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Google Glass manufacturing equipment and prototype R&D parts being sold on eBay

The shutdown of the Explorer Program in 2015 ended the public’s opportunity to purchase Google Glass and coincided with the end of the Explorer Edition’s production. It would be more than two years before consumers could again buy any form of the ambitious smart glasses.

Parts and tools purportedly used to make the original version of Glass have now made their way onto eBay and offer an interesting looking at both the manufacturing and early R&D process.

eBay seller “product54_corp” claims to have purchased “a large lot of business surplus” when Google scrapped the Explorer Program in 2015. There are various tools used in the actual manufacturing process including multiple molds for the metal frame, as well as the plastic body that housed the hardware. Other tools, include an “Aluminum Pneumatic manufacturing assembly” and a “Robotic Assembly Unit.”

There are several parts related to the unique see-through prism display used by Glass. There are various test prisms including a square shaped model versus the existing rectangular one that was likely a test of the early R&D process.

There are also parts related to the camera, as well as chip boards used for debugging.

One of the more interesting items is a “Hologram Silicon Wafer Chip” which the seller claims is related to Google’s work on “holograms.”

These 2 hologram chips were purchased in a lot amongst thousands of Google GLASS items that were labeled “SCRAP”. Google patented in 2015 technology to view holograms from GLASS. We believe these chips were part of that development. Although there is no identifiable mark, logo or mark on this item.

Great for Glass collectors, this seller is also offering various spare Glass parts, like prism displays and batteries.

In more recent news, one of Google’s ‘Glass for Work’ partners has listed the company’s not-so-newly-refreshed Glass Enterprise Edition hardware for sale on its website.


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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com