Google Glass feature set still in flux, says project lead

Nimish Sawant

The Google Glass project is a work in progress and specific features are still being finalised.

                                               

So those of you who were expecting to purchase a consumer version of the Google Glass by the end of the year will have to wait as the final feature set is still a work in progress according to the project lead. Babak Parviz, head of the Google Glass project, in an interview with IEEE Spectrum gave some additional details on the Glass project. Although most of what he said is already known by most people who have been following the Google Glass project since its wonderful unveiling at Google I/O 2012, Parviz did shed some light on Glass’ current status and challenges being faced.

According to Parviz, the main intention of Google Glass is to be able to help people communicate with each other pictorially via images and videos. One of the main concern of the project is the battery-life - the team is targetting a full-day battery-life. Parviz said that most of the features of Google Glass are still a work in progress and a lot of research is being done to come up with ways in which it will add value to the wearer. As for interacting with the Glass, Parviz said that currently there is a touch-pad on the device which allows people to changes things. It has also undergone experimentation with voice commands and head gestures.

Speaking on the app-development, Parviz said that when Glass would be shipped (developer versions will be handed out to those who pre-booked it, sometime in the second half of 2013) there will be a cloud-based API to help developers to integrate with Glass. This API would be similar to the one on which email and calender services are being currently tested.

Ever since the Google Glass demo video came out, there have been a lot of parodies floating on the internet about how Google will use Glass to push advertisements to users, thereby distracting the wearer. As of now, Parviz claims that there are no plans for advertising on the device. But we shall see how long that holds true when the Glass comes out, considering Google is primarily an advertising company.