You’ll probably have noticed that Road to VR is rather excited for Google’s fledgling Augmented Reality project, codename ‘Google Glass‘. It’s a project shrouded in mystery and it’s secrets tightly guarded, as evidenced by the strict NDAs required by attendees of the recent Google Glass Foundry event in January.
Nuggets of news regarding Glass are tough to come by then, so when things do surface it’s of great interest. Today, Google posted a new video named ‘How It Feels [through Glass]’ — which seems to detail Google’s vision for how Glass might work in reality. The video is filmed entirely in the first person and looks through the eyes of a lucky but anonymous avatar enjoying various activities whilst wearing a set of Google Glass[es].
It’s clearly a promotional piece designed to generate buzz for the project, but it actually does gives an enticing glimpse into the possibilities Glass might bring and, more interestingly, the practicality of wearing and using them. The video demonstrates the user triggering actions verbally with sentences prefixed with “Glass” then followed with “..take a picture”, presumably leveraging a version of the company’s ‘Google Now’ voice recognition technology already present in its Android mobile OS. Less clear is the hint that physical actions (say by pointing / sliding with your hand in close proximity to the visor) also trigger actions — although I may have misinterpreted this.
How to Get Google Glass
The video is actually part of a new promotional website, pushing the Glass brand seemingly with the aim to introduce the general public to the idea of Glass and the ideas behind augmented reality with a solidly visual / text-light approach. The website also offers a chance to get a set of Google Glass for yourself:
We’re looking for bold, creative individuals who want to join us and be a part of shaping the future of Glass. We’d love to make everyone an Explorer, but we’re starting off a bit smaller. We’re still in the early stages, and while we can’t promise everything will be perfect, we can promise it will be exciting.
Using Google+ or Twitter, tell us what you would do if you had Glass, starting with the hashtag #ifihadglass.
Whoever Google chooses from the #ifihadglass campaign will still have to pay $1500 and head to New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles to pick up the unit.
It certainly seems that Google are shifting the Glass’ profile up a gear in preparation for getting units out there into the wide world. Let us know whether you’ve applied for a unit and what you said to blag your way into the program, we’d love to here from you over on our forums.