Hacker Creates His Own Version Of Google's Augmented-Reality Glasses

It’s been a fair few months now since Google first unveiled a promo video for their augmented reality glasses, and we can trace the name ‘Project Glass’ back even further still.
This said though, with no estimated time of arrival all we know is that the specs are floating around somewhere in the depths of Google’s development lab, and with no clue of when they’ll emerge it seems like some are far too keen on the idea to wait.
One such man is designer Will Powell, who’s taken matters into his own hands and put together a fairly impressive imitation.

 



The glasses
Without access to Google’s funds or test labs, Powell got inventive with his DIY and combined a pair of Vuzix glasses with a set of HD webcams and a mic headset, and wrapped it all up with software written in Adobe Air.
The result is quite astounding. Releasing a video shot with his creation, Powell demonstrates the remarkable similarity between his glasses and Google’s own as he asks for weather updates, creates events in his schedule, asks the device to play music and takes and shares photos online with Google+. He claims that the video was shot completely ‘as is’ without any editing of any kind, and if you were to play it side by side with Google’s promo vid you might very well struggle to tell the difference – so his claims are pretty impressive if true.
Admittedly, the design doesn’t quite have the chic elegance that Google picture and it certainly looks a little more clunky to use, but when you consider the near enough limitless resources which the search engine juggernaut are able to plough into production it’s not a half bad job for a man sat at his coffee table.

Does this mean anything? Is it just creation for its own sake?
In large part, this seems like Powell pitting himself against Google to see who’d win – and it looks like he has. Experts have been recorded as saying that it could be as much as two years before we develop technology capable of carrying out the functions Google promised us, but Will seems to be doing a pretty good job on his own.
We’ve heard little word from the American corporation in terms of release dates so perhaps it’s unsurprising that a particularly technologically minded fan would give it a go himself – we might even see more imitation glasses popping up as we wait for the real thing.




About the Author:
Robin loves to blog about the latest technology developments and writes for leading prescription glasses online retailer Directsight.co.uk.