Google’s Project Astra May Revolutionize Smart Glasses—but Not Today

When I saw Google’s Project Astra, a real-time computer vision-based UI, last year, I was cautiously excited for the future—the future of smart glasses specifically. In its (admittedly very controlled) demo, Google showed off a vision of real-time computing that combined memory, object recognition, AI, and a voice assistant to hypothesize what could be the ultimate smart glasses computing interface. In its demo, Google showed Project Astra doing all sorts of useful stuff. If you forget where you left your keys, Astra will remember; if you want to crunch a piece of code you’re looking at, just ask; you want to give your dog a nickname, you’re covered. If you were as excited about Project Astra as I was, the good news is that it’s back at this year’s Google I/O 2025. In a demo at Google’s annual development conference, it showcased a few new tricks, including improved memory, more applications for web search, and even online shopping. One of the most compelling is computer control, whi ... Read full article.