Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, ran onstage at the company’s Google I/O developers conference wearing a pair of Google Glasses, the company’s augmented-reality glasses.
Mr. Brin then began one of the most elaborate product announcements I’ve ever seen. He connected to a group of skydivers flying above San Francisco, who jumped out of the plane, wearing Google glasses and streaming their view as they plummeted to earth at 135 miles per hour. The skydivers landed successfully, thankfully, on the roof of the Moscone Center, where the Google I/O event is being held.
Like any good James Bond movie, it didn’t stop there. Stunt bicycles flipped in the air and people rappelled off the side of the building — all while wearing Google glasses.
The audience cheered and a lot of sweaty palms grasped their phones to take pictures of the skydivers as they entered the building and ascended to the stage.
But the show didn’t end there.
Even more stirring than the spectacular skydiver entrance was that Mr. Brin said the company would begin taking orders from software developers for Google glasses for $1,500 each. Google glasses will begin shipping to developers next year, he said.
Some of the engineers responsible for building Google glasses then joined Mr. Brin on stage to discuss the evolution of the project.
“We created glass so you can interact with the virtual world without obstructing the real world,” explained Isabelle Olsson, who is leading the design efforts for Google glasses. “We don’t want technology to get in the way.”
Ms. Olsson said that the team had focused on creating something that is “ridiculously light” and that the “latest prototype weighs less on your nose than many sunglasses.”
In a video shown at the event, a woman using Google glasses while playing with her baby offered this compelling line: “She smiles at faces, not at devices.”
During the demonstration, the Google glasses team said the company had two goals for the glasses: communicating with images and giving people access to information. And there was possibly a third: the ability to do both without having to pull a phone from your pocket.
