Project Aura: Google Glass, Enterprise Edition

You won't have to wait for Google to reveal the next generation of Glass (aka Project Aura) -- regulators just stepped in on its behalf. A newly published FCC filing shows the previously rumored Enterprise Edition headset, and it's clearly a big improvement over the Explorer model from years earlier. The work-focused eyepiece touts a much slicker (and likely more durable) design with both a larger display prism and a hinge that lets you fold it up for travel. The test photos also reveal a spot for a magnetic battery attachment and what looks to be a speedier Atom processor.

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eh? Prior Art Where art Thou? Google Patents Hologram Enabled Glasses

Google Glass may have dropped off the radar, but Google is still hard at work on the project behind closed doors. The tech giant has recently filed for a new patent that enables the wearable head-gear to display holographic projections.

Instead of the flat display beamed into the wearer’s eye with the current generation, the new patent would allow for a device to overlay CGI on top of the real world, to create a three dimensional heads up display. This technology would open up Google Glass as an augmented reality platform, offering something a little closer to Microsoft’s Holo Lens. The new design also apparently allows for a wilder field of view, is more efficient and easier to wear.

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I have to wonder how Hololens works with this patent.  Microsoft has been working on this for at least seven years.

Glassholes! The End is Nigh! Google Kills Google Glass!

The company insists it is still committed to launching the smart glasses as a consumer product, but will stop producing Glass in its present form.

Instead it will focus on "future versions of Glass" with work carried out by a different division to before.

The Explorer programme, which gave software developers the chance to buy Glass for $1,500 (£990) will close.

The programme was launched in the United States in 2013. It was then opened up to anyone and was launched in the UK last summer.

It had been expected that it would be followed reasonably quickly by a full consumer launch.

From next week, the search firm will stop taking orders for the product but it says it will continue to support companies that are using Glass.

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Is Google Glass a Failure?

After two years of popping up at high-profile events sporting Google Glass, the gadget that transforms eyeglasses into spy-movie worthy technology, Google co-founder Sergey Brin sauntered bare-faced into a Silicon Valley red-carpet event on Sunday.

He'd left his pair in the car, Brin told a reporter. The Googler, who heads up the top-secret lab which developed Glass, has hardly given up on the product -- he recently wore his pair to the beach.

But Brin's timing is not propitious, coming as many developers and early Glass users are losing interest in the much-hyped, $1,500 test version of the product: a camera, processor and stamp-sized computer screen mounted to the edge of eyeglass frames. Google Inc itself has pushed back the Glass roll out to the mass market.

While Glass may find some specialized, even lucrative, uses in the workplace, its prospects of becoming a consumer hit in the near future are slim, many developers say.

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Mind Controlling Google Glass

US Air Force Evaluating Google Glass for the Military

The U.S. Air Force’s “BATMAN” research team at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio is beta-testing Google Glass for possible use on the battlefield.

And so far, it likes what it sees.

The positive attributes “are its low power, its low footprint, it sits totally above the eyes, and doesn’t block images or hinder vision,” said 2nd Lt. Anthony Eastin, a behavioral scientist on the BATMAN team testing the glasses.

[...]
Andres Calvo, a software developer and civilian contractor with the group, told VentureBeat Tuesday that one of the facets of the Google Glass platform the team liked was the capability to “access information very quickly.”

But so far, Glass is “not a silver bullet for many of the Air Force’s needs,” Calvo said.

Possible Air Force scenarios for the technology use include forward air controllers working on the ground helping vector fighter and bomber aircraft to their targets, search and rescue missions, and combat controllers communicating with aircraft flying overhead and ground troops in combat, supply, and rescue operations.

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Moverio: Epson's Answer to Google Glass?

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Taiwanese Group Creates "Minority Report" Rival for Google Glass

write up on the other side of this link.