Google Glass Update: Google Invests in Heads Up Display Chip Manufacturer

Google has made a business investment that quite unsubtly hints at the next move for its wearable computing device, Google Glass. Himax Technologies, Inc. announced Monday that Google has invested in one of its subsidiaries, which specializes in producing chips for head mounted displays.

Google's stake in Himax Display Inc., the name of Himax Technology Inc.'s subsidiary that manufactures high-tech display devices, will soon be 6.3 percent, and the deal is set up so that Google can make more investments of up to 14.8 percent next year if it wants to. From Himax's announcement, it's clear that Google is looking to expand Himax Displays' capabilities in order to produce a lot more of its Google Glass devices.

The Taiwanese technology manufacturer and supplier announced Google's investment, saying that "the purpose of the investment is to fund production upgrades, expand capacity and further enhance production capabilities at HDI's [Himax Display Inc.] facilities that produce liquid crystal on silicon ("LCOS") chips and moedules used in applications including head-mounted display (HDM) such as Google Glass, head-up display (HUD) and pico-projector products."

"Google is a preeminent global technology leader. We are delighted to receive this investment and to form a strategic partnership with Google," said president and CEO of Himax, Joradn Wu, in the company's statement. "Beginning the second quarter of this year, we had already begun expanding capacity to meet demand for our LCOS product line. This investment from Google further validates our commitment to developing breakthrough technologies and state-of-the-art production facilities. We look forward to leveraging this investment and our collective expertise with Google to create unique and transformational LCOS technologies for many years ahead."

The current crop of Google Glasses are available only to a few beta testers, as part of Google's Glass Explorer project. Those testers paid $1,500 for each pair, and only after being chosen from a contest where each tester publically declared what they would do if they were admitted into the program, along with the hashtag #ifihadglass.

However, according to an interview with the BBC, Google chairman Eric Schmidt is looking to have a consumer release in 2014, which would of course require a lot more units than the beta test did, and at a lower cost. "Himax Display has been a great partner for several years now," Google said in a statement. "This investment is an extension of this partnership, which we hope will allow the team to continue to develop their operations."

Google Glass is a face-mounted wearable computing device that operates with an optical head-mounted display, a small touchpad, and voice-activated commands. It is designed to be tethered to a smartphone in order to provide hands-free navigation and interaction with the Internet. The current "Explorer" edition of the glasses has a 640x360 display and a 5-megapixel camera that is capable of recording 720p video. Since being released to beta testers, there have been some privacy and security concerns raised, as well as incredible applications tested for the device.