The breakthrough is a wearable computer — a pair of
Internet-connected glasses that Google Inc. began secretly building more
than two years ago. The technology progressed far enough for Google to
announce "Project Glass" in April. Now the futuristic experiment is
moving closer to becoming a mass-market product.
Google announced Wednesday that it's selling a prototype of the
glasses to U.S. computer programmers attending a three-day conference
that ends Friday. Developers willing to pay $1,500 for a pair of the
glasses will receive them early next year.
The company is counting on the programmers to suggest improvements
and build applications that will make the glasses even more useful.
"This is new technology and we really want you to shape it," Google
co-founder Sergey Brin told about 6,000 attendees. "We want to get it
out into the hands of passionate people as soon as possible."
If all goes well, a less expensive version of the glasses is expected
to go on sale for consumers in early 2014. Without estimating a price
for the consumer version, Brin made it clear the glasses will cost more
than smartphones.
"We do view this is as a premium sort of thing," Brin said during a question-and-answer session with reporters.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin talks on the phone as he wears Google's
new Internet-connected glasses at the Google I/O conference in San
Francisco, Wednesday, June 27, 2012. Google is making prototypes of the
device, known as Project Glass, available to test. They can only be
purchased — for $1,500 — at the conference this week, for delivery early
next year.
Brin acknowledged Google still needs to fix a variety of bugs in the
glasses and figure out how to make the battery last longer so people can
wear them all day.
Those challenges didn't deter Brin from providing conference
attendees Wednesday with a tantalizing peek at how the glasses might
change the way people interact with technology.
Google hired skydivers to jump out of a blimp hovering 7,000 feet
(2,130 meters) above downtown San Francisco. They wore the
Internet-connected glasses, which are equipped with a camera, to show
how the product could unleash entirely new ways for people to share
their most thrilling — or boring — moments. As the skydivers parachuted
onto the roof of the building where the conference was held, the crowd
inside was able to watch the descent through the skydivers' eyes as it
happened.
"I think we are definitely pushing the limits," Brin told reporters
after the demonstration. "That is our job: to push the edges of
technology into the future."
The glasses have become the focal point of Brin's work since he stepped
away from Google's day-to-day operations early last year to join the
engineers working on ambitious projects that might once have seemed like
the stuff of science fiction. Besides the Internet-connected glasses,
the so-called Google X lab has also developed a fleet of driverless cars
that cruise roads. The engineers there also dream of building elevators
that could transport people into space.
While wearing Google's glasses, directions to a destination or a text
message from a friend can appear literally before your eyes. You can
converse with friends in a video chat, take a photo without taking out a
camera or phone or even buy a few things online as you walk around.
The glasses will likely be seen by many critics as the latest
innovation that shortens attention spans and makes it more difficult for
people to fully appreciate what's happening around them.
But Brin and the other engineers are hoping the glasses will make it
easier for people to strike the proper balance between the virtual and
physical worlds. If they realize their goal, it will seem odd in three
or four years for people to be looking up and down on their phones when
they could have all the digital tools they need in a pair of glasses
Isabelle Olsson, one of the engineers working on the project, said
the glasses are meant to interact with people's senses, without blocking
them. The display on the glasses' computer appears as a small
rectangular on a rim above the right eye. During short test of the
prototype glasses, a reporter for The Associated Press was able to watch
a video of exploding fireworks on the tiny display screen while
remaining engaged with the people around him.
The glasses seem likely to appeal to runners, bicyclists and other
athletes who want to take pictures of their activities as they happen.
Photos and video can be programmed to be taken at automatic intervals
during any activity.
Brin said he became excited about the project when he tossed his son
in the air and a picture taken by the glasses captured the joyful
moment, just the way he saw it.
"That was amazing," Brin said. "There was no way I could have that memory without this device."
From phys.org
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