The first three generations of Spectacles included the capability to record video, with the latest fourth-generation model also including viewing AR effects in real-time while wearing the glasses. Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, has already released a few iterations of its Spectacles smart glasses. When asked if Apple is working on AR products, CEO Tim Cook replied that “it’s something we’re doing a lot of things on behind that curtain”. Apple is rumoured to be working on its own AR glasses too. Google is by no means the only company investing in AR glasses. In other words, live translations may be one of many features in the new Google smart glasses, or it may be the only feature in a product built for a niche audience. It’s not clear if the unnamed translation-enabled glasses will come with any other features such as AR maps and video calls. It seems that Google hasn’t given up on building consumer AR glasses just yet. This is a powerful use case in some industries, though by no means a killer feature for a mainstream product. Google Glass then transitioned into a business product, enabling workers to video call and access specialised software hands-free. It also didn’t offer any clear benefits that convinced people to wear the $1499 glasses daily. It was way ahead of its time, and the technology wasn’t good enough to keep up. In 2014, the search-engine-turned-hardware company released Google Glasses, its first iteration of AR glasses. This isn’t Google’s first rodeo, and it’s good to see the company learning from previous mistakes. Live translations are a refreshingly useful implementation for an industry ripe for practicality. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that people don’t want to wear clunky tech glasses unless there’s a clear benefit to doing so. Tech companies have been heavily investing in AR technology for many years, though few have proposed their practical benefits.
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