Google has published a patent to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for technology that places holograms on devices worn on the head, which most likely refers to the Google Glass.
Google Glass, which was revived as a new wearable technology initiative named Project Aura, projected computers images onto the glass of the eyewear. The newly approved patent, in contrast, would instead be superimposing computer-generated images on top of the current real-world view seen by the user.
The experience would drive Google Glass deeper into augmented reality, as the company looks to reverse the misfortune that beset the wearable device. With the patent application, it seems that Google still believes in the potential of the Google Glass.
According to an e-mailed statement by a spokesman for Google, however, the company holds a variety of patents, with only some of the ideas being able to be taken to market as real services or products. As such, patents that Google files should not be taken as announcements of prospective products.
The patent adds more context to why Google was the leader of the funding round for Magic Leap, an augmented reality startup company, which raised $542 million.
A video released earlier in the year by Magic Leap provided a glimpse of the technology that the company is working on. The video showed an office worker using an augmented reality device to watch a YouTube video, check e-mails and play a video game.
The video had Weta Workshop work on it, which could mean that special effects editing was involved in its production. Nevertheless, the video shows the direction that Magic Leap wants to take with its technology, which could possibly be landing in a future version of Google Glass.
One method to increase the usefulness of Google Glass is to allow the content projected by the device to interact with what is in the real world, which is what the holograms and augmented reality would aim to do. The development of these holograms could have Magic Leap at the helm, with the content looking to make Google Glass as the top augmented reality platform in the market in the future.
