Google x
Google x, stylized as Google[x][1], is a secret facility run by Google thought to be located somewhere in the Bay Area of Northern California.[2] Work at the lab is overseen by Sergey Brin, one of Google's co-founders.[3]
Reportedly worked on at the lab is a list of 100 projects pertaining to future technologies such as a space elevator, self-driving car, augmented reality glasses, a neural network that uses semi-supervised learning, enabling speech recognition and extraction of objects from video - for instance detecting if a cat is in a frame of video,[4] and the Web of Things.[2]
A number of articles have speculated as to the types of projects that are encompassed by Google X Lab[5][6][7] as well as the motivations for such projects.[8]
Contents |
List of projects worked on at Google X Lab [edit]
Project Glass [edit]
Project Glass is a research and development program by Google to develop an augmented reality head-mounted display (HMD).[9] The intended purpose of Project Glass products would be the hands-free displaying of information currently available to most smartphone users,[10] and allowing for interaction with the Internet via natural language voice commands.[11]
Google driverless car [edit]
The Google driverless car is a project by Google that involves developing technology for driverless cars. The project is currently being led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense.[12] The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.[13]
The U.S. state of Nevada passed a law in June 2011 concerning the operation of driverless cars in Nevada. Google had been lobbying for driverless car laws.[14][15][16] The license was issued to a Toyota Prius modified with Google's experimental driver-less technology.[17] In August 2012, the team announced that they have completed over 300,000 autonomous-driving miles accident-free, typically have about a dozen cars on the road at any given time, and are starting to test them with single drivers instead of in pairs.[18]
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ "Introduction to Project Glass". Google+: Project Glass. 4 April 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2013. "A group of us from Google[x] started Project Glass to build this kind of technology…"
- ^ a b Cain Miller, Claire; Bilton, Nick (November 13, 2011). "Google’s Lab of Wildest Dreams". The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
- ^ Ante, Spencer (11 September 2012). "Hype and Hope: Test Driving Google's New Glasses". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
- ^ Markoff, John (June 25, 2012). "How Many Computers to Identify a Cat? 16,000". The New York Times. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- ^ Adhikari, Richard (14 November 2011). "Google Dabbles in Dream Tech in Hush-Hush X Lab". TechNewsWorld. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
- ^ Gaudin, Sharon (November 14, 2011). "Top-secret Google X lab rethinks the future". Computerworld. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
- ^ Burgess, Rick (November 14, 2011). "Secret "Google X" lab reimagines our future". TechSpot. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
- ^ Moore, Alex. "Google X Labs: With Steve Jobs Gone, Could Google Take the Torch in Inventing the Future?". Retrieved February 23, 2012.
- ^ Goldman, David (4 April 2012). "Google unveils 'Project Glass' virtual-reality glasses". Money (CNN).
- ^ Albanesius, Chloe (4 April 2012). "Google 'Project Glass' Replaces the Smartphone With Glasses". PC Magazine.
- ^ Newman, Jared (4 April 2012). "Google's 'Project Glass' Teases Augmented Reality Glasses". PCWorld.
- ^ John Markoff (2010-10-09). "Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-10-11.
- ^ Sebastian Thrun (2010-10-09). "What we're driving at". The Official Google Blog. Retrieved 2010-10-11.
- ^ "Nevada enacts law authorizing autonomous (driverless) vehicles". Green Car Congress. 2011-06-25. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
- ^ Alex Knapp (2011-06-22). "Nevada Passes Law Authorizing Driverless Cars". Forbes. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
- ^ John Markoff (2011-05-10). "Google Lobbies Nevada To Allow Self-Driving Cars". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
- ^ Mary Slosson (2012-05-08). "Google gets first self-driven car license in Nevada". Reuters. Retrieved 2012-05-09.
- ^ Official Blog: The self-driving car logs more miles on new wheels Posted: Tuesday, August 07, 2012 by Chris Urmson, Engineering Lead
