What is Google Glass?

Google Glass was an augmented reality headset from Google's X division, using a small heads-up display over the right eye and voice commands prefaced with 'Ok Glass'[1].

Where did Google Glass come from?

Google unveiled Project Glass on April 4, 2012 through a Google+ post and a YouTube concept video, six weeks after New York Times writer Nick Bilton first leaked the project[1].

What does Google Glass mean?

In internet culture, Google Glass came to stand for early-2010s Silicon Valley tech overreach, with wearers nicknamed 'glassholes' for using the built-in camera in public[4].

How do you use Google Glass?

Wearers spoke commands like 'Ok Glass, take a picture' to control the small display sitting above the right eye[3].

Is Google Glass still popular?

Google Glass isn't in active consumer use, and it's mostly remembered as a curiosity that arrived years too early[4].

Google Glass

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Google Glass was Google's augmented reality headset, unveiled April 4, 2012 as Project Glass with a Google+ post and slick promo video. The device turned into a running internet joke, spawning the nickname 'glasshole' and the viral 'White Men Wearing Google Glass' Tumblr during the Glass Explorer program.

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Overview

Google Glass was an AR head-mounted display from Google's X skunkworks, featuring a small heads-up screen on the right side of a metal brow band1. The device supported voice controls to snap photos, send messages, or pull up nearby friends' locations without touching the frame1. To many observers it felt like futuristic tech that showed up a decade too early4.

As a meme, the device is remembered less for the tech and more for how odd it looked in public. Wearers picked up the nickname 'glassholes', and Google Glass became shorthand for out-of-touch Silicon Valley optimism4. Google's developer policies also banned sexually explicit apps outright, which killed one of the earliest third-party projects built for the headset2.

Origin & Background

Platform

Google+ / YouTube (viral spread)

Creator

Google

Date

2012

Google officially unveiled Project Glass on April 4, 2012 through a Google+ post co-signed by Google X researchers Babak Parviz, Steve Lee, and Sebastian Thrun1. The story had actually leaked six weeks earlier when New York Times writer Nick Bilton published 'Behind the Google Goggles, Virtual Reality' on February 22, 20123. The launch post included a concept video showing a young man walking around New York City with a circle-based UI overlay, and the design was a big step up from earlier bulky prototypes said to resemble Oakley Thumps1.

How It Spread

On February 20, 2013, Google posted a first-person 'Ok Glass' voice-control video that pulled over 18.5 million views in a month, opened the Glass Explorer program the same day (50-word pitches under the hashtag #ifihadglass, winners flying to New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles for a $1,500 unit), and later demoed Gmail, Path, and Evernote apps at SXSW in Austin on March 12, 20133.

On June 3, 2013, Android adult app store MiKandi released the first pornographic Glassware, but Google had quietly updated its developer policies that same weekend to prohibit sexually explicit content, and MiKandi's API access was cut off within hours2.

On April 10, 2014, Google announced a one-day public sale for April 15, offering the Explorer edition to US adults over 21 for $1,500 apiece, and the entire stock cleared by the next morning3. The Tumblr 'White Men Wearing Google Glass'5 had gone viral in 2013, feeding critiques of the Explorer program's demographic skew. Google Glass is not much talked about now, and it's often remembered as a piece of tech that arrived years too early4.

Frequently Asked Questions

References (5)