Google's Project Glass
is Google's 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.
Google Goggles is software, an app that can search the web based on photos and scans. Google Glass is hardware.
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.
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 Glass?
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 ukelele in a day.
What is the Google 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 £500, then, possibly with the help of a hefty Google subsidy.Is Google 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.If you think pop-ups are annoying in a web browser, imagine them in front of your face.
There are privacy implications too. Never mind your web history: Google Glass might record everything you see and do.