Google Glass will eventually gain the ability to run local apps from the device itself, Glass creator Babak Parviz told a conference audience on Monday.
Parviz, speaking at the Hot Chips conference at Stanford University, charted the evolution of Glass as packing more computer power into progressively small former factors, from mainframes to PCs to smartphones, and on to wearables.
Google has a "few thousand" of Glass devices available in the wild, through its Explorer program, Parviz said. The glasses use either a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection to pull in data, which is projected onto the surface of the clear plastic of the Glass lens. So far, Google Glass wearers can record video, take pictures, launch Hangouts, navigate, and search for information. However, Google continues to add new features to Glass via periodic updates; some recent additions include the ability to view YouTube videos, pausing playback while orienting a "cursor" over the appropriate button.
Third-party apps for Glass are also beginning to take shape, with The New York Times, among others, rolling out services for what Google hopes is a new platform, Parviz said. "We still have a lot of data centers, a lot of computers, a lot of smartphones, and a lot of notebooks," he said. "So even though these new platforms appear, the previous platforms don't totally disappear."
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