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Google's Project Glass: first impressions (with Sergey Brin's headset)

Google's Project Glass: first impressions (with Sergey Brin's headset)

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Hands-on impressions of Google's Project Glass headset.

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I just had a bizarre and fairly interesting experience here at Google I/O 2012. After a small, closed press session on Google's Project Glass, company co-founder Sergey Brin decided to let the press here try on the devices for themselves. Including his personal pair.

The demo was set to nothing more than a looping fireworks video, but I got to have a first-hand experience with what Google's Glass is like for those wearing it right now (side note: Sergey was personally placing the glasses on people, and he snapped these photos). According to the Glass team members present, text updates and other notifications can be seen in their displays, as well as menus and options for different camera settings and communication choices — but members of the press didn't get to see any of those screens.

Physically, the experience is not all that different from those bulky head-mounted displays that can be worn to see a full HD video without an actual TV in front of you, though the screen image is much smaller, and only occupies one side of your vision. The video I watched appeared as a small, glowing square in the upper-right corner of my vision. I asked Sergey what the resolution was, but he wasn't sure. "Is it higher than the G1?" I asked. "What was the G1's resolution?" he replied (the G1 was HVGA, by the way, and I couldn't remember either).

There is sound emanating from the device, though there's no in-ear component, and you have to cup your hand over your ear to get any reasonable volume out of the Glass headset. It was, however, incredibly light, and can also be worn over glasses.

Additionally, during the event Sergey stated that the company had been in talks with both standard eyeglass and sunglass makers, and that there were variations of Glass with slightly different form factors.

I'm compiling some more information and thoughts on the nascent technology, so stay tuned for a deeper dive later on.

Trying out Sergey Brin's Glasses

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