Project Glass: One step closer to augmented reality

Almost every sci-fi film (past or present) has the concept of augmented reality. You see what you see and there is an overlay of information on top of what you see. To this effect, the researchers at Google X have brought us Project Glass, an augmented reality head mounted display. The intended purpose of Project Glass products is the hands free displaying of information currently available to most smartphone users, and allowing for interaction with the Internet via natural language voice commands, similar to the iPhone's Siri. The software powering the glasses will be Google's Android operating system. 

Project Glass demo resembles a pair of normal eyeglasses where the lens is replaced by a heads-up display. In the future, designs may allow integration of the display into people's normal eyewear. The product has began real world testing in April 2012. Reports are floating around that the glasses would be available to the public for "around the cost of current smartphones", about $250 to $600, by the end of 2012, but other reports have stated that the glasses are not expected to be available for purchase soon. Considering the possible utilities of said device, it could be a while before it hits the market.

One utility for Project Glass we thought of was DIY tasks. Imagine viewing a video or instructions while trying to fix, say your car... wouldn't that be something? Hopefully we aren't too far away from that reality! See Google's video on Project Glass below.

What would you use Project Glass for? Let us know in the comments. You can also follow Project Glass on their Google + page.