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Google glasses gets raft of new patents, sniffs lawsuits coming from miles away
Google will find four more granted patents for Project Glass sitting on its over-sized doorstep this morning. The company can now claim rights over the design of the right half of the device, where the camera hangs over the eye and where the innards are housed within the band along the side. It's also patented the nose-pad sensor that knows when it's being worn, plus the ability to represent ambient sounds on the screen with range and direction info. Finally, it's also got rights on using each eyepiece as a separate display, with the example shown above demonstrating a map in one eye and navigation instructions in the other. The more we sift through the paperwork, the more we're reminded of the Dominion Warship headsets from Deep Space Nine -- but that could be just because we've been locked indoors for too long.
Google patent application could give Project Glass one true ring controller to rule them all
Let's face it: right now, the head nods and other rudimentary controls of Google's Project Glass are mostly useful for looking good, sharing photos and not much else. A US patent application submitted last September and just now published, however, raises the possibility of more sophisticated control coming from your hands. A ring, a bracelet or a even a fake fingernail with an infrared-reflective layer would serve as a gesture control marker for a receiver on heads-up display glasses. Having this extra control would give the glasses-mounted computing room to grow by learning gestures, and it could even depend on multiple ornaments for more sophisticated commands -- at least, if you don't mind looking like a very nerdy Liberace. We can imagine the headaches a hand-based method might cause for very enthusiastic talkers, among other possible hiccups, so don't be surprised if Project Glass goes without any kind of ring input. That said, we suspect that Sauron would approve.
Those suave Google glasses are now patent-protected
Google has successfully patented the "ornamental design" of its augmented reality eyewear. To you, me and Aunty Dee they might look almost like regular Ray-Bans, but there's a lot of secret technology concealed within those sleek lines and Google evidently wants to prevent others from copying their appearance. After all, if people started faking Project Glass, it'd be impossible to tell if we're being properly scanned or merely checked out.
Google's Vic Gundotra tries Project Glass on for size
Looks like we're starting to get a little insight into Google's Project Glass testing process. Seems like the augmented reality glasses need to make their way onto every head on the Google staff, before the company feels confident moving ahead with them. First we caught sight of co-founder Sergey Brin, then it was Sebastian Thrun of Project X fame, and now social exec Vic Gundotra is getting a crack. He looks reasonably happy, so that's probably a good sign, right? Update: Looks like Google employee Sebastian Thrun actually tried one on... and got a photo of what it looks like from the inside. Head on the past the break for a glimpse.
Project Glass makes a TV appearance on Charlie Rose, flashes its rear for the cameras
Google fellow, founder of Project X and self-driving car pioneer Sebastian Thrun became the latest to publicly rock a Project Glass prototype (after company co-founder Sergey Brin) on a recent episode of Charlie Rose, and managed to show off a whole new side of the project in the process. While the 19-minute interview was mostly unremarkable product-wise with a focus on higher education and his Udacity project, we did get to see him take a picture of the host (about a minute in) by tapping it, then posting it on Google+ by nodding twice. Also, as Electronista points out, in a brief reverse shot (17:20) of Thrun we see for the first time what appears to be a small battery pack / transmitter portion lodged behind his ear. Of course, we're still not any closer to rocking the latest in bionic man-chic ourselves, but at least we can start getting fitted for one now.
Oakley cooking up its own smart glasses, hoping to trump Project Glass with improved style
Oakley's Thump glasses haven't exactly succeeded in fending off the competition when it comes to portable music playback, but that isn't stopping it from working feverishly to develop the next round of vaguely intelligent eyewear. CEO Colin Baden told Bloomberg that the company has been toying with ways to project information onto sunglasses since 1997, hoping to start by augmenting the world of sports before ultimately blending into more consumery pursuits with shades that could run solo or pair up with a smartphone. Functionality is only part of the puzzle, says Baden, as aesthetics play an important role. "People get very particular when they put stuff on their face." This, perhaps, explains the lack of sales of the aforementioned Thumps.
Project Glass team member shows off mockup for glasses-wearers, says it's for 'everyone'
While Google isn't ready to answer all of the questions we have about its Project Glass concept yet, a member of the team has chimed in on one of the most common questions -- could it work even the user wears prescription glasses? Industrial designer Isabelle Olsson says the team ideally wants it to work for everyone, and posted a photo of the Glass-on-glasses mockup shown above to her Google+ page. Unless you're a Google exec this doesn't bring you any closer to going retinas-on with the heads-up display / augmented reality project yourself, but hopefully it keeps the dream alive even for the near / far sighted among us.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: autos galore, electric trees and the world's largest rooftop farm
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. Flying cars and taxis of the future drove out of our imaginations and onto the show floor of the 2012 New York Auto Show this week as autophiles poured into the Jacob Javits Center from far and wide. Inhabitat editors left no hybrid or electric cars unturned as they scoped out gems like the Fisker Karma's lower-priced but equally-sexy cousin, the Fisker Atlantic, and Infiniti's revolutionary LE electric car, which will use the world's first wireless home charging system. We were also wowed by reveals of the Lincoln MKZ hybrid vehicle and a special guest appearance by the back-to-the-futuristic electric DeLorean (shown above).Even though we kicked the week off with some pretty plausible April Fool's Day stories, some of the actual events from the past few days proved that truth is often stranger than fiction. Case in point: this Indian man single-handedly planted a 1,360 acre forest (really makes you question what you've accomplished in your life, doesn't it?) and a spooky unmanned Japanese ghost ship was recently spotted off the coast of Canada floating aimlessly in the sea. In other news, Harry the Hermit crab was picky about his abodes until he was presented with a custom-made LEGO shell, and the electric blue trees that sprouted up in Seattle weren't stragglers from a Dr. Seuss book, but rather the work of an artist calling attention to the dangers of deforestation. On the other hand, some reforestation is about to take place in NYC, as Marty Markowitz and celebrity chef Mario Batali announced that the world's largest rooftop farm will be coming to Brooklyn in 2013. And finally, it seems the media made April Fools of themselves last week when they jumped to the false conclusion that taxpayer money was lost after Solar Trust of America filed for bankruptcy.The world of design presented us with some inspiring new developments this week as we delved deep into tiny terrarium worlds, ogled IKEA's otherworldly new jellyfish lamp and witnessed an eco Easter egg sprout mini skyscrapers just in time for the holiday. More strides were also made in the race for cleaner energy as this young savant at the University of Delaware developed a self-sustaining solar reactor that could revolutionize clean energy as we know it and Bayer revealed a new seismic wallpaper that could actually keep walls from collapsing in an earthquake. Not to be outdone, scientists from Austria and Japan announced that they created micro-thin solar cells narrower than spider silk and Chinese researchers unlocked the secret of butterfly wings to make solar electricity more efficient. And, of course, no tech recap would be complete without an innovation from Google - the search giant just unveiled its new pair of "Project Glass" augmented reality glasses.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin spotted wearing Project Glass prototype IRL
Wondering what it might be like to sport Google's Project Glass augmented reality HUD in your daily life? It would appear company co-founder Sergey Brin already knows, as he was spotted by tech pundits Robert Scoble and Thomas Hawk rocking a prototype at a Dining in the Dark charity event for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Scoble has already posted a couple of pictures with Brin on Google+, mentioning more photos would be forthcoming from Hawk after the event concluded and that he'd heard other people, including Google exec Vic Gundotra, have the devices already. For now he mentions the glasses appeared to be "self contained" and that he could see a blueish light flashing on Brin's eyes. Hit the source link for more pics and details, we'll let you know if we find out more later -- details on where to snag a set may remain confidential until we've had a chance to try them on first, of course.