Google rolling out the AR glasses from Vernor Vinge’s novel Rainbows End

In Vernor Vinge’s novel Rainbows End, the author imagines a near future where everybody wears computers knitted into their clothing, which are connected to augmented reality contact lenses or glasses.

Everybody looks at the world through a layer of data, whether that’s just social information about the people they’re talking to, or a full-blown MMO overlay that turns their college campus into a medieval village. People use these AR goggles to do everything from research to gaming; Vinge imagines AR as a technology that can pull the web into the real world.

Now, Google is going to do exactly what Vinge predicted. Over at the New York Times, Nick Bilton reports on a Google X project that could put AR glasses on your face in less than a year, for roughly the cost of a smart phone. Bilton writes:

(to read the rest of the article click HERE)

Image via Bruce Branit’s fascinating short film about a guy using AR contacts to build a holographic world.