Apple may be known for entertaining and bringing something new at their product launches. But Google just put up a greatest show in the history of tech product launches.
Google’s Cofounder Sergey Brin made a surprise appearance at Google’s annual developer conference at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center interrupting Google senior vice president Vic Gundotra’s presentation about Google+ (Gundotra later said it was his “Taylor Swift moment”). Brin explained that what he had planned was time sensitive, and asked the crowd if they wanted to see a demo of Google Glass, the company’s much-buzzed-about effort to create connected glasses.
The Breathtaking Stunt executed by Google over the San Francisco Skyline
"You've seen demos that were slick and robust. This will be nothing like that," Google’s Cofounder Sergey Brin said as he introduced the stunt. "This could go wrong in about 500 different ways."
Just when the Crowds were curious as to what’s going on and didn’t know what to expect four skydivers wearing Glasses and wingsuits leapt from the airship on the screen set on the stage (performing a "Mission: Impossible"-worthy stunt that required Google to get special permission to open the door while in the air and the cooperation of the FAA, the San Francisco Mayor’s Office and NASA's Ames Research Center), hovering 4,000 feet over Moscone opening parachutes before they landed on the roof of the Moscone center.
A group of bicyclists then raced across the roof, handing a product to a climber who rolled down the side of the building. For the last handoff, another cyclist rode down the center of the auditorium to hand Brin a product on stage.
That Product was pair of the blue glasses, the company’s futuristic Internet-connected eyeglasses that instantly streams images and audio. Google calls the futuristic, Internet-connected glasses as Project Glass.
The 6,000 programmers and reporters at the meeting saw a live video feed from the skydivers' glasses as they descended, landing on top of the Moscone Center where the I/O conference was taking place.
The stunt was carried out to show how the product could unleash entirely new ways for people to share their most thrilling experiences without having smartphone or tablet camera in hand.
The applause when the skydivers walked into the convention center was thunderous.
"I'm so glad that worked," Brin quipped. "I wasn't really expecting it to."
“Don’t try this at home, kids. These are trained professionals,” Brin cautioned the crowd.
Check out the stunning presentation by Sergey Brin in the Video below:
The breakthrough about these glasses are that they are a wearable computer — a pair of Internet-connected glasses that Google Inc. began secretly building more than two years ago.
What do the Glasses contain and look like?
Google Glass eyewear features built-in camera, microphone and speaker technology and can synch to the Internet using wireless Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connections.
The glasses display screen and processor that fit over the upper corner of a pair of glasses -- are meant to display information literally before a user's eyes. The camera would allow people to capture and share photos or videos of what they're seeing, to others wirelessly, allowing them to see your world as you live it.
Google's Project Glass glasses will probably use a transparent LCD or AMOLED display to put information in front of your eyeballs and communicates directly with the cloud.
The tiny transparent display doesn't actually sit directly in front of your eye. It's slightly above your line of vision, so that it shouldn't interfere with your normal life.
It's location-aware thanks to a camera and GPS, and you can scroll and click on information by tilting your head. Google Glasses will also use voice input and output.
It is incredibly light, and can also be worn over glasses.
Inside is the usual set of components you'd expect in any mobile phone. There's a "powerful" CPU and "lots" of RAM (though, there was no mention of specifics)
Google Glasses brings the web literally in front of your eyes with Google Glasses
Through these glasses you will be able to access social networking sites, search for information, video chat, read text messages, emails, watch online video and post photos on social networks without having to carrying a Smartphone, Laptop or a Tablet.
Look up at the sky, and a weather forecast will appear on the little screen over your eyes. Head down the stairs into the subway, and the glasses will show you whether trains are on time. Walk down the street and get turn-by-turn directions. See something you'd like to share with friends, and the images your glasses shoot can be shared on Google+ social-media accounts.
In a press conference at Google I/O Brin said the idea of Google Glasses was to make you, "less a slave to your device." You won't have to reach into your pocket for simple notifications or to take a picture, he said.
"It's not for reading a book," he said, "although you could do that. It's for catching a text, or a picture.... I just took one of you now."
The glasses seem likely to appeal to runners, bicyclists and other athletes who want to take pictures of their activities as they happen. Photos and video can be programmed to be taken at automatic intervals during any activity.
Brin said he became excited about the project when he tossed his son in the air and a picture taken by the glasses captured the joyful moment, just the way he saw it.
"That was amazing," Brin said. "There was no way I could have that memory without this device."
"Someday we would like to make this so fast that you don't feel like, if you have a question, you have to go seek the [answer]. We'd like it to be so fast that you just know it. We'd like to be able to empower people to know information very, very quickly," one of the project engineers said.
Brin said that he wears a prototype pair of Google glasses much of the time as he and other members of the team he heads at the company's X Lab are in the process of refining the technology.
Google Glasses available to people passionate about Technology
"This is not a consumer device," Brin told thousands in an enthusiastically cheering audience at the company's Google I/O show . "You have to want to be on the bleeding edge. That's what this is designed for."
Google announced Wednesday that it's selling a prototype of the glasses to U.S. computer programmers attending a three-day conference that ends Friday. Developers willing to pay $1,500 for a pair of the glasses will receive them early next year.
The company is counting on the programmers to suggest improvements and build applications that will make the glasses even more useful.
"This is new technology and we really want you to shape it," Google co-founder Sergey Brin told about 6,000 attendees. "We want to get it out into the hands of passionate people as soon as possible."
"I think we are definitely pushing the limits," Brin told reporters after the demonstration. "That is our job: to push the edges of technology into the future."
The glasses will be available only to Google I/O attendees who are in the United States. The geographic restriction is for regulatory reasons, Brin said. (Different countries have different requirements for radio-frequency emissions.)
When will it be available
Google glasses that overlay the Internet on daily lives should hit the market within two years. Brin said that's just the beginning. Programmers can place orders at this week's meeting, he said, and get a pair early next year. The company is counting on them to come up with new uses for a wearable computer before the glasses are sold generally.
The Cost
Developers could buy the Glasses for US$1,500. "We do view this is as a premium sort of thing," Brin said during a question-and-answer session with reporters.
If all goes well, a less expensive version of the glasses is expected to go on sale for consumers in early 2014. Without estimating a price for the consumer version, Brin made it clear the glasses will cost more than smartphones.
"It was kind of a nutty idea that somehow became real," Brin said while discussing Glass after the keynote presentation.
Google's ambition is much bolder
Brin acknowledged Google still needs to fix a variety of bugs in the glasses and figure out how to make the battery last longer so people can wear them all day.
The glasses will likely be seen by many critics as the latest innovation that shortens attention spans and makes it more difficult for people to fully appreciate what's happening around them.
There's also no question that Google glasses look a bit on the nerdy side. But Google’s Steve Lee said, "In three or four years, we think that watching people hold a device in their hand will be awkward."
The idea is to deliver augmented reality, with information that's directly relevant to your surroundings appearing in front of you whenever you need it. It could even end up in contact lenses.
Brin has been focusing on this project since he stepped away from Google's day-to-day operations early last year to join the engineers working on ambitious projects that might once have seemed like the stuff of science fiction. Besides the Internet-connected glass, the so-called Google X lab has also developed a fleet of driverless cars that can cruise roads. The engineers there also dream of building elevators that could transport people into space.
