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Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Glasses by Year's End

People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer's eyeballs in real time.

Bits Nick Bilton

Context & Ripple Effects

Google’s planned product sale turns the December report of a Google X heads-up display into a defined consumer-device timetable. The significance is not merely a new screen: Google is proposing an interface that places information in the wearer’s field of view instead of requiring a trip to a smartphone.

First-order effects

  • Google gains a prospective hardware endpoint for delivering its information services directly in a wearer’s line of sight.
  • People using the glasses would have an alternative to taking out a smartphone for small, real-time information checks.

Second-order effects

  • Google’s software and information products would need to work in shorter, glanceable interactions, because the device is framed around continuous access rather than a full phone screen.
  • The launch timetable makes heads-up displays a product category that other device makers must evaluate against the smartphone-centered interface.

Third-order effects

  • If consumers accept information delivered in the field of view, personal computing shifts toward context-sensitive, ambient interfaces rather than discrete screen sessions.
  • That shift would make control over what information is selected and surfaced at each moment a central product advantage for platform companies such as Google.

The trend: Google’s glasses plan is an early move toward ambient computing, where timely information reaches users through the interface closest to their attention.

Related: Context as a compute budget · Google · Google X wearable display report

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