Project Glass Outlined With "Hundreds Of Variations"

Google's Project Glass is certainly getting its fair share of sunlight this summer with several outings on Google top heads, this week getting shown off by none other than the leader of the project himself, Steve Lee. This fellow spoke with Fast Company about how not only did the team at Google X create hundreds of variations of the Glass project, they made "dozens of early prototypes" as well. Lee let it be known, or confirmed rather, that the key element to the Project Glass experience is the photo taking feature, with every other bit being more of a secondary motion for the wearer of the headset.

Lee did not confirm the release time, date, or cost of the project in this interview as one would expect since Project Glass is still very much a concept – even though working prototypes do exist. The video released by Google X this past month showing how the glasses might work was "many, many years away" from actual fruition according to Lee, with "several of those things that you see in the video" having been implemented separately on different prototype units. Again though, Lee wants to be clear that the mapping aspect of the project, featured heavily in the demo video, is not necessarily going to be the mainstay of the unit when it's released:

"Personally, I view Glass as more than just a geo-product. The photo-taking experience, we think, is really a key aspect to this. But also the mapping and navigation and location services will really bring a new type of experience on this device." – Lee

The video shows several elements that the glasses will be able to do sooner than later, with conceptual iterations that team is working on now not being shown at all. According to Lee, the video shows more what they're able to do now than it does what will come soon:

"We did not want to create a "Google in 2019" video. Most of the things in the video are things that we've prototyped, or are of our existing Google services. The big challenge is getting them to work well on this new form factor." – Lee

Stay tuned as we continue to find new more amazing elements popping up in the headsets currently affixed to the ears and eyes of Google's lead faces in coming weeks – Google's Project Glass has only just begun to show it's excellence! Check the timeline below to see what we've been shown thus far!