All You Need To Know About Google "Project Glass"

Are Google’s glasses more than just a gimmick?

When Google unveiled Project Glass, the tech world instantly fell into two camps. Camp one was excited: we’re living in the sci-fi future! Camp two, though, wasn’t so happy. It’s vapour-ware! some said, while others worried that Google just wanted to plaster ads on the entire world. Is either camp correct? Let’s find out.

What is Google’s Project Glass?

Google Glass is the attempt to make wearable computing mainstream, and it’s effectively a smart pair of glasses with an integrated heads-up display and a battery hidden inside the frame.

Wearable computing is not a new idea, but Google’s enormous bank account and can-do attitude means that Project Glass could well be the first product to do significant numbers.

When will it be released?

It looks as though Project Glass will see a public release in 2014 at the earliest. Latest news is that developers will be able to get hold of ‘explorer edition’ units at some point later this year with a “broad consumer offering” arriving a year later.

What’s the difference between Google Glasses and Google Goggles?

Google Goggles is software, an app that can search the web based on photos and scans. Google Glass is hardware.

How does Project Glass work?

According to well-informed Google blogger Seth Weintraub, Google’s Project Glass glasses will probably use a transparent LCD or AMOLED display to put information in front of your eyeballs. It’s location-aware thanks to a camera and GPS, and you can scroll and click on information by tilting your head, something that is apparently quite easy to master. Google Glasses will also use voice input and output.

An FCC filing in the US also revealed more potential details, suggesting that Wi-Fi and Bluetooth would be used to send pictures to the screen, whilst bone-induction may be used for sound, vibrating your skull to communicate the sound into your inner ear. It’s not a new technology, but certainly does have critics who suggest that it falls short of traditional headphones.

What are the Google Glass specifications?

The New York Times says that the glasses will run Android, will include a small screen in front of your eye and will have motion sensors, GPS and either 3G or 4G data connections. Weintraub says that the device is designed to be a stand-alone device rather than an Android phone peripheral: while Project Glass can connect to a smartphone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth 4.0, “it communicates directly with the cloud”. There is also a front-facing camera and a flash, although it’s not a multi-megapixel monster, and the most recent prototype’s screen isn’t transparent.

What will I be able to do with Google Glasses?

According to Google’s own video, you’ll be a super-being with the ability to have tiny people talking to you in the corner of your eye, to find your way around using sat-nav, to know when the subway’s closed, to take and share photographs and to learn the skelewu in a day lol.

OK, what will I really be able to do with Google Glass? Is Google Glass a vision of the future?

Nobody knows. The idea is to deliver augmented reality, with information that’s directly relevant to your surroundings appearing in front of you whenever you need it. For example, your glasses might tell you where the nearest decent restaurant is, book your table, invite your friends and show you how to get there, or they might provide work-related information when you’re at your desk.

What information we’ll use it for, if we use it at all, remains to be seen: like Apple’s Siri, it’s a technology with enormous potential. It could even end up in contact lenses: one of the Project Glass team, Babak Parviz of the University of Washington, recently built a contact lens with embedded electronics.

I already wear glasses. Will Google Glasses work for me?

Yes. Google is experimenting with designs that will fit over existing glasses so you don’t have to wear two lots of specs.

Are the glasses just a concept?

Given that Google has insisted that the glasses will be sold by the end of 2014, it’s looking increasingly certain that this will definitely be an actual, stick it on your face and press go, reality.

Previously, the likes of the New York Times pointed out that Google’s got some of its very best people working on the project, and experts such as wearable computing specialist Michael Liebhold say that “In addition to having a superstar team of scientists who specialize in wearable, they also have the needed data elements, including Google Maps.”

Not everyone is convinced. Wired spoke to Blair MacIntyre, director of the Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech, who said “you could not do [augmented reality] with a display like this.” MIT Media Lab researcher Pranav Mistry agreed, saying that “the small screen seen in the photos cannot give the experience the video is showing.”

There are several engineering issues – making a screen that works in darkness and in bright sunlight is tough – and mobile display technology doesn’t offer dynamic focusing, which reads your eye to deliver perfectly clear visuals. Current wearable displays have to be two feet away from your face.

On a separate note, Google is going to great lengths to keep its Glass development at least partly private. Developers attending its first event had to sign strict non-disclosure agreements that forbade them from spilling the beans. Isn’t glass supposed to be transparent?

What is the Project Glass price?

The NYT again: according to “several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named,” the glasses are expected “to cost around the price of current smartphones.” So that’s around $750/£500, then, possibly with the help of a hefty Google subsidy.

The developer versions – traditionally more expensive than the final consumer units – were made available for pre-order for $1500 (c£966).

As to WHERE you can buy the specs; online will be a certainty, but don’t rule out Glass making a debut in a all-new Google Store, with the search giant apparently considering actual shops to showcase the tech to those who haven’t been following every development.

Is Project Glass evil?

It could be. Google’s business is about making money from advertising, and some people worry that Google Glass is its attempt to monetise your eyeballs by blasting you with ads whenever you look at something.

So If you think pop-ups are annoying in a web browser, imagine them in front of your face. The ADmented Reality spoof is one of very many parodies that me laugh.

Some of the parodies actually make a good point by showing people bumping into stuff: heads-up displays can be distracting, and there may be safety issues too. Until Google ships its self-driving car, the thought of drivers being distracted by their glasses is fairly terrifying. Hope am not to annoying with that?

There are privacy implications too. Never mind your web history: Google Glass might record everything you see and do. Just like everyone I love my privacy and I do think this should be considered.

Google Glass pre-order customers will get regular updates

Those people who paid Google $1,500 for the privilege of pre-ordering some Project Glass specs will be receiving “private updates” through Google+.

Will it make me look like a dork?

Er… yes!

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