“We think technology should work for you—to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t.” Such was the rationale given by project leaders when Google officially confirmed their work on Project Glass this past April, a glasses-like device claiming to bring the convenience and power of smartphones right into your field of vision.
The day is now near when all you need to do to check the weather, get real-time directions, or video chat is to open your eyelids. These “Google goggles” will match everything doable within a smartphone’s powers: taking pictures as you walk, setting calendar appointments while eating lunch, or checking your Facebook during lecture (what!! who’d ever do such a thing?); but they will also reach beyond: from being shown whether it’s Melnitz Hall or Macgowan Hall you’re looking at (two north campus buildings; I didn’t know they existed either), to navigating your way around the bookshelf maze at the Research Library to find that elusive book, to learning that your friend Joe is walking 300 feet to your left! All of this info would appear on a heads up display when you need it, and disappear when you don’t, keeping you techy yet in the moment, rather than glued to your smartphone’s touchscreen as you misstep and toboggan down Janss Steps.
Anonymous Google employees told the NY Times back in February that the glasses are set to land in the market by the end of this year and fetch a price close to that of smartphones. Whether Google[x], the internet giant’s covert laboratory working on this and other futuristic projects, will be able to overcome technical design issues like graphics, speed, battery life and network connections, in time for a year-end release is not known. But in any case, we may very well be witnessing the dawn of the augmented reality age.
Check out the video at this link posted by Google[x] to really see what I’m talking about:
https://plus.google.com/111626127367496192147/posts#111626127367496192147/posts (scroll to the bottom there)
Hmm...how far should I walk?
Project Glass in action--project leader Sebastian Thrun's son experiencing centripetal force
Sources:
https://plus.google.com/111626127367496192147/posts
Image credits:
Project Glass, on Google+
ORL Tech Blog 