Google Wants to Change How You See the World

Rumors have been surfacing here and there for some time now about a secret project inside the halls of Google. Glasses, powered by Android, bringing augmented reality not just to our smartphones, but to our everyday lives have been the topic of conversations involving Google.

Yesterday, those rumors were confirmed as reality. Google’s Project Glass is designing glasses to take over some, or possibly all, of the functions of our smartphones. In a concept video, Project Glass demonstrated uses like phone calls (including a one-sided video chat), turn-by-turn navigation, and text messaging. The images make it clear that Google has gone with a design closer to something out of Star Trek than the rumored Oakley Thumps design.

It seems clear that the glasses will rely heavily on Google’s Voice Commands, because operation will need to be hands-free for users to get the most out of a wearable computer. The video, filmed entirely from the user’s perspective, shows no other method of interaction, which seems like a risky move at the moment, given how unreliable voice recognition generally is. Hopefully, Google will have a surprise up their sleeve in that regard too.

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For now, we have few details. There is no word on pricing or even when Project Glass will generate a product available for consumers to purchase. Personally, I’m curious how this concept can work for those of us who wear plain old eye glasses to aid our vision. We do have a design and user interface concept and Google has said they will test the prototypes in public, so we might see them in the wild soon, not just on the faces of models in pictures.

Even with the futuristic design, I’m not sure anything Project Glass turns out will end up being any more fashionable than a Bluetooth headset is now. If this concept catches on, it could revolutionize consumer technology in a way we haven’t seen since the original iPhone. Who knows, perhaps augmented reality is how we will all see the future.