Google AR Glasses Adhering to the concept of “Build to Help”, these AR glasses can provide great help to visually impaired patients. The key function is to convert the things in front of you into speech that supports natural language.
While a good chunk of Silicon Valley is investing heavily to make AR glasses a reality, no one has come up with a true AR “killer” app so far that lets you ignore the various privacy concerns inherent in the technology. The real-time translation of spoken language is sure to be a killer feature.
The company hasn’t shared any details on when they’ll be available, only showing them off in a recorded video that doesn’t actually show the displays or how you’ll interact with them. But what’s shown in the video paints a pretty cool picture of a potential AR future.
In one demo, a Google product manager told someone with glasses, “You should see what I’m saying, just transcribed for you in real-time — kind of like subtitles for the world”. Later, the video shows what you might see if you put on the glasses: the speaker is in front of you, and the translated language appears in your line of sight in real-time.
It is not clear what changes will be made to this concept product when it is converted into a real product, and it is not clear what the specific effect will be. This concept product may be the product of Project Iris reported in January, but other projects are not ruled out.
During the keynote, Google CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized the company’s focus on AR. Based on what he said, the company seems to think AR can exist where many smartphones can’t.
Going forward, there is a new field of computing that has the potential to extend all of this even further, and that is augmented reality. At Google, we’ve made significant investments in this area. We’ve built augmented reality into many Google products, from Google Lens to multi-search, scene exploration, and live and immersive views in maps.