Google flaunts new augmented reality glasses

During last night’s IO Keynote, Google showed us what they’ve been doing since everyone stopped being interested in Google Glass, and it’s incredible. 

Essentially offering “subtitles for the world” Google’s new augmented reality glasses come with live translation software that provides the wearer with a live transcription of what’s being said by the person in front of them.

Unlike Google’s previous attempt at making augmented reality glasses, these new glasses, which are disappointingly still a concept, for now, look like any other regular pair of glasses, only with somewhat thicker temples and frames. 

During their IO keynote, Google didn’t explain exactly how the glasses work, but we can presume that the sleek frames house an array of microphones and cameras that listen for speech to translate, before displaying the live translations next to the speaker via the translucent screens that are the glass of the glasses.

Supposedly running a version of Google Translate, these glasses shouldn’t be able to do anything that can’t already be done via your phone, however, the glasses would obviously be far easier to use than having two people talking into one phone and waiting for the translations. However, that is only true so long as both participants in the conversation are wearing these AR glasses. 

Augmented reality can break down communication barriers – and help us better understand each other by making language visible. Watch what happens when we bring technologies like transcription and translation to your line of sight. #GoogleIO ? pic.twitter.com/ZLhd4BWPGh

— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022

Unfortunately, while the tech in Google’s new augmented reality glasses is undoubtedly impressive, there’s currently no word on when, or if, this concept will be available to the public, and if it will ever be available in a more feature-complete state than Google Glass ever was. 

If these glasses to release, at a price point where they’re widely available, Google may just revolutionize the way we communicate with one another in foreign languages, so we can only hope that this concept gets to exist in most than just this impressive video.