BusinessDay, By KEVIN O’GRADY, Google appears set to release, some time this year, what people are referring to as "Google Goggles" — augmented-reality glasses that will stream information to your eyes in real time, via a heads-up display, A FEW years ago, I wrote an article for Business Day’s superb Wanted magazine on some of the latest, most desirable gadgets that should have been on any self-respecting geek’s "most wanted" list, as they were on mine. They included a hi-tech watch, a portable audio and video player, and various other gadgets that would look weirdly anachronistic in today’s world, especially the clunky video player in a world now dominated by iPods, iPhones and iPads as the portable players of choice. Wanted hadme pose in a suit, adorned with the many gadgets, for a photograph to accompany the article. Apart from the suit being unfashionably big, resembling the one worn by David Byrne in the legendary
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Talking Heads film, Stop Making Sense, more than something you’d expect to see Sean Connery in, I looked a bit like something out of a futuristic James Bond movie. This was thanks to one gadget in particular — Oakley Thump sunglasses, which had a built-in mp3 music player and little speakers that flipped down from the arms of the sunglasses and into the wearer’s ears. Oakley still produces the sunglasses, which can store up to a gigabyte of music, as well as Bluetooth-enabled sunglasses that allow you to stream music from your cellphone. But as futuristic as they sound — and look — they’re about to become extremely dated, just like everything else I wore in that photograph that day has. This is because Google appears set to release, some time this year if the rumour mill is to be believed, what people are referring to as "Google Goggles" — augmented-reality glasses that will stream information to your eyes in real time, via a
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heads-up display (HUD), will have a front-facing video and still camera, will run Google’s Android mobile operating system, and will also function as a telephone. The camera will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay information on the HUD about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby, according to Google sources who spoke to the New York Times. Users will be able to navigate menus and the display by using slight tilts of the head to scroll and click. Although I expect that wearing a pair of these might put you in the same category as those people who still insist on wearing those awfully ugly Bluetooth hands-free cellphone ear-pieces all the time, even when they’re not talking on the phone, and that navigating by tilting your head this way and that might make you look like you suffer from some strange nervous tic, I can’t wait to get my hands on a pair of Google Googles, which will apparently retail for up to $600. Imagine being able to look at an historical building, or a work of art in a museum, and have information about it flash up on an HUD before your very eyes, or to be alerted visually, for example, if a friend of yours is in a nearby restaurant. The glasses are being developed at Google X, a secret laboratory where many other speculative, experimental products are being developed. Source: BusinessDay
Talking Heads film, Stop Making Sense, more than something you’d expect to see Sean Connery in, I looked a bit like something out of a futuristic James Bond movie. This was thanks to one gadget in particular — Oakley Thump sunglasses, which had a built-in mp3 music player and little speakers that flipped down from the arms of the sunglasses and into the wearer’s ears. Oakley still produces the sunglasses, which can store up to a gigabyte of music, as well as Bluetooth-enabled sunglasses that allow you to stream music from your cellphone. But as futuristic as they sound — and look — they’re about to become extremely dated, just like everything else I wore in that photograph that day has. This is because Google appears set to release, some time this year if the rumour mill is to be believed, what people are referring to as "Google Goggles" — augmented-reality glasses that will stream information to your eyes in real time, via a
Image Link Photobucket
heads-up display (HUD), will have a front-facing video and still camera, will run Google’s Android mobile operating system, and will also function as a telephone. The camera will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay information on the HUD about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby, according to Google sources who spoke to the New York Times. Users will be able to navigate menus and the display by using slight tilts of the head to scroll and click. Although I expect that wearing a pair of these might put you in the same category as those people who still insist on wearing those awfully ugly Bluetooth hands-free cellphone ear-pieces all the time, even when they’re not talking on the phone, and that navigating by tilting your head this way and that might make you look like you suffer from some strange nervous tic, I can’t wait to get my hands on a pair of Google Googles, which will apparently retail for up to $600. Imagine being able to look at an historical building, or a work of art in a museum, and have information about it flash up on an HUD before your very eyes, or to be alerted visually, for example, if a friend of yours is in a nearby restaurant. The glasses are being developed at Google X, a secret laboratory where many other speculative, experimental products are being developed. Source: BusinessDay
