More than a decade after its famed Google Glass failure, Google is going to try again with smart glasses. The glasses will go on sale sometime in autumn and feature a small camera in the frames and small speakers in the arms, allowing Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) product Gemini to interact with a user.
Google revealed the glasses for the first time during its annual developer conference on Tuesday, offering one style designed by Warby Parker and another by Gentle Monster.
Google Glass was launched in 2013 but pulled in 2015, just seven months after its UK release, after a backlash around price and privacy.
The new smart glasses will let a wearer “stay hands free and heads up,” according to Shahram Izadi, a Google executive who spoke during Tuesday’s event.
The glasses will work with both Android and Apple’s IOS devices, Google said.
“They are designed to give you all-day help with Gemini that’s spoken into your ear privately rather than shown on a display,” Izadi added.
While the company is working on a version of the glasses that will have an in-lens display capable of showing a wearer text and information, instead of being audio-only, those glasses are not set to be released yet.
Izadi said during Tuesday’s event in Mountain View, California that more information about the in-lens glasses will come out later this year.
He added that developers are already working on applications for the display glasses.
Privacy concerns
The core features of Google’s intelligent eyewear appear similar to those available in Meta’s offering of AI or smart glasses, which have a small camera and speakers for verbal and audio communication with Meta AI.
Meta’s Ray-Bans have already sold seven million pairs, according to the company.
However, the same privacy concerns that Google Glass faced over a decade ago are already bubbling up with Meta’s glasses.
People are being unwittingly filmed in public and in private, often by people wearing Meta’s glasses, and only finding out when the videos show up online.
Snap is also expected to release a new version of its smart glasses this year, and Apple is reportedly working on a glasses product, too.
Investor Christine Tsai of 500 Global, an early stage venture capital firm, said Google’s re-entry into the glasses space is a positive development.
“It’s good for consumers. And it’s good for early stage start ups, where we tend to invest, because they’re a platform where people can build more capabilities,” said Tsai who attended Tuesday’s conference.
Smart glasses are gaining traction as “that next modality” to follow the success of the smartphone, she added.
Developer Anil Shah, who is building an events management app called tixfix.ai, said smart glasses hold the promise of integrating many services that Google already provides, like Google Maps and Google Voice.
“It’s a great addition to their product line-up,” he said.
For his own start up, Shah said he would consider building integrations with Google smart glasses so users can easily find events to attend near them.
“I think being able to just talk with the smart glasses without opening the app would be a very nice integration,” he said.
By BBC News
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