For the last two years, Internet search giant Google's Project X laboratory has been working on the world's most advanced eyewear. While rumors of the myriad capabilities that the 'Google Goggles or Glasses' will feature have been leaking out gradually over the last few months, no outsider had ever encountered one until last week, when they were finally unveiled at the company's annual three-day developers conference that was held at San Francisco's Moscone Center from June 27-June 29th, 2012.
After announcing a number of new initiatives, the company's CEO Sergey Brin told the unsuspecting audience that he had one last one that was not as perfect and could even be dangerous given that it had never been tested in these conditions prior to this. Then, the screen in the conference room lit up and the crowd inside watched with abated breath as a pair of skydivers jumped off a blimp that had been hovering about 7,000 feet above downtown San Francisco and parachuted onto the roof of the Moscone Center. What made the live adventure exciting was that thanks to the Google Glasses, the crowd was able to experience the jump through the skydivers eyes as it was happening.
If that wasn't enough, they were then able to experience a rollicking ride with a team of BMX bikers who carried the goggles to another stuntman that rappelled down the side of the tall building and passed them on to a cyclist who delivered them into the hands of the eagerly awaiting Sergey Brin.
While these stunts only demonstrated the video streaming capability of the amazing goggles, they are also rumored to allow the user to surf the Internet via a small discreet screen situated on one side of the sunglass lens. In addition to that they feature GPS tracking, phone and a still camera.
The annoying part is that the company offered the goggles only to the 6,000 developers that attended the conference - For $1,500 USD apiece they had the option to reserve the prototype that will be released in early 2013. The rest of us ordinary mortals will just have to wait until 2014, when the commercial version is released, which fortunately will be available at a significantly lower price.
Resources: Dailymail.co.uk, mg.co.za,theinquirer.net