Google's new smart glasses take on Meta with Gemini and promises of better privacy

[Daniel Sims]

Recap: Google popularized the modern concept of smart glasses with its ill-fated Google Glass project in 2013, which succumbed to sharp pushback over privacy concerns. As Meta contends with the same controversy more than a decade later and Apple contemplates the issue, Google is taking another crack at it, hoping new privacy assurances can make smart glasses the next digital trend.

Pre-orders are now open for two new sets of Google smart glasses from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Shipment dates remain unclear, but various colors and styles are available, ranging from around $400 to $500.

Google's new Intelligent Eyeware collection runs on the company's Android XR platform, which mirrors Meta's smart-glass functionality via Google's AI and software suite. Users can summon Gemini with a voice command, get audio descriptions of what the 12MP camera sees, access turn-by-turn pedestrian directions with Google Maps, and much more. The company's new Guided Vision mode also uses audio descriptions to assist the blind.

Glasses from both companies record video in 3K resolution at 30fps, weigh roughly 41 grams, and feature a Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 SoC with 64GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM. Battery life is 9 hours on a single charge.

To avoid the controversy that sank Google Glass 13 years ago and now surrounds Meta's devices, Google also highlighted several new privacy features. Gemini encrypts all data, doesn't save camera visuals or use them for AI training, and automatically redacts people's faces. Users can also control which apps access the camera, erase Gemini's history, and turn the smart glasses into ordinary glasses with a simple off switch.

It remains unclear whether these features will address privacy concerns surrounding smart glasses, which have already been banned in New York courthouses. Norway is also considering temporarily banning smart glasses in parks, beaches, and schools pending further debate.

People have used smart glasses to cheat in school, secretly record people, and, in at least one case, coach a witness in a courtroom. Meta's glasses have also recorded people without the owners knowing. The company recently admitted the devices could record conversations without receiving voice commands to do so, and data labelers previously reported seeing intimate recordings.

Apple reportedly planned to enter the smart glasses market this year, but delayed its rollout to consider its approach to the privacy issue.

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Google's new smart glasses take on Meta with Gemini and promises of better privacy

 

[Megalomaniac]

It really comes down to how well these Smart glasses integrate with my smartphone's operating system for backing up video clips, broadcasting and other app use.

I'll wait for Apple to make them.

 

[OortCloud]

'Google privacy' the biggest oxymoron since military intelligence.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

New creeper glasses from another creeper company.

 

[RudyBob]

'Google privacy' the biggest oxymoron since military intelligence.

"military intelligence" is the best there is. Get off the out of date and wrong meme

 

[OortCloud]

"military intelligence" is the best there is. Get off the out of date and wrong meme

Next you'll be telling me Pete Hegseth is a military genius and not the man in charge of a military that stopped worldwide oil distribution for six months and sided with a crackpot Russian dictator rather than the tiny country holding out against said crackpots invasion?

 

[OortCloud]

Anyway...back on the glasses...
Has anyone noticed that the 2 companies pushing these creepy glasses the most are the 2 companies whose whole model is to offer fake 'free' software then use that software in really dodgy ways to monetize and manipulate you. Coincidence? No. They will absolutely use these in ways they obfuscate or that just plain break the law. The terms of service will change and every dark pattern that they are the masters of will be employed to spy on you relentlessly.

 

[toooooot]

I had this idea for a while for people to earn leaving by streaming while traveling: camera glasses with other features that can record for very long session while sending the stream to a phone. The advantages: hands free, ability to put subtitles or translate live. I think if someone could come up with appropriate battery, it could become a serious competitor to go pro type devices. And one special benefit, glasses do not attract the type of attention a camera or go pro does. A traveler that wants to show places and people around the world would attract a lot less attention allowing viewers to see the natural habitat of tribes, cities and entire countries around the world. Meanwhile, these AI glasses have limited battery which in my opinion alone makes these like expensive useless toys.