Google patents smart glasses with display, speaker & eye-tracking

Many people would say that the Google Glass project was ahead of its time, and I’d agree. Well, it’s possible Google will try again, as the company just patented smart glasses with a built-in display, speakers, eye-tracking, and more.

Google could have plans to launch a new pair of smart glasses

This patent surfaced in China, as it was patented with CNIPA (China’s National Intellectual Property Administration), China’s certification agency. First and foremost, this patent indicates that these glasses won’t be a standalone product. Google allegedly has plans to offload processing to a smartphone, so the glasses will need to be connected to a smartphone.

In addition to a built-in display, speaker, and eye-tracking, these glasses also have a microphone included, and cameras, of course. Based on this patent, these glasses mainly rely on contextual data such as location to provide suggestions or accept commands.

Users can interact with glasses via touch, voice, or gesture input. Something called ‘gaze tracking’ is also a part of Google’s plans. Built-in cameras are included to identify your surroundings, and the displays can provide information and navigation.

Processing will be offloaded to a smartphone

Needless to say, Google’s plan to offload processing to smartphones will save battery life. So these glasses could end up excelling in that regard if they ever become a reality. This is just a patent at this point, so don’t get your hopes up just yet.

Chances are that Google will come up with such a product sooner or later, though. Samsung is allegedly working on its XR device and AR glasses, while Meta partnered up with Ray-Ban to introduce rather interesting smart glasses that my colleague fell in love with.

Is it time for Google to revive Google Glass… well, kind of? Well, it may be. This could be the ideal time for the company to do just that. Wearing various tech gadgets is normalized, while the technology caught up.