Project Glass. Image: Google
You see them sitting at work, the dinner table or in a pub – beavering away on their mobile devices and not taking note of the social happenings in their immediate surroundings. I predict that the next scarce employable skill will be face to face conversation.
Fighter pilots have heads up displays so Google reckoned; “Why not develop heads up displays for the masses and wire them into the internet on a 24/7 basis”.
Google Project Glass’s prototype version look like a very polished and well-designed pair of wrap-around glasses with a clear display that sits above the eye. The glasses stream information to the lenses allowing you to send and receive messages through voice commands. There is also a built-in camera to record video and take pictures.
Nick Bilton from the New York Times reports there are several different prototypes actually being used and has spoken to some who have worn them.
One of the leads on Project Glass, Babak Parviz, wrote an article in September 2009 titled; “Augmented Reality in a Contact Lens“, in which he says; “….a contact lens with simple built-in electronics is already within reach; in fact, my students and I are already producing such devices in small numbers in my laboratory at the University of Washington, in Seattle. These lenses don’t give us the vision of an eagle or the benefit of running subtitles on our surroundings yet. But we have built a lens with one LED, which we’ve powered wirelessly with RF. What we’ve done so far barely hints at what will soon be possible with this technology.”
Must be a little easier for Parviz to be working on a larger surface!
The guys from Project Glass say; “We think technology should work for you—to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t.
“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. 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.”
The video above does not show the actual glasses in action but rather a concept of what they might be able to do.
Of course this kind of technology needs to take into consideration our normal klutzy selves as we attempt to multi, multi-task our way around the world – witness the lighter hair colours of our generation who have a problem walking and breathing. See the video by Tom Scott below who says; “I made the Google Project Glass team a new commercial. I don’t think they’ll like it.”
