During SXSW - Now You Can Learn About Google Glass And The Mirror API On YouTube

I’d wager that most of you reading this didn’t make it out to Austin for SXSW, and even fewer of you still have ever gotten some hands-on time with Google’s ambitious Glass project. On the off chance that you’ve been spending these past few weeks agonizing over all the juicy Glass tidbits you missed out on by not being there, you can rest easy — Google has posted the full video of its 50 minute Glass session on YouTube.

The talk — titled “Building New Experiences with Glass” featured Senior Developer Advocate Timothy Jordan giving attendees (and now you) a brief rundown on what it’s actually like using Google Glass. We’ve seen these sorts of hands-on impressions in the past, but Jordan’s session managed to give attendees a clearer idea of what the Glass interface actually looks like while he’s rubbing away at the side-mounted trackpad or checking out updates from his Google+ pals.

More importantly, Jordan’s session provided those on-site developers a glimpse at what it actually takes to build services for the head-mounted display. In it, he made multiple references to how simple the development process actually was (it’s “not complex,” as he puts it), but there’s more than enough meat here to give potential Glass developers a taste of what they’re in for. In the end though, Jordan was bullish on what Glass means for how we as users interact with our gadgetry — he didn’t go as far as saying traditional touchscreens were “emasculating” like a certain other Google employee, but he pointed out that current modes of interaction tend to separate us from the events and experiences of our lives.

“It feels like tech is often getting in the way more than it needs to,” Jordan remarked. “And that’s what we’re addressing with Project Glass — it’s so that you can still have access to the technology you love, but it doesn’t take you out of the moment.”

Jordan and his employers at Google may think we’ll love Glass, but the real jury has yet to weigh in. While Google is prepping Glass for a widespread consumer release at the end of this year, it has also reached out to thousands of would-be Glass Explorers about claiming their own $1,500 tester units. So far the search giant has been exceedingly careful about who has gotten to play with its vision of the future, but that’s all about to change in short order.