Project Glass is a research and development program by Google to develop an augmented reality head-mounted display (HMD). The intended purpose of Project Glass products would be the hands free displaying of information currently available to most smartphone users, and allowing for interaction with the Internet via natural language voice commands, in a manner which has been compared to the iPhone feature Siri. The operating system software used in the glasses will be Google’s Android.
Project Glass is part of the Google X Lab at the company, which has worked on other futuristic technologies, such as a self-driving car. The project was announced on Google+ by Babak Parviz, an electrical engineer who has also worked on putting displays into contact lenses; Steve Lee, a project manager and “geolocation specialist”; and Sebastian Thrun, who developed Udacity as well as worked on the self-driving car project.
The product began testing.
Google unveils their Google Glass Google Plus page.
Publishes YouTube video “Project Glass: One day” and creates industry wide buzz. (Since removed)
Sergey Brin wears a prototype set of glasses at The Foundation Fighting Blindness event in San Francisco.
Sergey Brin demoed the glasses on The Gavin Newsom Show and let California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom wear the glasses.
Sergey Brin demoed the glasses at Google I/O with the point of view from skydivers, abseilers, and mountain bikers.
Google Glass Graces the Runway at New York Fashion Week – See more at: https://web.archive.org/web/20130601054601/https://histowiki.com/1635/history/technology/google-glasses#sthash.Lek5qZuy.dpuf
Time Magazine votes Google Glass one of the best inventions of 2012
Sergey Brin test drives Google Glass on New York Subways
Google Glass production canceled
Google Glass is far from dead Schmidt said:
“It is a big and very fundamental platform for Google. We ended the Explorer program and the press conflated this into us canceling the whole project, which isn’t true. Google is about taking risks and there’s nothing about adjusting Glass that suggests we’re ending it”
July 17, 2017:
Google Glass is officially back with a clearer vision
July 25, 2018:
Google Glass is back, this time with Artificial Intelligence
On Tuesday, Israeli software company Plataine demonstrated a new app for the face-mounted gadget that understands spoken language and offers spoken responses. Plataine’s app is aimed at manufacturing workers. Think of an Amazon Alexa for the factory floor.
The app points to a future where Glass is enhanced with artificial intelligence, making it more functional and easy to use. Plataine, whose clients include GE, Boeing, and Airbus, is also working to add image-recognition capabilities to its app.
Alphabet X, Google’s “moonshot” branch, has unveiled a reboot of the original eyeglass-like wearable called Glass Enterprise Edition. As the name suggests, it’s not aimed at the public at all. Despite its many foibles, Glass turned out to be very useful for workers, so the new version targets businesses to help workers do their jobs better.
In early 2015, Google shuttered the Google Glass site, thanking users for “exploring with us,” while promising that “the journey doesn’t end here.” However, while the original $1,500 Glass Explorer’s Edition was no longer available to the public, Alphabet continued to supply it to US companies like GE, Boeing, DHL and AGCO.
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