Google’s most ambitious product to date appears to be one step closer to becoming a reality. Today the FCC published the official filings for Google’s “wearable computing device” and although it didn’t reveal any huge surprises there are a few gems to be uncovered. Google has now held two developer hackathons, one in New York and one in San Francisco. Although we were all hoping that we would be able to learn more about the hardware and software capabilities of Google Glass from the attendees of these events, the developers that attended were all forced to sign very strict non disclosure agreements. It could be that Google wants to keep the details under wrap because they want to have a dramatic unveiling in the near future (maybe Google I/O 2013?), or it could be that Google Glass isn’t coming along as well as they had hoped, and releasing the details now would just be disappointing to the public. At this point there isn’t really any way to know, but I’m sure we will continue to speculate until Google finally starts shipping the $1500 developer editions that were pre ordered at last year’s Google I/O.
Getting a device approved for public use by the FCC is obviously an important step. We are almost certain that this device will use bone-conduction technology instead of speakers. This will mean that background noise won’t drown out your phone calls, and other people won’t be able to over hear your conversations. It also appears that these glasses will use standard 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi radio module by Broadcom and low-energy Bluetooth 4.0. Presumably we will see the potential for a data connection through the users smart phone through either Bluetooth or Wifi.
So without much fanfare it seems that Google Glass is one step closer to coming to a retailer near you. What features are you hoping that Google Glass will include? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: FCC