Google Glass
Named by Time magazine as one of the best inventions of 2012, Google Glass consisted of a pair of hi-tech specs with a heads-up display on which information scrolled across the eyeline of the user, all activated by voice commands. A passion project of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Google Glass also allowed users to take photos and record video footage.
As former BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan Jones says: "The basic idea of a new way of getting information is a powerful one." However, three years after its snazzy launch in 2012, Google Glass was canned.
The product was created amid a clamour for 'wearable computing', something that was 'always on'. However, while the utility and image of Google Glass were attractive, the privacy concerns around the wearer being able to film and photograph others without being noticed proved to be its undoing. "I just cannot envisage us ever living in a time where we're all comfortable with somebody wearing a pair of glasses that might have a camera in it," says Sean.
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