It looks like Google is getting serious about AR hardware again

A new Google Glass for consumers, perhaps?

Google was the company to make augmented reality glasses the hot topic back when it launched its Google Glass wearable in 2013, but the company was forced to pivot its strategy to focus on the enterprise market due to consumer privacy concerns back in the day. With many other companies launching somewhat similar products these days, like Snapchat with its Spectacles and Microsoft with its HoloLens, Google seems to think that it's time to return to the market, too. As spotted by 9to5Google, the company is building out a team to develop some "Augmented Reality OS" for "an innovative AR device."

Judging by the high-profile manager Google snatched from Oculus/Facebook, Mark Lucovsky, the business wants to get serious about its augmented reality efforts. Lucovsky previously already worked at Google from 2004 through 2009 and focused his efforts on VR and AR at Oculus for the last four years.

Right in line with the new hire, Google is looking to fill a lot more AR-related positions with competent workers. One of the listed job offers explicitly states that "Our team is building the software components that control and manage the hardware on our Augmented Reality (AR) products." It further continues, "As Google adds products to the AR portfolio, the OS Foundations team is the very first software team to work with new hardware." Another job listing states, "As part of the team, you will be responsible for overall camera device software for an innovative AR device." Google's ambitions are as clear as they can get — the company is looking to build a team to create a foundation for all future AR efforts, complete with some hardware of its own.

We can only hope that this time around, the world is ready for augmented reality hardware, be it in the form of glasses or something else. It feels like Google was just too early with its 2013 Glass release, with people more concerned about others using it to spy on them due to the built-in camera while disregarding the possibilities offered by the form factor.

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