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They're real, and they look spectacular! Back in February, we reported that both 9 to 5 Google and The New York Times claimed to be hearing rumors about devices we cheerfully dubbed "Google Glasses:" Oakley-esque glasses sporting a HUD and all other kinds of useful technology. Today, that rumor became reality when Google unveiled "Project Glass," from the Google[x] division responsible for those self-driving cars.
We'd prattle on about how the concept video shows an awesome augmented reality full of on-the-fly directions, pictures, music, voice commands, locational awareness and video chat, but that'd be silly: just check out the video above to see it for yourself. We first saw the story over at AllThingsD, but a Project Glass page has already been set up over on the Google-fied social network. (Is it still okay to call Google+ fledging or are we past that stage?)
Initial reports put the price of the Google Glasses -- I'll continue to call them that, thank you very much -- at somewhere between $250 and $600. How much would you drop on a pair after watching that video?
Comments are closed on this article
szore
April 06, 2012 at 4:15am
I can see now all the thugs snatching this off peoples faces on the street and in the subway...
Ntldr
April 05, 2012 at 7:57am
I want this. Personal HUD's would be amazingly epic. Wonder how much the data plan will cost and if it will be using like a cell signal or something way better?
win7fanboi
April 05, 2012 at 7:37am
Reminds me of Daemon and Freedom tm
http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0525951113
Ridnarhtim
April 05, 2012 at 2:24am
If this can be properly incorporated into the glasses I wear anyway ... I'd pay a crapload for these. $500 easily.
However, I find it hard to imagine a phone/gps receiver + camera can be completely inconspicuously incorporated.
Founck
April 04, 2012 at 10:12pm
Pretty sure that was the first high five for both of the guys in that video.
Donkey Fingers
April 04, 2012 at 6:57pm
Boring, stupid, who would want this? You can do every one of these things with your smartphone, and not look like an idiot in the process.
BadCommand
April 05, 2012 at 3:24am
No, you and your smartphone look like an idiot- you apparently just don't know you look like an idiot. Much in the same way a BT nipple sucker doesn't either.
Inglburt
April 04, 2012 at 7:10pm
Until you look like an idiot because you are the only one that doesn't have them on.
dgrmouse
April 04, 2012 at 6:02pm
Would someone PLEASE do a parody video? Especially the part about walking through a bookstore, done with poor quality speech recognition, bumping into lots of stuff, comically impaired vision from huge map overlays, and many onlooking patrons would be pee-yourself funny.
Brad Chacos
April 04, 2012 at 6:21pm
I will donate $0.25 on Kickstarter to fund this project. Awesome idea!
vig1lant3
April 04, 2012 at 6:48pm
Yes. It's always good to start off any new project by buying a gumball.
beck_77
April 04, 2012 at 5:54pm
This is ridiculous. Hey Google!, just go ahead and implant the brain microchips and get on with the telepathic communication technology already! Enough with this 'physical' equipment required silliness, its in the way of my REAL Oakley's!
nikldan
April 04, 2012 at 5:07pm
Someday our future overlords will require us to wear these but they will be much improved.
vistageek
April 04, 2012 at 4:51pm
Google glasses + google googles + wolfram alpha + math or vocab test=win.
rb3m
April 04, 2012 at 3:08pm
Can I change them to see infrared? Or at least change colors to compensate for my colorblindness?
drummingasm
April 04, 2012 at 1:44pm
The internet thing would probably be the easiest thing to solve. Almost every major phone carrier has internet pretty much everywhere in major cities. So if google latches onto a phone carrier, that wouldn't be a problem. (although it would be fun to see google go balls-to-the-wall and build their own wireless servers everywhere or straight buy them from other companies. Although i doubt they have enough capital) Besides one would mostly only need internet for FB/G+/receiving messages, all of which can be updated when one reaches an internet spot. For the "looking at things" aspect, google might have a huge buffer that covers everything around you for maybe 50 feet. That combined with constant GPS (i'm guessing) will eliminate the internet problem.
Battery: Who knows how good batteries will be in a few years. The battery could charge using background noise, solar energy, or bio energy (that's right i said it) like heat or KE. Or it could use just a normal epic battery that is small enough to fit in the glasses.
Speech recognition: this vid makes me lulz. The glasses would have to be better at recognizing human voices than other humans can. Since the glasses wrap around your head, I bet the glasses would be able to triangulate the source and eliminate background noise problems. But the hard facts are that human words frequently sound the same and humans may pronounce the same word differently at different times. These problems might be solved with probability guesses/context, but i feel the technology is pretty far off.
Ad by Google: Eventually someone will create a third party OS for the glasses that won't accidentally fry your eyes and do without the ads everywhere. Depends how open source google is about "project glass" when it comes out.
/wild_speculation
frizzly
April 04, 2012 at 7:32pm
as far as batteries go, the government has incredible power sources that are far better. just consider that the satalites that were send out into space to take close up photos of the different planets in the solar system. they are still sending back photos. and they were sent out in 1977.
slibinz
April 05, 2012 at 8:09am
When you say "the government", what you really mean is "the aerospace industry", because the US government was simply using the best technology that the aerospace industry had available at the time. And don't get out your tin hats yet, there aren't any super-secret space-batteries out there, those probes and satellites have solar panels on them to recharge the batteries.
But I agree that battery strength wouldn't be an issue. I know I'd be willing to have an option for a long-term battery, say stored in your shirt pocket, to be connected to the glasses with a wire when the built-in battery pooped out.
Phoenix_Jones
April 04, 2012 at 12:42pm
Sweet. Now I can read other peoples power levels.
Lets hope none are over 9000...
Ridnarhtim
April 05, 2012 at 2:26am
If this thing works with apps, that's probably the first one anyone will create. And I'll buy it.
AntonioGarrison
April 04, 2012 at 11:47am
Cell phones suddenly become obsolete. Or possibly these glasses will be a "bluetooth" accessory to them. Providing them with all the connections they need to do what these glasses are shown doing.
I think it's a fantastic idea. I would get this added to my current glasses if possible.
iceman08
April 04, 2012 at 11:25am
If I could get Google Glasses as a part of my prescription glasses, I'd be perfectly ok with that
NcOle
April 04, 2012 at 9:41pm
I would certainly invest in a pair of these as long as they could fit my prescription and the frames were a bit more stylish.
JohnP
April 04, 2012 at 12:05pm
Yeah, my 1st thought too. How well would they work with my progressive i.e. bifocal) glasses?
iceman08
April 04, 2012 at 1:20pm
I can't imagine that it'd be impossible for them to integrate it somehow. The glasses may be thicker to account for the HUD, or have some sort of projection on the frame aimed at the lens, but it's not entirely far fetched.
bautrey
April 04, 2012 at 11:22am
I would imagine having a good internet connection wherever you might go can a problem...
PC Friendly
April 04, 2012 at 2:37pm
How many people wear glasses? I'm going to start just so I can have a screen interrupting me even more than my smartphone already does....uh no.
