Google has released another promotional video for its widely-anticipated Glass project – the wearable device which takes the form of a pair of translucent spectacles that appear to enrich the user's experience of the world around them.
The new video, which includes scenes that could be comfortably described as atypical – unless the average Google Glass wearer fills their days swinging on trapezes, piloting prop planes and handling giant snakes – nevertheless shows a number of extremely innovative features for such a light and portable device, with a far less intrusive-looking heads-up-display area than previous publically shown prototypes.
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Voice commands, demonstrated by a user saying "Okay, glass, record a video" were shown, along with Google Glass apparently able to identify a jellyfish, before bringing up an associated Wikipedia entry.
Video chat with remote users was also shown, as were contextual weather reports and map access.
Google has also announced a competition ‘offering' 8,000 people the chance to become "Glass Explorers", able to buy a pair early (no specific date given) for $1,500 (£985).
The competition may give an idea as to the eventual retail price of Google Glass, but for now the project seems unworkable in the wild. Battery life, speech recognition and visual recognition are not generally advanced enough to support Google's demo, and high-bandwidth outdoor wireless coverage must progress in order to make Google's dreams a reality, too.
"We're still in the early stages, and while we can't promise everything will be perfect, we can promise it will be exciting," teased Google.
