Alphabet (GOOGL 1.27%) (GOOG 1.25%) recently unveiled an augmented reality product that is quite intriguing. In this video clip from "The Virtual Opportunities Show" on Motley Fool Live, recorded on May 17, Fool.com contributor Travis Hoium and Demitri Kalogeropoulos discuss the technology company's latest AR glasses that could be a boon for travelers worldwide.
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Travis Hoium: Yes, so Google had their I/O Conference last week and I'll put a video in the Slido. But they announced some really cool technology related to augmented reality glasses and that is using basically their same translate technology that they have on just the regular Google website and putting it into AR. Now you can sit and have a conversation with somebody in a different language and it will just write the words that they're saying in the language that you're familiar with right on your glasses.
One of the things that I think is really interesting about this, and this is something that Google and Alphabet are really doing with their technology I think right now, Jose talked about paring down maybe the number of things that Meta (META 2.98%) is working on. I think that's what we're seeing with Alphabet is they used to have a ton of side projects and you would kind of go when are these going to lead to anything real. Now, we're seeing them go, we've got this massive advantage in search, in translation. We've got all these tools now how do we make them easier for people to use?
This is, I think, a great manifestation of that is what is the actual use case for something like augmented reality that you could see yourself using. This is it. I see myself using this way before I see Facebook's metaverse being something that's commonly used. I could see if this is reasonably priced if you're taking a trip to a foreign country that costs $5,000 and these are $400 glasses. That's a reasonable investment just for that trip much less if you're somebody who is doing these things on a regular basis.
Really, I think it's a case of a company saying here's the core technology that we have a differentiation over competitors and how are we going to use that in a really valuable realized way and so I think that's an interesting place for Alphabet to be in. It seems much more concrete what they're going to be doing with this AR technology and with the things that are going into it rather than Meta, we're still uncertain as to what they're going to be doing with their stuff long term.
But I don't know what you guys thought about that. I will post a video. They do a really cool video with the mother and daughter having a conversation and so I'll post that in Slido.
Demitri Kalogeropoulos: Really cool stuff it is. It does hearken back to some of that Apple (AAPL 0.64%) product introductions to me in terms of, it looks like magic, like how did they do that? That's amazing. I want to get my hands on one. But like you said, the applications seem really real-world. It's really easy to see how that can be super useful in a lot of ways.
I'm just thinking, for example, traveling into a city, I don't know. Not only the map situation would be amazing to have map overlays, but like Yelp (YELP 1.57%) or if I could look across a crowded downtown and see reviews of different restaurants and maybe I want some Chinese restaurants and maybe I want these things, that would be amazing. I'm sure that's in their plan in the next couple of years.
