Google Glasses set for 2014: Robocop vision for all

The Gadget Show  Friday 29 June 2012

Remember Google’s Project Glass? The project will see many of us wearing futuristic specs that provide the wearer with an augmented reality view of the world. Augmented reality vision for humans may sound like a science fiction dream, but within two years Google co-founder Sergey Brin hopes buying the specs will be as common as popping into the opticians for a regular pair, as our lives get increasingly digital.

The glasses overlay an augmented reality version of what we see. Imagine having a sat-nav before your very eyes and you’ll have an idea of how Project Glass could change the way we live.

Project Glass: vision of the future of stuff of fantasy?

We’ll be wearing them sooner than we first thought. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that developers will first get their hands on a Project Glass “Explorer Edition” next year, before being made available to consumers in 2014.

“These Explorer Editions I’d like to get out early next year,” he said. “Within a year after that I want to have broad consumer offering.”

Google has recently been showing off what the glasses can do by putting them on the heads of skydivers and acrobats so they can stream what they see to viewers, but it’s how we’ll be using the glasses during our daily routines that gadget fans will be most interested in. 

Wearers be able to see a weather forecast simply by looking up at the sky, or virtual directions to your next destination, take a photo by saying “take a photo”, set reminders, call friends using voice, and never get lost thanks to virtual maps being overlaid before our eyes. All this without a smartphone.

The cost of Google Glass is said to be pricey, concept models cost in the region of around £1,000, but two years of development should see those costs driven down by the time they reach your local Specsavers. Will you be saving up for a pair?

Ways we’ll be using augmented reality more in 2012

Tags:

Google Glass, gadgets, glasses, Sat-nav