Google Glass : Handsfree smartphone on your eyes!!

Imagine being able to record life as you see it and searching the Internet without looking at your phone or laptop. Google Glass can make it happen. Slated for a public launch later this year, this project developed by Google X Labs gives consumers what is essentially a wearable computer in the form of an aluminum strip and two nose pads. It isn’t even on the market yet, but I have never been more excited  by a product.

Named one of Time magazine’s “Best Inventions of the Year 2012,” little had been known about the product’s specifics until Feb. 27, when Google co-founder Sergey Brin held a special talk at TED 2013 in Long Beach, California.

Google glass

What is Google Glass?

Google Glass is the 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.

The core of Google Glass is its tiny prism display which sits not in your eyeline, but a little above it. You can see what is on the display by glancing up. The glasses also have an embedded camera, microphone, GPS and, reportedly, use bone induction to give you sound.

Voice control is used to control the device; you say 'ok glass' to get a range of options including taking pictures, videos, send messages using speech to text, 'hang out' with people or get directions to somewhere. You access these options by saying them out loud.

Most of this functionality is self explanatory; hang out is Google's video conferencing technology and allows you to talk to a people over web cam, and stream them what you are seeing and the directions use Google Maps and the inbuilt GPS to help you find your way.

The results are displayed on the prism - essentially putting data into your view like a head up display (HUD). It's potentially incredibly handy.

For more information see:

http://www.google.com/glass/start/what-it-does/

Why is Glass useful?

Do you find yourself constantly checking your smartphone every 5 minutes? Whether at work, in class, or just sitting on the couch? Glass attempts to make this all hands-free, so you can easily do it in seconds. Need to snap a quick picture and don't want to have to whip out a camera or your smartphone? Just tell Glass to do it and it's done.

Another use for Glass that has been discussed is filming. How awesome would it be to see your favorite sport from the player's eyes?

How does it look and feel?

I can't really describe this. I haven't even worn them myself. To let you get a feel for how they look in action, here are some videos showcasing Glass on Youtube.