Though much about the so-called "Google Glasses" remains a mystery, here's one thing we can say for sure: The "Project Glass" specs sure do love the camera.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin appeared on Current TV's "The Gavin Newsom Show" wearing his "Glass" (as he calls it), marking the second television appearance for the curious computerized glasses. Head Google engineer Sebastian Thrun previously appeared on Charlie Rose's show with Glass on in early May, snapping a hands-free picture of Rose mid-interview and posting it to Google+.
For its second television appearance, Google's Glasses (via Brin) again took a photo of the talk show host -- we expect a picture of Newsom to show up on Google+ any moment -- but the real story is that the head Googler let Newsom try on the Glass for himself. Newsom didn't quite believe that Brin had taken his picture, so Brin removed his Glass and placed it on Newsom's head so that he could see the picture in the front-of-the-eye display for himself.
Watch below for a short clip of Newsom experiencing Google's Glasses:
Now, this isn't the first time that Google has allowed non-Googlers to try Glass (that happened last week, at a Google+ photography summit in San Francisco).
But we did learn a couple of new tidbits: First, as Engadget points out, it appears that there is some kind of touch-sensitive trackpad on the right side of the device, presumably one that scrolls through menus or photos after they are taken. (Brin tells Newsom not to touch the side of the Glass, or his photo will disappear). One wonders if Google will also have to make "lefty Glasses," with the trackpad on the left arm of the gadget, whenever it releases Glass to the public.
The Glasses also operate without the trackpad, too, of course -- there are several photos out there taken hands-free with Glass -- though we're still not sure how one takes a picture without touching the Glasses.
And about that release date: Brin says Google wants to get its Glass out to the people some time in 2013, but he seemed far from certain that his company would be able to do it. Remember, just last week at the G+ Photographer's Conference he described Google Glasses as "not beta...not alpha," but "fresh off the lab floor."
He was probably being a bit modest about Google's progress on the Glasses, but the point remains: Project Glass won't be complete this year, and might not be ready next year, either.
The full episode, in which Brin and his wife discuss the Google X labs as well their philanthropic work, airs Friday at 8 on Current TV.
Below, check out a batch of photos -- and one amazing video -- that Google released last week of the best photography to come from Project Glass so far:
