* Google testing prototype glasses
* No release date set
* Developed by same group working on self-driving cars
By Alexei Oreskovic
SAN FRANCISCO, April 4 (Reuters) – Google Inc is
getting into the eyewear business with a pair of thin wraparound
shades that puts the company’s Web services in your face.
The experimental “augmented reality” glasses – from the same
team that is developing self-driven cars – can snap photos,
initiate videochats and display directions at the sound of a
user’s voice.
The prototype digital glasses, unveiled on the company’s
Google+ social network on Wednesday, are still being tweaked and
tested, and are not available in stores yet.
“We’re sharing this information now because we want to start
a conversation and learn from your valuable input,” Google wrote
in a post on a Google+ page devoted to Project Glass.
The spectacles are being developed by Google, the
secretive group working on advanced research projects such as
self-driving cars.
The Google+ page featured a 2-1/2 minute video, shot from
the perspective of someone wearing the glasses. The wearer goes
about his day walking through New York City while speaking
commands to the glasses to do things such as take a photo and
post it to Google+, get block-by-block directions and weather
conditions and get a pop-up alert when a friend is nearby.
The Google posting is intended to show “what this technology
could look like,” the company said. Mock-up images of the
glasses on the Google+ page depict a stamp-sized digital display
that seems attached to a pair of glasses and sits at the top
corner of one of the lenses.
The post asks people to submit their suggestions for what
they would like to see in the glasses.
Google, the world’s No. 1 search engine, is famous for
letting its employees work on ambitious projects that don’t
always have a direct relation to its business.
Those projects have not always sat well with investors, who
worry about Google’s spending on projects with uncertain
returns.
Google Chief Executive Larry Page has cut down on many of
the projects and products underway at the company since taking
the reins a year ago. But he has defended Google’s commitment to
working on “speculative” projects that could one day turn into
“billion-dollar businesses,” though he has stressed the company
isn’t “betting the farm” on such efforts.
The glasses could provide a way for Google to more closely
entwine its advertising-supported online services, including Web
searches, maps and email, into people’s daily lives.
The glasses also could help Google match some of the buzz
that rival Apple Inc has generated with its latest
iPhone and the built-in Siri digital assistant, which takes
spoken commands to do such tasks as schedule calendar
appointments and get weather forecasts.
A Google insider said it is unclear when the glasses might
be commercially available, but noted that the philosophy of
Google group is to develop technologies that can be used in a
relatively short period of time, rather than dreaming up
creations that won’t be possible for 10 or more years.
The glasses, under development for two years, will be tested
in public by members of the Google team, according to the
Google insider.
Shares of Google, which reports its first quarter financial
results next week, fell about 1.2 percent to close at $635.15 on
Wednesday amid a broad market sell-off.
