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The new version of Google Glass, the search giant’s Web-connected eyewear, may be here soon.
The chief executive of Italian eyewear company Luxottica, Massimo Vian, said his company is working on the new product, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. He said it’s coming soon, but did not give a specific timeline.
Luxottica, the company behind Ray-Ban and Oakley, has partnered with Google since last May to make frames for the device. Vian was speaking at Luxottica’s general meeting in Milan, Italy, the Journal said.
“The team is heads down building the future of the product and we’re not commenting on rumor or speculation,” Google said in a statement.
The news is only the latest indication that Google has not given up on its experimental product. The device, which overlays images and graphics on what a wearer already sees, has had a rocky development since it was unveiled in 2012. Privacy advocates have criticized the product’s built-in camera and people have derided the device for being nerdy. Early users of the product earned the nickname “Glassholes.”
In January, Google said it was discontinuing the current version of Glass, and putting the product development under the purview of Tony Fadell, co-founder of Nest, the smart-home device company that Google acquired in February 2014. Fadell is a former Apple executive and the hardware guru behind the original iPod music player.
The move caused speculation about the product’s future, but Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt in March confirmed that the project was still alive. “It is a big and very fundamental platform for Google,” Schmidt said at the time.
