People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time.
According to several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named, the glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year. These people said they are expected “to cost around the price of current smartphones,” or $250 to $600.
The people familiar with the Google glasses said they would be Android-based, and will include a small screen that will sit a few inches from someone’s eye. They will also have a 3G or 4G data connection and a number of sensors including motion and GPS.
A Google spokesman declined to comment on the project.
Seth Weintraub, a blogger for 9 to 5 Google, who first wrote about the glasses project in December, and then discovered more information about them this month, also said the glasses would be Android-based and cited a source that described their look as that of a pair of Oakley Thumps.
They will also have a unique navigation system. “The navigation system currently used is a head tilting to scroll and click,” Mr. Weintraub wrote this month. “We are told it is very quick to learn and once the user is adept at navigation, it becomes second nature and almost indistinguishable to outside users.”
The glasses will have a low-resolution built-in camera that will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby, according to the Google employees. The glasses are not designed to be worn constantly — although Google expects some of the nerdiest users will wear them a lot — but will be more like smartphones, used when needed.
Internally, the Google X team has been actively discussing the privacy implications of the glasses and the company wants to ensure that people know if they are being recorded by someone wearing a pair of glasses with a built-in camera.
The project is currently being built in the Google X offices, a secretive laboratory near Google’s main campus that is charged with working on robots, space elevators and dozens of other futuristic projects.
One of the key people involved with the glasses is Steve Lee, a Google engineer and creator of the Google mapping software, Latitude. As a result of Mr. Lee’s involvement, location information will be paramount in the first version released to the public, several people who have seen the glasses said. The other key leader on the glasses project is Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, who is currently spending most of his time in the Google X labs.
One Google employee said the glasses would tap into a number of Google software products that are currently available and in use today, but will display the information in an augmented reality view, rather than as a Web browser page like those that people see on smartphones.
The glasses will send data to the cloud and then use things like Google Latitude to share location, Google Goggles to search images and figure out what is being looked at, and Google Maps to show other things nearby, the Google employee said. “You will be able to check in to locations with your friends through the glasses,” they added.
Everyone I spoke with who was familiar with the project repeatedly said that Google was not thinking about potential business models with the new glasses. Instead, they said, Google sees the project as an experiment that anyone will be able to join. If consumers take to the glasses when they are released later this year, then Google will explore possible revenue streams.
As I noted in a Disruptions column last year, Apple engineers are also exploring wearable computing, but the company is taking a different route, focusing on computers that strap around someone’s wrist.
Last week The San Jose Mercury News discovered plans by Google to build a $120 million electronics testing facility that will be involved in testing “precision optical technology.”
117 Comments
Share your thoughts.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
If Google really does it's best, there's no doubt they'd be able to show the wearer of these glasses his/her proximity to ankle-tagged criminals serving electronic monitoring sentences, sex offenders, UPS and FedEx trucks and all kinds of other wondrous and valuable knowledge. It's nice to know that someone wearing these glasses will look like they are in the throes of a mild seizure when executing data navigation commands. If iPhones are a must have theft item for thieves, it sounds like these glasses will be, too. Given the looks of the Oakley's referenced in the column, these glasses should be big sellers if the target market is private security contractors working in Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
More to the point, if I'm scoping-out some broad in a bar, will it tell me how many drinks she's already had? (I don't want to spend $$ on unnecessary booze) or, if she's "easy"? (or is "with" someone?) $250 would be affordable, but could I get 'em with prescription lenses?
I guess the real question is, are they any better than those "x-ray spectacles" they used to advertise in 1960s comic books?
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
It was amazing how cynical and close-minded Americans have become. The best application you can think of is monitoring sex offenders? JBHoren, doesn't do any better. I guess it's not entirely your fault. The article did a poor job in highlighting the many applications it can potentially be used for. Seriously, "checking in" is the best the Google engineer can think of? One example would be if you're building on a construction site; you can relay the relevant information from building schematics to what is actually on the site in real time.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Rich, I believe there may have been a touch of irony/sarcasm detectable in the original comment.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
I have a hard time understanding why Google can not focus on products/services that will add value to both consumers and their bottom line. Instead, they continue to focus on products that have such a niche value they don't satisfy a broad swath of consumers, or bring in any real revenue. Google is too dependent on search for revenue.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Three points.
