What is Google Glass?
Glass was Google’s first foray into wearable electronics and augmented reality. Glass has been used by surgeons in operating rooms, by conservationists to track endangered rhinos, by teachers to build immersive learning videos, by first responders to react to emergencies, and by the disabled to empower them to be more independent. These are the reasons that I was attracted to the Glass team – I felt that Glass had the potential to completely transform the way people interact with information and technology. Of course, Glass was also good for more mundane things like tracking your bike ride, taking candid/hands-free videos, messaging friends, and getting walking directions.
How do I fit in?
When I joined the Google [x] Glass team in mid 2013, they had recently launched the explorer edition, a preview of the device that was aimed at developers. In addition to working on iterations of that first explorer (beta) product, I also worked on a variety of future Google hardware products. Some of those projects were research endeavors that I may never be able to speak about in detail for NDA reasons (you’ll just have to trust me that they were pretty cool). Most notably, however, I worked on and eventually served as the electrical engineering technical lead for Google Glass Enterprise Edition. The enterprise edition of glass was a complete hardware reboot from the original beta device, and I worked on the entire life-cycle of the product from conception, though design, and into manufacturing. I focused heavily on the design of the main logic board, the hinge, and the power connector (see the patents below). 9-to-5 Google has a detailed listing of all the specs in Glass EE. I am the inventor on several patents for Glass’s Enterprise Edition hardware:
- Multipurpose, electronically versatile connector for wearable electronics
- Magnetically coupled waterproof hinge with integrated multi-stage button and state detection
- Detecting a state of a wearable device
- Wearable device without a power button
- Vibration transducer connector providing indication of worn state of device
- USB-A Electrical connector (Design Patent)
- Magnetic Electrical connector (Design Patent)
My favorite #throughglass moments
In addition to doing a lot of the electrical engineering work on Glass, I also was a frequent user/tester of the hardware and software. Over the course of the two years that I actively wore it, I captured a lot of great photos and videos #throughglass. Here are some of my favorite photos that I took using Glass:
Read Blog Posts about my work at Google on the Glass project
- 08/11/2013 – Joining Google [x] to work on Glass