Google entered in a partnership with the Italian eyewear company Luxottica, owners of the Ray-Ban, Oakley, and other brands, to offer additional frame designs.

[28] In June 2014, Nepal adopted Google Glass to tackle poaching of wild animals and herbs in Chitwan International Park and other World Heritage Sites.

[31] In February 2015, The New York Times reported that Google Glass was being redesigned by former Apple executive Tony Fadell, and that it would not be released until he deemed it to be "perfect".

Many developers and companies built applications for Glass, including news apps, facial recognition, exercise, photo manipulation, translation, and sharing to social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.

[44][45] In the terms of service, it was stated that developers may not put ads in their apps or charge fees;[46] a Google representative told The Verge that this might change in the future.

It brings an integrated video player with playback controls, the ability to post an update to Path, and lets users save notes to Evernote.

Once Glass is activated, wearers can say an action, such as "Take a picture", "Record a video", "Hangout with [person/Google+ circle]", "Google 'What year was Wikipedia founded?

[56] For search results that are read back to the user, the voice response is relayed using bone conduction through a transducer that sits beside the ear, thereby rendering the sound almost inaudible to other people.

The video stream is passed to remote scribes in HIPAA secure rooms where the doctor-patient interaction is transcribed, ultimately allowing physicians to focus on the patient.

[61] His research on Google Glass (starting August 9, 2013) was conducted in operating rooms, ambulances, a trauma helicopter, general practice, and home care as well as the use in public transportation for visually or physically impaired.

Research included taking pictures, videos streaming to other locations, dictating operative log, having students watch the procedures and tele-consultation through Hangout.

[68] In 2015, IOS Press published "Clinical and Surgical Applications of Smart Glasses" a research article written by a team at the Columbia University Medical Center Department of Neurosurgery's Cerebrovascular Laboratory.

Under Neurosurgeon Dr. Sander E. Connolly, Stefan Mitrasinovic, Elvis Camacho, Nirali Trivedi, and others analyzed Google Glass's useful applications including hands-free photo and video documentation, telemedicine, Electronic Health Record retrieval and input, rapid diagnostic test analysis, education, and live broadcasting.

"[72] On June 21, 2013, doctor Pedro Guillen, chief of trauma service of Clínica CEMTRO of Madrid, also broadcast a surgery using Google Glass.

[74][75] Also in July 2014, This Place released an app, MindRDR, to connect Glass to a Neurosky EEG monitor to allow people to take photos and share them to Twitter or Facebook using brain signals.

[79] There were five mothers and their newborn babies in the trial,[80] fifteen volunteer counselors from ABA, and seven project team members from Small World Social.

According to media commentary, the breastfeeding project demonstrated the potential of wearable devices for communities to deliver health and family support services across vast distances.

[85] An article on Motherboard stated, "Google Glass, whether warranted or not, endures its fair share of criticism, largely because a lot of initial use cases have been, well, kinda creepy.

[89] In June 2014, Small World Social's Breastfeeding Support Project was awarded the Questar Best of Category Grand Prize For Emerging Media, which is given to the top 5% of entries.

[91] In 2014, Voice of America Television Correspondent Carolyn Presutti and Electronics Engineer Jose Vega began a web project called VOA & Google Glass, which explored the technology's potential uses in journalism.

[94] The WWF as of mid-2014 used Google Glass and UAVs to track various animals and birds in the jungle, which may be the first use of the device by a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO).

[98] In early 2013, American educator Andrew Vanden Heuvel used Google Glass to take students on a virtual trip to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

[108] Privacy advocates are concerned that people wearing such eyewear may be able to identify strangers in public using facial recognition, or surreptitiously record and broadcast private conversations.

[110][111] In July 2013, prior to the official release of the product, Stephen Balaban, co-founder of software company Lambda Labs, circumvented Google's facial recognition app block by building his own, non-Google-approved operating system.

Balaban then installed face-scanning Glassware that creates a summary of commonalities shared by the scanned person and the Glass wearer, such as mutual friends and interests.

[115] Lisa A. Goldstein, a freelance journalist who was born deaf, tested the product on behalf of people with disabilities and published a review on August 6, 2013.

[119] These concerns were validated by Google's optometry advisor Dr. Eli Peli of Harvard, though he later partly backtracked due to the controversy that ensued from his remarks.

[119][120][121] Concerns have been raised by cyber forensics experts at the University of Massachusetts who have developed a way to steal smartphone and tablet passwords using Google Glass.

In an interview, Howell stated, "The primary thing is a safety concern, it [the glass headset] could project text or video into your field of vision.

[127] While the judge noted that "Google Glass fell under 'the purview and intent' of the ban on driving with a monitor", the case was thrown out of court due to lack of proof the device was on at the time.