Last April Google revealed their Project Glass, but we hadn’t heard much about these augmented reality glasses since then, save for the parody videos of course. Yesterday they released a new promo video (which looks a little too user-friendly to be real) and launched a program for pre-ordering a pair of Google Glasses for yourself.
Previously, the Android-based Google Glass headsets were only available at Google I/O developer conferences. Now they’ve launched a “Google Glass Explorers” program. All you have to do is give them $1,500 and write an essay of 50 words or fewer on Google+ or Twitter with the hashtag #ifihadglass. The full rules are here, but I stopped reading at “$1500”. I’ve lost more pairs of sunglasses than I’ve bought, and I’m not sure how that’s physically possible yet there it is.
You also have to pick up the Google Glass in person at a location in NYC, LA, or San Francisco, because the Midwest may as well be Narnia to these people. Maybe they could ask their glasses to Google how many Americans live outside of those three cities. (Answer: 96 damn percent of us.)
Anyway, there’s a new video below of the user interface.
All of the user interaction occurs in the upper-right corner of your field of vision. A small display presents beautifully simple white text displaying your commands, along with incoming text messages, video chat feeds, Google search results, maps and everything else Glass can do. In the video, we see that the headset takes voice commands –“OK Glass, snap a photo” — but it’s still unclear what users must do with their hands. [WIRED]
At one point a sculptor tells the glasses to “Google photos of tiger heads” which is a great feature to know about. Not because I’m going to use it, but because I’m going to do this:
[Sources: WIRED, Ars Technica, DPAF]