What the hell are ‘Google Goggles’ and why should I care?

Google ongoing attempt to take over the world took on a new and sexy twist yesterday as the revealed a pair of ‘augmented reality’ glasses. What are they when they're at home?

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Ah here, I’m just getting the hang of Gmail and I’m studiously ignoring Google+. What’s the latest Google product I have to hear about?

Well we think that these new specs, unlike Google +, deserve some attention.

So what can these new glasses do?

They essentially smash all of Google’s products right into your face, but in a good way. The video below shows all the amazing things it can do but essentially it moves all the bits of info that currently ping and bleep on your smart phone right in front of your eyes, leaving your hands free to stuff a sandwich into your face.

So I can reply to e-mails with a blink of my eyes?

Not quite. A lot of the functions, if the video is to be believed, are voice-activated and controlled, while we have also read that the glasses will have a button on them for controlling some of the functions, like taking photos for example.

Head tilting and nodding will also perform scrolling and clicking functions, but you may just look like a weirdo - at least until everyone on the bus is wearing them.

And what’s the story with ‘augmented reality’, I have enough trouble with ‘reality reality’.

It’s something you better brush up on because it is coming and is already a feature on most smart phones, be they Android, like the Google Goggles or on the iPhone. This technology knows where you are, uses what you are looking at and then adds to, or augments, what you are looking at.

In the video our man looks out the window and he gets the weather forecast and he gets a heads up, literally, that the train is not working. We imagine that in time as you walk along various sales, prices, ads and deals from the surrounding businesses will pop up, which may or may not be annoying, depending on your mood and tolerance for 24-hour visual stimulation.

But these are only a prototype, we don’t expect people to be actually wearing these anytime soon do we?

Well the boys and girls at the fantastically sinister sounding Google X lab in California have called this ‘Project Glass’ and while these are indeed just a prototype, US media are reporting that they expect some product like this from Google to go on sale in the near future with a price tag of between €200 and €450 their best stab at what they will cost.

Will I be able to surf the net on them?

That isn’t shown on the clip but considering they propose you can video chat on these babies then they should be able to let you browse the web.

Being the cuddly, friendly open-minded people they are, Google are looking for suggestions to make Google Goggles, as they have been dubbed, as good as possible. You can drop them a note on Project Glass' Google+ page.

I’d really like them to add an X-ray feature.

Sure all you can do is ask...