Google sends invites for first Project Glass hackathons

This article originally appeared on The Next Web

In our 2012 Google review we said that Project Glass would be an important part of the year for the search giant, and it won’t be long until we find out more. The Mountain View-based company today (US time) sent out invitations to its first hackathons around the glasses-based technology which take place in the next fortnight.

Events will be held in San Francisco (January 28-29) and New York (February 1-2) and will be, in Google’s words, “the first opportunity for a group of developers to get together and develop for Glass”.

The company is planning two-day-long ‘Glass Foundry’ events for developers — known as ‘Glass Explorers’ — which will allow them to get to know the Google Mirror API and develop projects for Project Glass.

Both events will include an introduction to the Glass product, the Mirror API and development, with a host of Google engineers present to help out with questions and details as the developers get to work building things. The second days will include demos and as-yet-unnamed guest judges will make appearances.

While developers won’t be given a Project Glass device free of charge, they will get one to play with while they are at the events, Google’s invitation explains.

The deadline to register for the first event is this coming Friday, January 18. Google says there is limited space and, given the exciting nature of the product, we expect places to fill up very, very quickly.

Project Glass has divided many consumer and industry watchers who have called it all manner of things, from the future of portable computing, to an unnecessary technology overload. As with most things tech, support and usability — and in particular apps and features — will be key.

Wearable computing is set to become a major theme and Project Glass is among the most advanced technologies out there right now, so we’re really excited to see what might come out of these hackathons.

The device is not yet completed but pre-orders for an alpha version were opened to developers at Google IO for $1,500. We’re certain to hear even more about the project in 2013.

Headline image via AFP/Getty Images