Google is looking for a new opportunity in the smart glasses market and is already working toward it with Project Astra and Gemini 2.0. During the presentation of its latest artificial intelligence model, the company announced that a group of testers will soon start trying out its advanced virtual assistant on augmented reality glasses.
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According to The Verge, Google glasses powered by Project Astra and Gemini 2.0 are currently in the prototype stage. It is unclear when they might be released commercially, or if the project will advance far enough to become a product available to consumers.
The report also mentioned that Google has promised to improve the precision of its smart glasses in the near future. However, it is still uncertain whether the company will launch a wearable device featuring this technology or if they plan to make Project Astra available to other wearable developers.
During the presentation of Gemini 2.0, the Mountain View company shared a video that provided a closer look at the capabilities of Project Astra. The video showcased several tests of the virtual assistant, both on a mobile phone and through a prototype of Google glasses.
The prototype glasses featured in the Project Astra video appeared significantly less bulky compared to Orion, a similar project under development by Meta. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the final version of the wearable, if it ever becomes a consumer product, will maintain this design.
What will Google’s smart glasses powered by Project Astra and Gemini 2.0 ultimately look like?
Much is still unknown about the hardware platform required, the computing power necessary to run Project Astra, and the finer details of the Gemini 2.0-based virtual assistant.
It’s worth noting that Project Astra was first announced earlier this year during the Google I/O conference. At the event, Google described it as an AI capable of learning, understanding our environment, and responding to us in real time. While its functionality was initially demonstrated using a smartphone, a promotional video hinted that the technology could also be integrated into smart glasses.
Google has been trying to re-enter the smart glasses market for some time, even collaborating with Qualcomm and Samsung to achieve this goal. However, there is some skepticism surrounding the company’s efforts in this area due to a simple fact: its previous attempts in the segment have not been successful.
Google Glass made its debut in 2012 but never became a mainstream device. Its high price and concerns about privacy limited its appeal, preventing it from achieving widespread adoption. Although Google attempted to revive the project several times, it never returned to the consumer market.
In 2022, reports indicated that Google was working on a new pair of augmented reality glasses called Project Iris. These glasses were even showcased as a prototype translator during that year’s I/O conference. However, the project was canceled less than a year later.
Will Project Astra succeed where its predecessors failed? Only time will tell.