Google Glass was a big leap forward for mobile computers that you wear on your face, but not so much for aesthetics and personal style. With Google Glass 2 widely expected to be aimed primarily at the workplace, where what you look like is less important than getting the job done, a recently unearthed patent application suggests the next incarnation could be even more of a facial fashion challenge.
• Everything we know about Google Glass 2
A Google patent filing for a "Wearable device with input and output features", filed in 2012 and published this week, shows the version we came to know and tolerate, plus a sketch showing a more traditional, spectacles-based design.
However, it also shows this one-ear-hugging Google Monocle.
According to the patent, the arm of the device is adjustable to fit at the temple, above the ear and at the rear of the head, with the familiar display up front and the electronics (or "image generating means") housed in the arm.
The patent later goes into a lot more detail, with references to the camera, "finger-operable touch pad" and more.
What's clear is that at the time of filing, September 28 2012, this was presented as the design approach Google was going to take with Glass, even though it had already shown off the "one-lensed spectacles" approach that eventually came to market as the Explorer Edition.
This suggests that this patent is for a putative, next-gen Google Glass which could still come to fruition.
Rumours to date have suggested that the look for GG2 will be either a clip-on number for attachment to standard glasses or, perhaps a tad less plausibly, "your hat". Or it could look like more traditional spectacles, because that is SO incredibly obviously what GG2 should look like. Come on guys, be a bit sensible this time, please.
Via Patent Yogi
