Google Glass pioneer moves to Amazon

Babak Parviz, the man who founded and led the Google X project that gave rise to Google Glass, has moved to work at Amazon. Revealing the news on his Google+ page, the Iranian-American scientist describes himself as “super excited” but doesn’t disclose any details about what he’ll be developing next. The focus of Parviz’s research so far has been the pursuit of an intelligent contact lens that would both obtain readings about its wearer through sensors and provide information via augmented reality visual overlays. In many ways, Google Glass is the compromise solution on the way to that goal.

Now that he’s joined Amazon, Parviz can be expected to expand on the company’s efforts around optics, which are already a prominent part of the new Fire Phone. Amazon’s Firefly feature is designed to recognize objects around you, while the Fire Phone’s interface uses multiple front-facing cameras to adapt to your perspective. Parviz’s interest in augmented reality should mesh easily with Amazon’s pursuit of omniscience — both for and about its user.