Google’s glasses embed the web in your reality

Google Inc is getting into the eyewear business with a pair of thin wraparound shades that puts the company’s web services in your face.

The experimental “augmented reality” glasses — from the same team that is developing self-driven cars — can snap photos, initiate videochats and display directions at the sound of a user’s voice via an in-built microphone.

The prototype digital glasses, unveiled on the company’s Google+ social network, are still being tweaked and tested, and are not available in stores yet.

“We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input,” Google wrote in a post on a Google+ page devoted to Project Glass.

The glasses could provide a way for Google to more closely entwine its advertising-supported online services — including web searches, maps and email — into people’s daily lives.

The Google+ page featured a 2½ minute video, shot from the perspective of someone wearing the glasses.

The wearer goes about his day walking through New York City while speaking commands to the glasses to do things such as take a photo and post it to Google+, get block-by-block directions and weather conditions and get a pop-up alert when a friend is nearby.

The Google posting is intended to show “what this technology could look like,” the company said. Mock-up images of the glasses on the Google+ page depict a stamp-sized digital display that seems attached to a pair of glasses and sits at the top corner of one of the lenses.

The post asks people to submit their suggestions for what they would like to see in the glasses.

Google casts a wide net when it comes to researching projects that are a bit closer to the cutting edge than email and search. Its best known future-tech project is a small fleet of self-driving cars which have already hit the streets for testing in California, but it’s reportedly also quietly working on a space elevator and as many as 100 other covert futuristic projects.

Not to be confused with Google Goggles — an app that lets you search for anything just by snapping a photo — Google’s glasses superimpose what’s known as a head’s up display (HUD) over your visual field. The visual display, as you can see in Google’s concept image above, provides contextual information and lets you do just about anything a smartphone would, from texting and geosocial check-ins to turn-by-turn directions — all without lifting a finger.

Of course, Google’s conception of this ties right in to its umbrella of products, from Maps and Latitude to Google+. According to the minds behind Project Glass, technology should “be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t”.

The idea of a system like Google’s Project Glass is to steep reality in immersive, non-disruptive data. All tasks would be integrated right into your visual field, keeping your hands free while still providing the informational amenities we’ve come to expect from smartphones and tablets.

In the world of Project Glass, the devices’ screens would melt away in favour of translucent data draped right over the world as we know it. Who needs a Retina display when you’ve got everything you need, right before your eyes?