Project Glass is a research and development program by Google to develop an augmented reality head-mounted display (HMD).[2] Project Glass products would display information in smartphone-like format[3] hands-free and could interact with the Internet via natural language voice commands.[4] The prototype's functionality and minimalist appearance (aluminium strip with 2 nose pads) has been compared to Steve Mann's EyeTap.[5]
The operating system software used in the glasses will be Google's Android.[6]
Project Glass is being developed by Google X Lab,[7] which has worked on other futuristic technologies such as self-driving cars. The project was announced on Google+ by Babak Parviz, an electrical engineer who has also worked on putting displays into contact lenses; Steve Lee, a project manager and "geolocation specialist"; and Sebastian Thrun, who developed Udacity as well as worked on the self-driving car project.[8] Google has patented the design of Project Glass.[9]
The Google Glass project is making use of bone conduction technology in order to transmit sound to the wearer of the device and save users from needing headphones. Google’s Project Glass was filed with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday.
Using bone conduction, Google Glass could stray from traditional audio earpiece technology. An internal transducer mechanism vibrates bones in the wearer’s head, generating more vibrations in the cochlea (the fluid-filled part of the ear), turning all of these vibrations into what the wearer hears as sound.
Google filed for the audio device’s patent just a week prior to the FCC confirmation which only makes one note of the “vibrating element”.
Bone conduction audio is said to provide many advantages over most headphones. Some people say that the audio is clearer, while others report that it removes any obstructions in the way of real-world audio (such as day-to-day traffic noise and important alerts from passers-by).
The vibrating element is expected to be included on the Explorer Edition of Google Glass. The Explorer is said to cost around $1,500 and will be released in 2013, readying the market for a projected 2014 release.
Do you believe bone conduction audio is a step up from traditional headphones? What advantages or disadvantages do you see with the new addition? Will you purchase Google Glass when it is released to the public?
Google's new wearable computer, Google Glass, uses the human skull to conduct sound.
The news comes from Google's documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission which shows how the computer that sits on one's nose like a pair of glasses, uses "bone conduction" to send vibrations to the inner ear and make sounds, according to The Independent. The advantage of using the skull to transmit sounds is that it allows the person to hear ambient noise, too.
Google Glass, which has been modeled frequently by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, doesn't have any earbuds, so it's not surprising that its creators had to use their creativity to make sound audible. While the "bone conduction" sounds a little odd, we feel sound vibrations everyday in our bones from someone's car pumping bass to jackhammering construction. At least this time it's something that we want to hear.
Mr Brin, 39, who runs the secretive “Google X” development group, has also been spotted wearing the hi-tech specs around San Francisco. He demonstrated an early iteration of Google Glass at a conference in May 2012, where the audience was treated to a live feed from the glasses’ built-in miniature camera, worn by members of a skydiving team in freefall.
When the headset is connected to a wireless network, it can overlay augmented reality information about the wearer’s surroundings, culled from Google search and location data, on to their view. It can also capture video and photos and instantly share them online. According to the FCC papers, the device can store video files and be recharged with a power cable that attaches to the right-hand arm of the spectacle frame. Mr Brin has admitted its battery life is a work in progress.
The $1,500 device is expected to be delivered to software developers sometime this year, and Google has already begun to host “hackathons” in New York and San Francisco, for those developers to brainstorm new and exciting applications for Glass. The firm has said it hopes to make the device available to the public by the end of 2014.
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