Google Glass Wannahaves, Your Moment Is Almost Here
Are you anxiously wondering if you've successfully talked your way into early access to Google Glass, the company's wearable augmented reality technology? You can just about stop holding your breath. Almost.
"Over the next few days," Google wrote in a post on the Project Glass Google+ page, "we’ll be sending out invitations to our Explorer Program through Google+ and Twitter. So, keep a lookout for tweets and G+ posts from @projectglass and +Project Glass to see if you’ve been invited."
Some background, if you've been living under a rock: A few weeks back Google sent out an open call for applications to its Explorer Program, inviting anyone to explain what they'd do with a Google Glass unit by using the hashtag #ifihadglass on Google+ or Twitter. The Explorer Program was a chance to get your hands on the earliest version of the wearable tech unit, the very same one that many preordered at last year's Google I/O conference for $1,500.
While the contest was aimed at bringing on adventurous "explorers," it also naturally caught the attention of businesses looking to be on the forefront of wearable tech marketing. "At the moment, our Explorer Program is only for individuals," the post explained. "However, we are working on connecting with businesses in other ways."
The suggested utilizations of Google Glass covered nearly every field imaginable, from medicine and education to gaming and extreme sports. Some highlights included augmented reality-assisted surgery, amateur astronomy and stargazing with visual overlays, and real-time language translation with on-screen subtitles, as ReadWrite's John Paul Titlow points out.
As with many new tech innovations, there are also a number of ways Google Glass could be put to far less productive ends — a list that runs the gamut from uncomfortable infringements of privacy to downright creepiness. Some entries, few of which are likely to have gained much traction with Explorer Program judges, include watching and creating pornography with Google Glass, surreptitiously recording the opposite sex, and Google-stalking people you just met.
The scope of Project Glass appears to be wider than Google may have imagined, which means that some of these potential privacy snarls are already attracting real-world attention. Just last week, lawmakers in West Virginia introduced a bill that would ban Glass while driving, and that's only the first of what will likely be many legal issues down the road.
Image courtesy of Google
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