I am not ready to call it an obsession, but I will admit to intense fascination. Back in February I wrote about the rumored development work at Google on Android-based heads-up display (HUD) glasses, designed to go where a smartphone can, i.e., over your eyes. As of today, the Project Glass team that is developing the glasses, due out in time for Christmas, is out in public.

The team says that they are, “sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input. So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video (see below) to demonstrate what it might enable you to do…Please follow along as we share some of our ideas and stories. We’d love to hear yours, too. What would you like to see from Project Glass?” 

It does appear that Project Glass is incorporating the features that were rumored:

• GPS tracking
• Built-in sensors for navigation, which will also be based on head-rolling
• A camera with software to alert the unsuspecting they are being eyed  

Does anyone want or need these?

As someone who would love to take a test drive of these shades once they are a bit further along in development, I was curious if my enthusiasm is felt by others. The influential website Android and Me shares my infatuation. In fact, in a totally unscientific survey tech guru Anthony Domanico found that 66 percent of those who responded want a pair of what are labeled lovingly, “augmented reality” glasses.

Just for grins I looked up the word “augmented” on dictionary.com. The first definition is: “To make larger; enlarge in size, number, strength, or extent; increase: His salary is augmented by a small inheritance.” These led to the question as to why a pair of glasses increases reality. I kind of like my reality the way it is since augmentation might not always be a good thing. Seems that maybe sticking to something less grand like, “smart glasses” would better serve what could be a hot market.

The Project Glass team wants feedback. I have two questions:

• Will there be a prescription version?
• Will there be a sunglass version or can they be tinted?

Christmas can’t come soon enough.