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Sorry wannabe Google Gogglers, but your Terminator-styled visual overlays are not going to be here as soon as you might have wanted. Google is still being quite dodgy with the details surrounding its much-anticipated augmented reality glasses, but CNET confirms after spending some time at Google HQ that informational overlays will be more restricted, displaying above the normal line of sight, “about where the edge of an umbrella might be.”
That’s something of a far cry from the in-your-face, information-heavy overlay Google teased us with in its demo video (see below), which shows text messages, maps, video calls, and various other info (and–conspicuously–no ads) popping up smack in the middle of the user’s field of view. We were promised augmented reality. It sounds like what we’re getting is more like glasses with an info bar across the top of the lenses.
This is probably a good thing, however. Think more along the lines of the head-up display on a car windshield than a fully-immersive AR experience, which will be both easier to adapt to and easier to integrate into all the activities for which humans need to retain some degree of their normal, un-augmented vision (like mostly everything). Look for more coverage on this here as Google’s testing of the product matures and company execs slowly bleed out more details.
