Google invites developers to play with Project Glass and its API

Finally! We’re getting somewhere on the Google Glass front. Remember how the lucky attendees of Google I/O were given the chance to pre-order the first generation of Google’s futuristic specs back in June? Well, if they coughed up the US$1 500 fee, the early adopters just received an invitation to come mess around with the Glass API and try out the prototypes.

In what Google is calling terming the Glass Foundry, the developers who signed up to the programme will be able to spend two days testing out the devices and see what they can do with Glass’s ‘Mirror’ API. The hackathons will take place on 28 and 29 January in San Francisco and 1 and 2 February in New York at the local Google offices and no, the attendees won’t be able to take a device home with them — they’ll just be given one to use on-site. Still, they’ll be among the first people to test the glasses outside Google’s own employees and some models.

While those who signed up early to receive the first versions of Glass were told they would be given the gadgets in early 2013, there isn’t an official commercial launch date for the general public. So far, we’ve had to suffice with demos and browsing photos and videos shot with the specs — and, despite what you see in the concept video, the augmented reality aspects of the device haven’t been showcased to the public in real life.

The Google team elaborated on what the event attendees can expect in a short (and very scripted) video: