Google has reportedly renamed its Google Glass program Project Aura, and hired software developers and engineers at Lab126 who developed the Amazon Fire Phone. If the news report is accurate the big move could be due to past problems related to the search giant's smart goggles, and an attempt to reboot its wearables product line.
The reports were from Business Insider and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Project Aura is a separate venture from the company's Project Ara, which is working on modular smartphones.
Project Aura's leader is still Ivy Ross, who reports to Nest CEO Tony Adell, according to ArsTechnica. The reboot team has not announced any new products yet.
Google stopped its production of Glass in January. The goal was to allow its engineers the opportunity to redesign the form and function of the high-tech goggles.
Google has not given a release date for Glass version 2.0. However, it has stated that its wearables team is working hard to build the product's "future."
Besides reworking Glass itself, it must also improve the product's image. It had the stigma of being nerdy glasses.
In addition, people were on edge about whether Glass users were wearing the goggles to record them. In fact, Glass was banned in a bar, movie theaters, and a casino, according to Computer World.
Patrick Moorhead is a Moor Insights & Strategy analyst. He said that renaming the Glass project indicates that the company wants to make wholesale changes to the smart glasses due to their low sales figures.
Moorhead noted it is possible Google could also expand its selection of wearable products. It is already far behind Apple in wrist wearables.
Google Glass's last hardware upgrade was made in 2013. WSJ recently reported that the next Glass version would be named "Enterprise Edition" and have a business target market.