Augmented reality glasses are the most exciting thing in wearable tech, especially if they look as cool as Jet by Recon Instruments.

Google Glass never had the aesthetic appeal as Recon Jet, but they are the smart glasses that hit the headlines back in 2013. The word about Google Glass spread globally and rapidly via mainstream news channels, which was probably the worst thing that could have happened given that the smart glasses were Explorer editions, i.e, still under development and not ready for mass exposure.

All of a sudden half the globe new what smart glasses were, and as usual it was the negative reactions that made the prime time news. Understandably, it was the whole “Don’t film me without my permission” thing that stirred up the most controversy. Then restaurants, gyms and other public hangouts started banning the use of Google Glass on their premises, and auspiciously they made the news – great publicity for any business..

It was adventurous of Google to release a product still essentially in the prototype stage into the public eye, but they probably achieved what they were hoping which was feedback from real end users.

Google Glass also faced issues closer to home, such as durability and overheating. The thing that bothers me the most is having a battery right next to my brain, but nobody seems to be talking about that.

Anyway, enough of the babbling, Google Glass has a new name! Project Aura. There were rumors a few months back that Google Glass had been discontinued, but they were unsound as it was more like re-organization.

According to wsj.com Google are moving in to hire people who were recently laid off from a division of Amazon after working on the Fire smartphone.

Augmented Reality smart glasses are going to be big, as is Virtual Reality, it may be five years from now, but nevertheless, it’s gonna happen and all those photos of Sergey Brin sporting his smart glasses will be iconic for future generations. Project Aura is working on the next incarnation of Glass for good reason.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said earlier this year that the company wasn’t giving up on Glass because wearable technology is a potentially big new market. Apparently Google are looking beyond project Aura and working on numerous wearable tech devices.