10 Questions About Project Glass
Today, Google announced its new futuristic project from the internal Google[X] team - Project Glass. You can read more over at Google’s official Google+ page, where they company is also sharing a video. The Verge and The New York Times are breaking down the interesting bits from today’s news.
As I said, I’m not sure how I feel about Project Glass yet. Specifically, I’ve been reading about the augmented reality glasses, asking myself some questions.
The concept video looks cool. How much of this, though, is real, and will end up in a final product? You know the problem with concept videos, they look cool, but sometimes they never ship.
How long until we see the obvious headline “Apple needs to respond to Google’s Project Glass”?
The hardware looks like something from Star Trek, but then again revolutionary technologies always look unfamiliar at first. Two years ago, using an iPad in public was weird, now it’s perfectly normal. The iPad, however, is not a wearable technology. Will the advantages of Google’s glasses outweigh the possible awkwardness of wearing them?
Will the glasses be completely – to quote Apple – “PC-Free”, or will they need some sort of connection to a computer to back up their data and be set up?
And if they are even partially independent from a computer to operate, will they come in 3G versions as well to allow for always-on connectivity?
Assuming Google is going to sell these, eventually, will the company make a profit from them exclusively through retail, or will they fit advertising in the big plan? There is an awful lot of potential for targeted ads on a thing you wear as you walk around town, every day. Think about it for a second.
Will the glasses come with your Google+ credentials already configured, like Amazon’s Kindle? Because if not, I imagine you’d have to dictate your password to log in…or use a keyboard to access your Google account.
Thinking long term – is Google going to eventually allow third-party developers to create apps for the glasses? The opportunities could be huge.
Are we ready to have a constant source of information flowing right next to our heads?
When will Project Glass ship? And how does Android fit in all this?
Right now, I have these questions. I’m torn between “completely freaked out” and “exciting, revolutionary possibility” when I think about Project Glass, and I’m curious to see how development will play out following users’ input. One thing, I believe, is certain: Project Glass will either fail big time – because the public is not ready, the device will turn out to be a technical flop, or simply because Google will change its mind – or succeed in creating a whole new market, redefining wearable technology in the process.
Today, the Internet is going crazy speculating about Project Glass, and rightfully so. What Google is showing seems impossible, and not just from a technical perspective: it seems unlikely that the product from that video is working that well using today’s technologies. But still, Project Glass is real and, according to Google, it’s already being tested out in the real world. So we wait.