Project Glass is a research and development program by Google to prototype and build an Head- Mounted Display or HMD
Project Glass is part of the Google X Lab at the company, which has worked on other futuristic technologies, such as a self-driving car in Artificial intelligence projects
These glasses are a revolutionary concept in computers, and will take the idea of the mobile computing one step further
The project has drawn media attention primarily due to its backing by the major public corporation, as well as the prototype, which is smaller and slimmer than the previous designs for head-mounted displays
The project was announced on Google+ by University of WashingtonBabak Parviz , Steve Lee and Sebastian Thrun
On April 9, 2012, Will Powell released a video of a system similar to Project Glass,using Dragon Naturally Speaking for voice recognition, Vuzix head mounted display glasses and written in Adobe Air
information over the view from the users' right eye
The video suggests icons offering 14 different services will be offered to the user when the glasses are first put on, including information about the weather , diary appointments and their location
It appears that several of these services are either triggered by an action taken by the user or the situation they are in
The film shows one user being reminded he has a date that evening when he looks up at a blank wall, and then warns him that there is a 10% chance it will rain when he looks out of the window
The video suggests that the device would involve a GPS chip to help deliver location specific alerts
An alert pops up when a friend sends a text asking if he wants to meet up later in the day. When the user orders a reply a microphone symbol is covered over much of his view
It includes Google Maps showing a direction to the wearer's destination with small arrows keeping him on track
The glasses are also shown to allow music and other audio to be heard, although they do not appear to include earphones…!!
It provides the ability to take a photo of what he is looking at with an option to share it with friends, and a video conference service
There had been lots of speculation about the project with some reports describing it as an open source project but this is the first time Google has definite details of what it was working on
The New York Times had previously suggested that the first set of glasses would go on sale for somewhere between $250-$600 by the end of 2012 but specialists say that the technology shown in the video may still be some way off being ready for market
Chris Green, principal technology analyst at Davies Murphy Group Europe, Said that other tech firms such as Brother had attempted to innovator the concept - but became unstuck because their versions had required users to carry separate processing and battery equipment that plugged into their glasses.
"There are vast opportunities for tailored advertising with augmented reality systems - especially if they have in-built GPS or “path finder” "
Google suggests the glasses could help users find where products are placed in shops
Rival eyewear
In the future, new designs may allow integration of the display into people's normal eyewear
The product's developers said they wanted feedback on the idea
They did not give any indication about when the device might go on sale or what it would cost
