Here in sunny Mountain View, California, I am sequestered in a teeny tiny box, Outside, there's along line of tech iournalists, and we are all
here for one thing: to try out Project Moohan and Google's Android XR smart glasses prototypes, (The Project Mariner booth is maybe 10 feet away and remarkably empty.)
While nothing was going to steal AI's spotlight at this year's keynote 95 mentions!
-Android XR has been generating a lot of buzz on thground, But the demos we got to see here were notably shorter, with more guardrails. than what I got to see back in December, Probably because, unlike a few months ago, there are cameras everywhere and these are “risky" demos.
The Project Moohan VR headset
First up is Project Moohan, Not much has changed since I first slipped on the headset, It's still an Android-flavored Apple Vision Pro, albeit much lighter and more comfortable to wear. Like Oculus headsets, there's a dial in the back that lets you adjust the fit. If you press the top button, it brings up Gemini, You can ask Gemini to do things, because that is what Al assistants are here for. Specifically, I ask it to take me to my old college stomping grounds in Tokyo in Google Maps without having to open the Google Maps app, Natural language and context.
baby.
But that's a demo I've gotten before. The “new" thing Google has to show me today is spatialized video, As in, you can now get 3D depth in a regular old video you've filmed without any special equipment.