Google Glass reborn as Project Aura

Google Glass may have captured the imagination, but it never quite captured the market. Now, the company appears to be creating a new organization to develop the idea of an electronic eyewear despite closing down sales and production of the original Google Glass.

Newly christened “Project Aura – Glass and Beyond” will be overseen within Google, though according to one report from Business Insider, Nest CEO Tony Fadell will have a “high-level oversight” of the development team. In addition, the company hired a number of engineers and staff from Amazon’s secretive product development arm Lab126, following layoffs there.

The “Beyond” part of the company may be something about developing a VR or an AR headset. The BI report noted that the former head of Google Glass engineering, Adrian Wong, had been lured back from Facebook’s Oculus VR headset development team in June. Will this mean that Google will be working on a VR headset like Oculus? Perhaps, but given its focus and history, a device like the Microsoft Hololens AR headset may be more likely.