Google Glass Patent Released

We've seen how it will look and feel, but how will Google Glass actually work? Thanks to a Google patent application that was made public today, we have an idea — as well as insight into how Google sees the product evolving in the future.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) just posted a patent application from Google, filed in August 2011, that describes the search giant's augmented-reality headset in detail. Not only does it describe the minimalist headset that we've all seen in photos and demo videos, but the application also has drawings of other designs, one of which resembles a conventional pair of glasses.

Perhaps most intriguing is the description of an advanced headset that projects images directly onto a person's eye. In its description of alternative methods of display, the patent says a version of Google Glass could use "a laser or LED source and scanning system... to draw a raster display directly onto the retina of one or more of the user's eyes." That's serious Star Trek-level stuff.

by Pete Pachal, Mashable |  Read more:

Illustration: Google