain more power and money from businesses that wish to part us from the wealth we steadily accumulate in ever diminishing amounts.

Until someone can prove that the data is either destroyed or does not end up in a privately / corporate controlled database and that the hardware cannot be tracked, well Google can stick their glasses up the hole your "do no evil" slogan came out. The fact that Google is coming out with these kind of innovative products does not show that they are an innovative company but merely that they are holding too many cards.

[steve 124]

You're missing the obvious...

You don't need the cloud or batteries or bluetooth... It just needs to tap into your cerebellum! You're carrying around the most advanced supercomputer in the world (yes, even the stupid people) and the human body produces over 110whr of power... just leech a little of that juice and a small implant behind the ear to access higher brain functions (I'm absolutely positive Apple fanbois would be more than happy to do this if these are compatible with the Iphone5) and voila!

Oh, and this will work really well when connected via bluetooth v3 to my samsung flying car (no need for steering wheels or instruments... just look where you want to go and give it some "Siri-like" commands) I would totally trust it for that! Wow, I'm so excited, this is going to be as amazing as my wristwatch TV is! Oh, and the appstore could sell things like nightvision apps or oh, think about this one... x-ray specs!!! wooohooo! Now I'm really getting fired up! Oh Google goggles, you will do it all for me! The future is so bright... I gotta wear virtual shades! (no worries, there's an app for that too!)

[sisk]

Wrong benchmark

You should no doubt be using Google Voice Search as your benchmark for voice recognition in this project rather than Siri. After all, not only is it a much more likely starting point for Google but it also has far more accurate voice recognition, at least from what I've seen.

[The Jase]

reeks

Reeks of April first...

[Pet Peeve]

far too many times where the notifications popped up in the center of the frame. That's never going to be acceptable - you're fooling your brain into thinking these things are real objects. Even if the illusion only fools you momentarily, it's going to make you flinch! AR boxes should be transparent and off to the side of what they're describing (such as say a speech bubble next to a person), and non-location based stuff like tweets and text messages should be way down at the bottom of the frame. A lot of the UI elements here would be REALLY distracting. A well-timed phone call or message might block your vision just long enough for you to walk into a light pole or something.

Overall, I love the idea, but this demo is 9 kinds of wrong.

[Dave 150]

face recognition would be cool... or would it, that casual glance across a crowded room and they could know everything about you that's online already

a drink... because it's coming whether you like it or not

[Mike Moyle]

These could be very useful...

Because I ABSOLUTELY want Google to be able to pop a banner ad or an "important" alert up in my field of vision while I'm walking down a flight of stairs. The money will come in handy for my next of kin.

OTOH, to be fair, a simpler version of this could be REALLY useful if, say, I could have a manual hanging directly in front of me WHILE I'm looking into the guts of whatever it is I'm trying to repair/upgrade (I'm not a hardware person by either trade or inclination; I'm just a cheap bastard).

[john 112]

Long Live Megatron

1)Take the smart phone app that uses a camera to make your phone 'transparent'. Only of course, add in /edit images to taste.

2)Take the glasses that Data on Star Trek wears. Install on head, adding the smart phone app

3) add ear buds with software similar to the transparent phone themre.

Now you have the human robot. Reality fully controlled by google. We can make it do anything we want. Have sex with grapefruits. Walk out of windows. sign checks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Smack my bitch up

Not quite the Prodigy's Smack my bitch up video - thats far more entertaining!

imagine that with these glasses on:

your local dealer is 486 feet away

your bitch is tripping

you just stole a car, i have called the police

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Project Glass?

They should have pissed everyone off by calling it iWindows.

[Mike Moyle]

Re: Project Glass?

"They should have pissed everyone off by calling it iWindows."

Either way, it'll be a pane.

[Darren Davis]

Directive 4 (Classified)