Google announces plans for digital glasses

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:20:34 -0500
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By the end of 2012, Google plans to unveil their latest addition to the tech world: a pair of android-based digital glasses, reports the New York Times. With a built in camera, the glasses will monitor the wearer’s surroundings and present them with relevant information about nearby businesses, or information about friends who might be nearby. Like smartphones, the glasses will harness third-party 3G or 4G for internet access. The glasses are being developed by the Google X team based out of a top-secret lab in Google headquarters where the company’s top-minds have been thinking up plans for futuristic products like space elevators and driverless cars.

Priced about the same as a smartphone—$250 to $600—the glasses are reported to have the rugged and futuristic look of a pair of Oakley Thump glasses. The proposed navigation system for the glasses will be a series of subtle head nods.

A PCWorld article shed a not-so-favorable light on the proposed Google product, saying that glasses could be potentially hazardous if worn while driving. The glasses, like other mobile devices, also raise questions about personal security and the potential of Google harnessing “Big-brother”-like influence over its customers. It’s likely, too, that the product is bound to cause concern about the health implications of having a small screen sitting only a few inches from your eye.