1. Investment-wise, this is a drop in the bucket for them - their bottom line is doing just fine.
2. It works as a great recruiting tool for them. What engineer wouldn't want to work for the company that is also working on futuristic goggles and self-driving cars?
3. It's nice to see them doing basic research into new ideas. It's a good long-term investment to have a corporate culture where you can try crazy ideas. Sometimes they lead to nothing, but sometimes they lead to new billion-dollar businesses.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
John,
Much of what Google does is future proofing itself. For example, imagine there was no Android, only iPhone. As smart phones took up an increasing amount of market space, that would make Apple able to crush Google by making it difficult or impossible to get to Google from an iPhone. By keeping competition open, they help ensure their ongoing existence.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
John, wake up. Your sentiments are exactly what they used to say about tablets and smartphones. This could be a really cool device that is also useful. Think of it as your personal heads up display.
You could be a Chemical Engineer working in a complex refinery and need to check the plans for a critical shut off valve - rather than running back to the office, you could get the information in seconds - I could easily imagine an app that projects the plans in 3D from your personal vantage point and pinpoints exactly where to look.
Or how about a Fireman who is in a complex building trying to figure out how the best way to attack a fire? He could go in, look at virtual plans and make the best decision in real time.
How about an airline pilot in an emergency? Rather than searching thru an emergency checklist, could ask a "Siri-like" search engine for the recommended solution and have it projected immediately - and would be completely independent of the airplane's power systems, so if a power failure, they'd still have the data.
Or how about soldiers in the field? They could beam real time photos to their commander and each other so they could have full understanding of the battlefield - without ever taking their hands off their weapons or losing their attention to what is going on around them.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
So, Google is now planning to use what I see as part of its data mining operation? I suppose so. After all, it will provide a streamlined, more intuitive experience for Google users.
Google, of course, will never share my personal information with anyone; they will simply sell my purchasing habits, private interests, email subjects, and (soon) anything that enters my field of vision with data mining companies. None of my purchasing or buying habits will be linked personally to me unless I use *any* single one of Google's products, including search and the apps at the marketplace.
It can all be summarized in Goggle's new motto: Stalk Your Customer. Much more accurate than Don't Be Evil, and it gives Google the chance to provide everyone with their fantastic intuitive experience of being in the panopticon.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Its easy to slam Google when comparing them to your idea of perfection. But what about comparing them to the alternative. Do you prefer the telephone book for search?
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Google is to be congratulated on this initiative. It will prove to be enormously useful to the Military, in Search & Rescue work and in Disaster Relief situations. That is just for starters. For example, add infra-red and night vision capabilities and its range of possible usefulness become obvious. I hope DARPA has taken note.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
If Google brings out a pair of glasses which let me get real time information, there would be endless possibilities of how these glasses can be used. Sure there might be privacy issues, but its usage depends on the wearer. A pair of glasses on an everyday consumer and that person will be using that real-time information for shopping, finding directions, avoiding criminals, and Wikipedia right in front of them without having to remember the word or image they are looking at, taking out their smartphone or going back home and looking for it. The camera on the glasses can get high resolution later. I think it would be a breakthrough.
How about a mood detector? :)
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
The idea of glasses with virtual reality and embedded information was envisioned in the novel "Virtual Light" (1993) by William Gibson. In that book he also envisioned a society where the middle class has essentially disappeared. There is a very wealthy elite employed by transnational corporations and there is the poor who obtain employment when they can in service employment. Government programs have been drastically cut - there is hardly any safety net.
Does that sound oddly prescient?
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
So we can expect more up-to-date GSV images, brought to you by users, yay.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Just imagine the volume and depth of the data Google will be able to collect about you with these... your location, what you look at (and for how long, or how often).
Amazing, exceptionally powerful, otherwise unobtainable data for their advertising business.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
This must be a joke.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
This is so William Gibson...
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
This reminds me of Neal Stephenson's concept of a Gargoyle from Snow Crash (right down to the "nerdie" connotation). Even Stephenson didn't foresee how miniaturized the electronics for such technology would become!
