For 5 minutes on Tuesday, I felt like Benji in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. But instead of wearing smart glasses at the Vienna d’etat opera and hearing Tom Cruise’s voice, I was standing in a 5 -foot wood hangar at the Google of E / S conference with Gemini Ai in my ear.
I was able to test a pair of XR Android glasses that look like something Nerds Vengeance Poindexter would wear. With the right goal, there is a tiny white text displaying time and weather: 2:24 p.m., 73 degrees.
If that was all that the smart glasses could do, I would be happy. But it was just the home screen.
Then I used the prototype frames to take a photo and display a color overview, directly on one of the objectives. It was wild to see an image simultaneously, then the real world through it. Futuristic frameworks are a very early prototype of the Android XR glasses that Google makes in partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm.
In almost all directions, these frames looks like normal prescription glasses. In fact, Google has announced that it would work with Warby Parker (my essential glasses brand for years) and the South Korean glasses brand Chic, Gentle Monster (Beyoncé and Rihanna wear them) for real framework when they ship.
Unlike ordinary glasses, These executives are responsible for technology. There is a microphone and a speaker that can be used to dictate prompts for Gemini and listen to the answers. On the upper edge of the temple, there is a physical camera shutter button. You can interact with the sides of the frames. And the glasses are filled with sensors that interpret your movements as entrances, so that Google Maps, for example, shows you the instructions, whatever the direction you are looking for.
Until now, I have raised the shoulders of other intelligent glasses as a boring invitation to the improvisation comedy show of a friend. They do not seem to be worth the effort and the price. However, it can be the turn. Google strives to ensure that Android XR frames arouse interest beyond the first adopters looking for an alternative to Meta’s Ray-Ban Smart Lunes. During my brief meeting, I left by thinking that there is certainly a potential for a broader attraction here, especially if Google can lead more people to try them. Orders seemed intuitive as a natural extension of a Android phone. In years, I plan to go to the doctor and ask you if you want the option of Android XR and Gemini as an option – how we are now asked if we want a coating for blue light.
The out -of -competition feature is the small screen on the right goal of Google glasses. But describing how the display works on these frames approaches the levels of technical mastery ofFcon, so I enlisted help. Like Luke Skywalker in Yoda, I Scott Stein de Cnet, who saw everything with regard to VR and VR glasses and helmets. It turns out that he was able to try a similar prototype of these glasses last year.
“These glasses have a single screen with the right goal, projected via a micro-LED chip on the arm on wave guides engraved on a small square patch on the lens glass,” said Stein.
This display is the place where magic occurs. Not only can he show an interface and Android XR animations, but he does so in color – even with the few photos I have to take. I was also impressed by how the user interface disappeared when I did not use it directly. Google Gemini are integrated into XR, so I can ask my glasses to give me more information about everything I look at. In the Lilliputian size demonstration hangar, I interviewed Gemini on a few paintings on the wall. I could hear answers via the speaker nestled in the temple of the glasses, but those around me could not hear anything. It really made me feel like a spy.
Google showed this video during its I / S Keynote showing what the cards looks like when wearing a pair of Android XR glasses.
Then I have to try Google Maps. I never knew that the instructions could be so pleasant. I saw a circular card with street names and a pointing arrow in the direction I should go. By moving, the small card was running. It was a bit like moving the camera in a video game with a controller to get a better view.
And that was everything. Any initial skepticism I had for smart glasses was wiped. But I have questions. How long does a pair of these glasses last on a single load? Am I supposed to use them like my everyday executives? Do I have to have a second pair of regular glasses to wear when I load them so that I can see? And how much will a pair cost me? Will there be an increase in people who enter the walls because they are distracted by everything they interact on their goals? Google is not yet much to share with me, so I suppose that we will know more in the months and years to come.
I spent about 5 minutes in the frames, but if you want to know more, see this more in -depth look at Android XR by the expert in CNET smart glasses, Scott Stein.
