We all think it’s dorky, but Glass is something you really want to try anyway, but you just wish it would look better. Google also wants to improve how Glass looks and according to a recent patent filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), they’re definitely trying.
According to a patent application Patent filing US D710,928S the wearable will remove a lot of the overt features of Glass, opting for a more refined version which hides a lot of the features which makes it obvious to anyone that the user is wearing Glass.
As you can see, the prism and projector assembly, which delivers notifications is hidden behind the frame, while the camera appears to be built into the frame on the right hand-side.
Google is still toying with the idea of Glass, and this design may not go anywhere – remember, companies file patents all the time – but if something like this were to be given out to their existing partners who create ‘premium’ sunglasses and Glasses, like the partners at the Luxottica Group who make Oakley and Ray-Ban sunglasses, this would go a long way to making Glass more acceptable – at least fashionably.
Still, there is that $1500 price tag, although Google has advised that the next version of Glass will be cheaper, so hopefully we see something soon.
Would this version of Glass make you more inclined to wear it?
This is only a design patent, but I think you might be missing something in the diagrams. Particularly in fig 6 &8, it’s clear that this design has a piece (of glass ?) across the whole of one eye. In addition, the display drive element is very different (no block of glass, no 45 degree angle). In short, what I think they might be doing is giving themselves scope to project from the display drive element, across that whole piece of glass, and turn it into a ‘screen’ for the device (eg much more AR than before). As I say,… Read more »