From the ‘When Humans Dream of Electric Sheep’ files:
Thanks to Google Android, more people then ever use Linux today. If and when Google’s Project Glass becomes a mass market reality, humanity itself could end up becoming a Linux end-point.
Google Glass is Google’s effort at wearable technology, a display that projects contextual information and communication information onto glass that you wear (like a pair of regular glasses kinda/sorta). Little is known at this point about the actual hardware/software technology and to be honest at first, I thought this was an April 1st joke — but it’s not.
Google Glass in a real sense could be the future of humanity and Linux.
I’m assuming here that Linux is at the core, since Linux is at the core of Android and ChromeOS. As an embedded technology it serves to reason that Google will once again leverage Linux here. I would assume that Google Glass will be a thin Linux OS implementation since the storage capacity is likely very limited. This is a device that will be highly integrated with the cloud to deliver content and context. Google’s infrastructure of course, relies on Linux.
All that’s really needed is a thin kernel that can boot and connect to the network, not all that dis-similiar to ChromeOS, but significantly thiner due to size/processing/storage. Connectivity, 4G/Wi-Fi/GPS and basic audio/video capabilities, round out the thin kernel’s core requirements.
Instead of a touch screen, it’s a ‘talk’ screen that is voice activated – where the human is the controller.
If Google Glass does in fact turn out to be Linux at the core, I’d expect that Google will be figuring out some new power management, connectivity and other options that could improve embedded Linux on the whole for everyone. Or not, after all the back/forth over Android in the Linux kernel, it’s not clear what the broader Linux benefit may or may not be.
Still, it’s exciting to think of the possibilities.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.