Commonly referred to as Google glasses, Internet glasses and Google search glasses, the wearable Internet glasses powered by Android currently named simply ‘Google Glass’ have captured the imagination of tech aficionados for over a year. Amazing videos have been published to spots like YouTube which show some of the incredible abilities the rather normal looking pair of glasses gives to its wearer. The augmented reality glasses can display video chats, show photographs, allow you to shop online, and show maps … all with the blink of an eye.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin demonstrated the Google Glass wearable internet glasses at the annual Google I/O conference in San Francisco last year, but what could be the next big thing in Internet access is finally set to become a worldwide reality. Technical specifications for the Google glasses were revealed to the World Wide Web today, the same day Google shipped its very first batch of Google Glass eye-wear to developers. While the many videos have effectively showed off the awesome abilities of the glasses, up until now tech specs for the specs have not been known.
Google Glass eye-wear contains a 5.0 megapixel camera for snapping photos, and it also films in 720P HD resolution. The eye-wear does not look like much more than a regular set of glasses, but will deliver 12 GB of user accessible memory. A total of 16 GB of flash memory is also on board, and the glasses are synced with Google’s cloud storage to allow for even more storage capability. Currently this first batch of Google Glass will offer both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless access, but not 3G.
The handsets will work across carriers for compatibility with any Bluetooth supported handset, but the companion application MyGlass that which enables GPS and SMS messaging will require the Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system to work. If you can afford to purchase the no-doubt expensive Google Glass eye-wear, you can expect about a day’s battery life for medium or “typical use.” Accessing Google Hangouts and recording video will drain the battery more quickly.
While no price tag has been attached as of yet, you and I can probably guarantee that we will have to hit the lottery before we can buy one of the first pairs of Google Glass to hit the mobile marketplace. As usual at this early date there is no specific launch platform for the Internet glasses, but rampant speculation is pointing to sometime in mid 2014 for a public release. Want to get ahead of what might be the next big thing in mobile technology? Google also released the API (Application Programming Interface) for its glasses, so you can begin developing applications right away.
