A wild eyed, bearded man talking about airships burst on stage during a slow section of the opening keynote at Google’s I/O conference this morning. It was the company’s co-founder Sergey Brin, introducing a stunt to promote Google Glass, eyeglasses with a computer and display built in first demonstrated back in April.
A video link connected Brin with someone in a blimp circling overhead, and to the live view from the Glass prototype they were wearing as they gazed out over downtown San Francisco. When Brin asked for his prototype back, the blimp’s passengers obliged and jumped out of the door. The audience were treated to a live point-of-view feed as they first glided using wingsuits and then parachuted onto the roof of the convention center. One of the Glass prototypes was then whisked away and travelled by bike, abseiling, and bike again to arrive back into Brin’s hands in front of a cheering audience.
Brin then introduced colleagues working on the project who showed a series of touching or amusing photos and videos taken using Glass prototypes. A new mother took photos and videos of her baby on a trip to the park, while another Googler relayed live images of the ceiling from the dentist’s chair. But Brin closed out the demo with a plea to app developers to help come up with uses that go beyond those shown.
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