Google Glass was a somewhat ill-fates attempt by Google to get in on the ground floor of the augmented reality (AR) smart glasses industry. Google have now unexpectedly announced a new version of the smart glasses technology, with a new look.
The technology was derided upon launch for its unwieldy form-factor, and criticised due to privacy concerns over people using Google Glass for hidden filming. Take-up was much lower than expected, and almost everyone believed that the project was dead. However, a recent firmware update for the original Google glass raises some eyebrows and launched speculation that the project had been resurrected.
That seems to have been proved correct with today’s announcement of Google Glass Enterprise Edition. The new version of the hardware is said to have better battery life, and a red indicator light that will glow whenever recording is active, the new version is also planned to be able to support prescription lenses, and substitute for safety glasses.
A new ‘Enterprise Edition’ of Google Glass has already been launched, a move that makes sense considering that while Google Glass was a near-failure amongst mainstream consumers, it saw considerable use amongst manufacturers and engineers who found the camera and heads-up display extremely useful.
“Workers in many fields, like manufacturing, logistics, field services, and healthcare find it useful to consult a wearable device for information and other resources while their hands are busy,” Explained a blog post by Google X Division Project Lead Jay Kothari, “That’s why we’ve spent the last two years working closely with a network of more than 30 expert partners to build customized software and business solutions for Glass for people in these fields.”
It is currently unknown if the new version of Google Glass was also launch as a commercial product, or if it will stay exclusive to businesses.
”We first saw signs of Glass’ potential for businesses in the Glass Explorer days,” Kothari continues, “As we said when we graduated, we’d been seeing incredible developments with Glass in the workplace. Now the Glass product team is back at X, and we’ll be collaborating with the Google Cloud team and our partners to help customers across a variety of business sectors make the most of Glass.”
VRFocus will bring you further information on Google Glass and its new version as it becomes available.
via Mint VR