Google To Release Connected Glasses Next Year

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Google to release connected glasses next year

SAN FRANCISCO: -- Smartphones, tablets, laptops and ultrabooks may no longer suffice for digerati who wish to be web connected 24/7.

From next year they will be able feast their eyes on Google’s Project Glass products, the company’s network-enabled computerized eyeglasses, co-founder Sergey Brin said Wednesday.

Brin showcased the glasses in one of the most unusual demos ever to grace a tech event. It involved teams of skydivers, cyclists and rappellers combing to bring Brin a set of the high tech specs, while using the devices to beam live video of the event over Google Hangouts, the company’s social networking video conferencing tool.

The device will not go on sale to the general public for the time being. Rather, it was made available for pre-order to the more than 5,000 developers attending Google’s I/0 developer conference. The price :1,500 dollars with delivery in early 2013.

The glasses, which are actually wearable mini-computers in the shape of eyeglasses, use a tiny projector fixed just above the user’s eye-level to beam information directly into the user’s field of vision. The futuristic device can be controlled via voice commands or tiny buttons embedded in the frame.

Google Glass was developed in the company’s top-secret Google X lab, and first revealed to the public by Brin in April.

-- The Nation 2012-06-28

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Live skydiving with Google's glasses