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Jesus, spare me.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
This comment is funny, but I doubt "Jesus" is going to spare you, he's much too busy trying to spare the women of America from catholic priests.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
My prediction is that they will go on sale on April 1st.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Sorry, but that's impossible since Kopin owns all the patents on current micro-nano display technology and their latest and greatest, the only thing that could even make this idea work, costs THOUSANDS of dollars...per screen. If such a product were released by April 1st it would cost well over $10,000...which is why there aren't any commercial products as of yet using Kopin's latest and greatest.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
It's "head-up" display. "Heads up" is something you yell at people when a ball is coming their way. A head-up display is a display you use with your head up.
For the love all that's holy please get this straight before the product is released.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Jane, where can I get one of those tin foil hats?
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Prescription lenses ? With shading for the sun ? while operating heavy machinery, driving my car, walking in rush hour traffic ?
probably all solvable, but the first one will be a show stopper for me, at least in the initial prototypes.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
If you're going to do a follow up article, I suggest the title: "Big American Company Recreates And Updates Paranoid Soviet Police State".
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
What a nightmare. Why can't they use that innovation to do something real and important, like improving efficiency and battery power, instead of these inane gee-whiz products?
I'm reassured not at all by their being "concerned" about the privacy implications. It's a brave new world, and they're fast-forwarding us into the worst and shallowest bits of what's possible.
"Don't be evil", Google? We hardly knew you.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
They already are improving efficiency of data centers and investing in battery technology. Why should they restrict themselves to just that?
This product is another information appliance, and information is Google's main product.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
At John: You need to look past your nose (pun intended). Google is on the right track. We've been tied to 2D monitors and desks for far too long. With AR glasses, the world becomes your monitor. Now, the "OAKLEY Thump" style is a mistake, obviously. Think of the number of applications available the internet opened up by introducing readily available PC-PC information sharing, then think about the number of applications smart phones opened up by introducing mobility, now just imaging the vast array of possibilities by introducing 3--Dimensions to computer interaction. This is the dawn of a new era... if you don't see it now, you will when its on your face:)
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Actually Mark, the Vuzix VR glasses really do look just like the Oakley Thump. However Kopin owns all the patents on current micro-nano display technology and their "latest and greatest", the only tech that could even make this idea work...yeah, it costs THOUSANDS of dollars...per screen.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Kind of cool, but why in the world they aren't calling them Google Goggles is beyond me. Someone is asleep at the switch!
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Learn forward if you have the capital, then mass-market back from the future.
Looking forward to seeing if they get it right.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Too good to be true. As described, this sounds like an April Fool's Day hoax. 4G in a pair of glasses. Really? Maybe in 2020.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Actually we have the technology now. Kopin, who owns all the patents on current micro-nano display technology ~does~ have a product that can pull this off...too bad it costs THOUSANDS of dollars...per screen. o_O
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Whatever the feature list those are some ugly glasses, real talk.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Next they'll just put you in a tub of body-temperature water and send the stuff directly to your brain. No need to have a life anymore.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
I'm holding out for Google Eyeballs.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Hahaha! On second thought, I think I will too!
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
Why not wait for Google Brain Implants? Then they can monitor your thoughts, too.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
FINALLY! I've been waiting, seemingly forever, for the technology that would allow me to see ads everywhere I look! Google will finally bring that to life. And I'm sure Google will see everything that I see and we all know we can trust them with privacy.
Ahem, but seriously, it sucks to be a GOOG shareholder these days with stuff like this getting most of their attention. This is exactly how Microsoft shot themselves in the foot.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Flag
I don't think this is how Microsoft shot themselves in the foot. Microsoft shot themselves in the foot by releasing Windows XP about a decade ago, and only coming out with a viable upgrade to it in the last couple years. They also failed to enter the mobile market until it was too late to make up lost ground. And they put too much stock in office software who's functionality was easily replicated by other companies (most notably Google).
Coming up with crazy "future" products is exactly what Microsoft has chronically FAILED to do.
As for the ads... Do you not already see ads almost everywhere you look? Google's advertising tactics have never been about inundating us with attention-grabbing ads, but with subtly giving us ads that are more relevant to the context. And it's not like you couldn't take the glasses off if you just want to enjoy a view without any added clutter.
Read More Comments