Google's Project Glass is a go

The video is very seductive. Our protagonist carries out basic tasks simply by looking and talking, indicating that his goggles have built-in speech recognition. He looked up at the wall to see a virtual depiction of the time, and gazes at the sky to get an instant heads-up weather report.

He uses the phrase “remind me" to set things in his calendar, and speaks with his friends via instant messaging. The glasses use location-aware processing, telling him that the subway is closed before he goes down the steps. And his heads-up display then throws up an interactive navigation map to get him to his destination.

Two of the things I like most about this concept involved still images and video. Our protagonist looks at a poster and asks his glasses to take a photograph. In another scene, he shares what he is seeing through his glasses with a friend.

It's easy to see where this stuff is going. Google already has image recognition through its Google Goggles offering. In time, these augmented displays will be merged with advanced processing in the cloud, and will be able to look at products to find cheaper pricing elsewhere, or stare at restaurants to see reviews. Once face recognition kicks in, I'm sure we'll be able to see people's LinkedIn profiles floating above them–and perhaps we'll even be able to say “friend this person on Facebook". Although, given that Google is running the show, it's more likely that we'll be able to say "add this person to Google Groups".

Danny Bradbury, MSN Tech & Gadgets