by Peter Pachal on MashableLooks like the Google Glasses are real after all. Google co-founder Sergey Brin was spotted wearing them in San Francisco by a prominent tech writer, and he even managed to snap a photo of the prototype specs.
Blogger Robert Scoble met up with Brin at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and, seeing that Brin was wearing a pair of the freshly unveiled Google Glasses, took a photo of the two of them with his camera, which he promptly posted on Instagram and Twitter.
Scoble says Brin wouldn’t let him try on the sci-fi specs, which communicate with the wearer’s smartphone to relay information and turn the glasses into a futuristic heads-up display. However, he did say the glasses appeared to be very lightweight, and that they seemed to be flashing info to Brin as they talked. He also said they looked “self-contained,” not requiring other hardware (although a wireless connection to a phone wouldn’t be visible).
The Google Glasses, which the company officially unveiled Wednesday, have sharply divided the Internet. While many tech enthusiasts have praised Google for daring to make a useful and lightweight version of a mainstream heads-up display, detractors have pointed out the many potential pitfalls (such as user distraction) and how silly they could end up looking.
Still, with Brin wearing them in public, a final product may be coming sooner than later. Initial reports said the glasses would go on sale by the end of the year, but a Google spokesperson later told Mashable that was “extremely unlikely.” Scoble tweeted that the glasses were many months, if not years away from being“productized,” though it’s not clear if Brin said so or if it’s his own speculation.
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Image by Robert Scoble
