TEN months ago, in April 2023, Google discontinued a device that it had worked on and publicised for 10 years. Google Glass looked like a pair of clear wrap-around glasses with a chunky bit at the top of the frame. The “chunky bit” was a tiny projector which projected onto part of the glasses themselves so that the user could see a screen in their field of vision. In September Google stopped updating or maintaining the Google Glass products that it had already sold. 

What happened? Although the product had been through significant development since the original headset design, it was clearly not a moneymaker. The project started off at “X Development” (not associated with Elon Musk, but at the Alphabet subsidiary that Google uses for development projects). 

The company trialled the product on a range of test users in an attempt to make the Google Glass technology seem useful and not creepy; for example, publicising its use by doctors to get a “surgeon’s eye view,” and also by a group of breastfeeding mothers who could apparently use the device to talk to experts and read advice while breastfeeding their babies.