After several months of speculation, Google has finally shown its Android XR Smart Glasses prototype still day. It was an impressive live demo, with a live translation game that went well but not without addicts. However, he advanced the crowd on Google I / O, and just after this wrapped opening, I walked in the amphitheater of the shore to find a pair to try.
Like my time with Project Moohan, the Android XR headset prototype on which Google and Samsung work, I only spent around five minutes with these glasses prototypes. And no, it was not an elegant setting made by Warby Parker or a savage of sweet monsters – instead, it was the Demo Google pair on stage, the prototype of Android XR glasses made by Samsung.
As you can see above, just like meta-rays and unlike the Snapchat shows (the first generation), these prototypes resemble standard black frames. They are a little thicker on the left or right rods, but they are also loaded with technology – but not in a way that screams from the outside.
It was a short and quite precipitated demo, but certainly convincing.
The technology here is mainly hidden – there is a cooked screen in the goal which, once worn, appears as a small box when it shows something larger. Otherwise, when I turned on the glasses for the first time, I saw time and time hovering at the top of my field of vision.
When I pressed the button on the right rod to capture a photo, it almost flashed transparent in my field of vision. A way of capturing neat and a little more present than on meta-rayons without screen.
These are both cool, and during the keynote, Google also shared that screens could be used for messaging, calls and translation also, but I could not try this. Although I cannot ask for departments myself, a google representative in my demo was able to launch what navigation would like, and this feature excited me more by smart glasses with an integrated screen.
For what? Well, it is that the experience of navigation does not bother my field of vision – I can simply look straight and see at the top that in 500 feet or 50 feet that I need to make a right on a specific avenue. I don’t need to watch my phone or take a look at my wrist, everything is housed in one device.
If I need more details or I want to see my route, I could take a look to see a mini version of the card, which moved when I moved my head. If I wore them to New York, I could walk normally and take a look at the top to see instructions, but when stopped safely and not in the path of others, I could look down to see my full route. It’s pretty good for me.
The screen projected itself had good quality, although I am not sure to know how it works in direct sunlight, because I tested them in a small room that Google had built. It is important to remember that it is always a prototype – Google has several brands on board to produce them, but there is no exact time. Developers will however be able to start developing and testing by the end of the year.
This year, the Moohan Project helmet, which also manages Android XR, will arrive. Samsung will ship the helmet in a final version to perform tasks, which could provide support from third parties and allow Google to obtain more comments on the platform.
Gemini, the very wise assistant of Google’s AI, breathtaking me on Project Moohan and was also convincing on Android XR glasses. I asked the weather and I did it to give me an audio report for the next few days, to have analyzed it a replica of a painting, and even watch a book, to say the critics and where I could buy it.
This power to have Gemini in my context really excited me for the future of the category – these are the audio responses, the connection with the Google ecosystem and the way it plays with the on -board screen. It remains to be seen what the final design of Samsung could look like, but it will probably remain alongside several other smart glasses fueled by Android XR of Warby Parker, X-Real and Gentle Monster, among others.
I have long worn meta-rays and I appreciate them to take unique photos or record povs like walking my dog Rosie or mounting an attraction in a Disney park. Likewise, I really appreciated the original version of the Snapchat shows, but the call was dissipated. These have made only a short list of functions, or in the case of shows, very short-, but Android XR as a platform feels much more powerful, even from a short five-minute window.
Although the design does not sell me on the Samsung prototype, I have great hopes for the Warby Parker. Seeing how Gemini’s intelligences can integrate into such a small setting and how a screen can be really useful, but not too distracting, makes me really excite. I have the feeling that all Android XR glasses appeal to everyone, but with enough entries, I am sure that one of them will associate with the function in a correct balance.
Gemini in glasses is less like the future, and taking into account this new entry, my eyes are ready to see what meta-work does and what Apple will look like in the world of smart glasses.
