Google’s computerized glasses are almost ready for the spotlight.
Google on Tuesday sent out an invitation to two developer “hackathons,” one in San Francisco on January 28 and 29, and another in New York City on February 1 and 2, where software developers who forked over $1,500 per pair for the first limited edition of the glasses, called “Google Glass: Explorer Edition,” will get a chance to play with the devices and create apps for them.
The events are part of a Google early-adopter program called Glass Foundry, according to the text of the invitation obtained by The Verge and posted online Tuesday evening. In the invitation, Google clarifies that the application programming interface (API) for Google Glass, the standard set of codes that developers can use to build apps for the service, is a new API called “Mirror.”
Google’s Mirror API will be distinct from its many other online APIs, such as the one for its Android mobile device software, for example.
Google on Tuesday evening also published a video explaining more about the Glass Foundry, Mirror API, and introducing the Glass Developer Relations team, which includes Sarah Price, Google Glass community manager, Jenny Murphy (Minning), Glass developer programs engineer, and Timothy Jordan, Glass developer advocate.
In the video, Murphy explains that the Mirror API uses “RESTful Web Services,” that is, a standard architecture for Web programs and processes based on the Representational State Transfer (REST) principles, which can be found in other Google APIs, such as Web search.
“If you’ve done any development with other Web services at Google, you’ll feel right at home developing on Glass,” said Murphy in the video.
Google still hasn’t announced a shipping date for the the many developers who were granted the opportunity to pre-order the first limited Explorer Edition models at Google’s I/O conference in June 2012, but it has sent out Glass blocks to reserve their place in line, indicating that over 1,800 pre-orders have been placed.
