14 DAY TRIAL // Not surprisingly, Google continues to clamor about the worth of its latest and greatest pet project, the Glass augmented reality headset. The latest piece of news is this: the device is beginning a tour of the United States.
Google said so on Google+. The Glass will start a long road trip, allowing everyone to get their hands on one if they happen to live in the cities that are part of the tour.
Sadly, Google didn't actually reveal the full list of settlements yet. It only mentioned Durham, North Carolina, as the starting point.
Fortunately, the country-wide tour will begin on October 5, 2013, which isn't so far away, so the other cities are bound to be published over the next week.
The tour is part of North Carolina's science-focused Research Triangle and marks another step in Google Glass's slow trek towards mass availability.
For those that want a rundown of the product features, Google Glass is an augmented reality eye set, or headset.
What that means is that the small screen held in front of the right eye (by a sleek frame) will bring up video chat windows, show messages, display information about whatever you happen to be looking at, etc.
All this will be possible just with voice commands (as long as you say “OK Glass” first), although there is lots of hardware besides the small screen.
After all, voice mails and web chats can only work if both a microphone and speaker are present. Sure enough, Google put them in.
Also, a very small camera sensor is included, right above the so-called “monocle.” Face recognition, object matching to web resources, video recording, all of these are possible.
Google will only push Glass into mass availability at some point in 2014. Some people have already received it though, as part of an early pilot program, and this new tour will increase the number of early owners too. It's a way to gauge marketing interest, in a way.