Google's Astro Teller: Zero chance we won't wear smartglasses in 10-20 years

The man who makes moonshots real reveals his hopes for the future of wearables
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2014 may not have been the year Google Glass went mainstream but Astro Teller, the head of Google X, the company's secretive lab, is sure smartglasses are the future.

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"There’s about a 0% chance that in 10 to 20 years we don’t access our digital world through our glasses, but I would be shocked if we don’t also have watches," he told TechCrunch.

"I think wearables in general have as their best calling, to better understand our current state and needs and to express those back to the world. It’s crazy that you have to tell your phone or your computer or your house or your car 'It’s me!' hundreds of times a day. Wearables will solve that problem. They haven’t yet, but they will.”

With a push into business rumoured and fashion partnerships still bubbling away, it seems that Google Glass isn't going anywhere. But Teller was keen to point out that it's not all about glasses and watches at the Mountain View R&D lab.

In line with predictions that a third of wearables will be inconspicuous to the human eye by 2017, he suggests that the accessories and jewellery we already wear will become smart.

“[Humans] have spent the last several thousand years working on wearables," he said. "We’ve got rings, glasses, we wear things for armour, for protection from the elements, to signal our status to other people. And we’re going to co-opt a lot of those things, where wearables are going to end up being the interface between us in the world.”

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Sophie was Wareable's associate editor. She joined the team from Stuff magazine where she was an in-house reviewer. For three and a half years, she tested every smartphone, tablet, and robot vacuum that mattered. 

A fan of thoughtful design, innovative apps, and that Spike Jonze film, she is currently wondering how many fitness tracker reviews it will take to get her fit. Current bet: 19.

Sophie has also written for a host of sites, including Metro, the Evening Standard, the Times, the Telegraph, Little White Lies, the Press Association and the Debrief.

She now works for Wired.


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