Google CEO spotted in London wearing Project Glass specs

22 May 2012

Google’s CEO Larry Page has been seen in London wearing the company’s forthcoming Project Glass wearable computer specs.

In the photo Page is seen addressing Google’s London staff and wearing the new shades.

Page co-founded Google with Sergey Brin in 1998.

Google’s X Labs had been working on creating augmented reality glasses that would push information from the internet via the Android OS onto the glasses’ lenses.

Google is aiming to release the glasses at the same cost as a standard smartphone, which is in the US$250-US$600 range. The glasses are believed to contain a unique new navigation system that uses head tilting to scroll and click and will be very intuitive.

They will also sport a built-in, low-resolution camera that overlays information about locations, buildings and friends.

Effectively, the augmented reality shades function as a communications device, allowing phone calls and videoconferencing. The glasses also enable social interaction, such as location-based check-ins and photo sharing.

Isabelle Olsson, an industrial designer on Google’s Project Glass team, in recent weeks revealed an early mock-up of how Project Glass would work for someone who wears prescription glasses. The heads-up display (HUD) appears to be attached to the user’s own pair of glasses. This holds the lens where information is displayed to the user and the camera which takes in the user’s surroundings.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

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