Google working on augmented reality glasses

Web giant Google has confirmed that it is working on bringing augmented reality glasses to the market, as part of a project called Project Glass,” and is inviting consumers to contribute ideas to the project.

“We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input. So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do (below),” the company wrote in a blog post on Google+.

This type of “head-up display” technology has been in labs for a while, such as at MIT. But according to Adrian Drury practice leader and senior consultant at Ovum, Google’s decision to focus on the technology could prove to be a significant one.

“Now you have a major smartphone, search and digital media player going into this market, using head-up display as a visual display user interface methodology for mobile communications. That’s what’s interesting about the announcement,” he said.

However, those who expect the technology to gain mass adoption anytime soon, could be a little too optimistic, he warned.

“It takes the technology industry a long time to find the right version for a new user interface that consumers actually want. It took the computing industry eight years to get tablets right.”

“And let’s define what we mean by mainstream. Mainstream is hundreds of millions of units in the market – not just a couple of early adopters picking them up, and having a play with them.”

He argued that lessons should be learned from what happened with bluetooth headsets. Bluetooth headsets still have niche appeal, it is a technology that has gone from early adopters, into the mainstream, and then effectively out, into niche markets where there’s an effective use case. Drury warned that there’s a risk of that happening with Project Glass.

However, if Google gets it right, it could prove very lucrative for the firm.

“The power for a search marketing organisation like Google to be able to push display ads at you – not just while you’re walking down the street but also while you’re walking down aisles, is potentially massive. They can be part of every single purchasing deicsion because they’d be influencing people in such a way. It could prove to be an incredibly lucrative thing to have done to the market.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4[/youtube]