Smart Contact Lens Project                   

          You’ve probably heard that diabetes is a huge and growing problem—affecting one in every 19 people on the planet. But you may not be familiar with the daily struggle that many people with diabetes face as they try to keep their blood sugar levels under control. Uncontrolled blood sugar puts people at risk for a range of dangerous complications, some short-term and others longer term, including damage to the eyes, kidneys and heart.

Many people say that managing their diabetes is like having a part-time job. Glucose levels change frequently with normal activity like exercising or eating or even sweating. Sudden spikes or precipitous drops are dangerous and not uncommon, requiring round-the-clock monitoring. Although some people wear glucose monitors with a glucose sensor embedded under their skin, all people with diabetes must still prick their finger and test drops of blood throughout the day. It’s disruptive, and it’s painful. And, as a result, many people with diabetes check their blood glucose less often than they should. 

Over the years, many scientists have investigated various body fluids—such as tears—in the hopes of finding an easier way for people to track their glucose levels. But as you can imagine, tears are hard to collect and study. At Google[x], wondered if miniaturized electronics—think: chips and sensors so small they look like bits of glitter, and an antenna thinner than a human hair—might be a way to crack the mystery of tear glucose and measure it with greater accuracy.

Google is now testing a smart contact lens that’s built to measure glucose levels in tears using a tiny wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor that are embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material.Google is testing prototypes that can generate a reading once per second and also investigating the potential for this to serve as an early warning for the wearer, so Google is exploring integrating tiny LED lights that could light up to indicate that glucose levels have crossed above or below certain thresholds. It’s still early days for this technology, but Google has completed multiple clinical research studies which are helping to refine the prototype.Google hopes this could someday lead to a new way for people with diabetes to manage their disease.

Google is in discussions with the FDA, but there’s still a lot more work to do to turn this technology into a system that people can use. Google is not going to do this alone:They plan to look for partners who are experts in bringing products like this to market. These partners will use Google's technology for a smart contact lens and develop apps that would make the measurements available to the wearer and their doctor. Google has always said that they would seek out projects that seem a bit speculative or strange, and at a time when the International Diabetes Federation (PDF) is declaring that the world is “losing the battle” against diabetes, we thought this project was worth a shot.

Google Wallet  

        A digital wallet  is an app on your phone or other mobile device that allows you to store virtual versions of items you would normally find in a physical wallet, like credit cards, bank account information, gift cards, coupons or customer loyalty cards, and even things like event tickets and boarding passes.Google Wallet is a mobile payment system developed by Google that allows its users to store debit cards, credit cards, loyalty cards, and gift cards among other things, as well as redeeming sales promotions on their mobile phone. Google Wallet can use near field communication (NFC) to "make secure payments fast and convenient by simply tapping the phone on any PayPass-enabled terminal at checkout."

Google demonstrated the app at a press conference on May 26, 2011. The app was released in the United States only on September 19, 2011. The service works with the 300,000 plus MasterCard PayPass merchant locations, with Visa licensing their Visa payWave system to Google for use in Wallet as of September 20, 2011. On May 15, 2013, Google announced the integration of Google Wallet and Gmail, allowing users to send money through Gmail attachments. Like the main service, Google Wallet's Gmail integration is also currently only available in the US, to those 18 or older.

To get started, one must download the Google Wallet app to their smartphone or tablet. Only a smattering of Android mobile devices have NFC as of mid-2013, but by 2014, some experts expect about half of smartphones to ship with NFC chips, and Forrester Research foresees more than a quarter of phones in the US having the technology by 2016 However, even if one’s current phone has NFC, cellular carrier must also enable the device to use NFC with a digital wallet, and most carriers are not doing this. As of June 2013, only Sprint, Virgin Mobile, US Cellular and Metro PCS offered any smartphones that work with Google Wallet and NFC in the U.S. These include devices from Samsung , LG and HTC. The Google Nexus 7 And Google Nexus 10 tablets also allow to use NFC.

If one doesn't have a compatible phone and carrier, they can sign up for Google Wallet online. The service can be used to speed through checkout at sites all over the Web.

Once downloaded the app or signed up online, set up Wallet with , loyalty cards,gift cards, credit cards and more and there will be  the option to pay with whatever source  chosen by the user . Of course, to use Wallet at all one need to find stores that actually have the equipment to read the NFC chip in their phone.

Google Fiber

     Google Fiber is a project in the United States to build a broadband internet network infrastructure using fiber-optic communication.It runs 100 times faster than today’s average broadband connection. The service will let users download unlimited Internet data at the speed of 1000 megabits per second for $70 per month. The search engine giant is bringing the ultra-high speeds first to Kansas City, Kan. and Kansas City, Mo.

“No more buffering. No more loading. No more waiting,” the company notes on its blog. “Imagine: instantaneous sharing; truly global education; medical appointments with 3D imaging; even new industries that we haven’t even dreamed of, powered by a gig.”

To get things started, the company divided Kansas City into small communities called “fiberhoods.” Each fiberhood needs a high majority of their residents to pre-register to get the service. Those communities with a high pre-registration percentage will be among the first to get Google Fiber. Households in those communities can register for the service throughout the next six weeks. Households in fiberhoods that qualify will be able to select from various subscription packages. Internet will cost $70 a month, while Internet along with television will cost about $120. According to the New York Times, a Nexus 7 tablet will come with the TV service package and serve as a remote.

“It’s easy to forget how revolutionary high-speed Internet access was in the 1990s,” the company said. “Not only did broadband kill the screeching sound of dial-up, it also spurred innovation, helping to create amazing new services as well as new job opportunities for many thousands of Americans. But today the Internet is not as fast as it should be.”Apart from the speed, what is exciting about Google Fiber is that it is offering unlimited data uploading and downloading. There are no star marks or caps that the company plans to put on the amount of data you transfer. Google Fiber TV also comes along with a DVR box that lets users record as many as eight channels simultaneously. There is also an on-board memory of 2TB to help store all data that one may want to save.

Google Self-Driving Car

 The Google self-driving car is a project by Google that involves developing technology for autonomous cars. The software powering Google's cars is called Google Chauffeur. Lettering on the side of each car identifies it as a "self-driving car." The project is currently being led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View.

The project team has equipped a test fleet of at least ten vehicles, consisting of six Toyota Prius, an Audi TT, and three Lexus RX450h, each accompanied in the driver's seat by one of a dozen drivers with unblemished driving records and in the passenger seat by one of Google's engineers. The car has traversed San Francisco's Lombard Street, famed for its steep hairpin turns and through city traffic. The vehicles have driven over the Golden Gate Bridge and around Lake Tahoe. The system drives at the speed limit it has stored on its maps and maintains its distance from other vehicles using its system of sensors. The system provides an override that allows a human driver to take control of the car by stepping on the brake or turning the wheel, similar to cruise control systems already found in many cars today.

In August 2012, the team announced that they have completed over 300,000 autonomous-driving miles (500 000 km) accident-free, typically have about a dozen cars on the road at any given time, and are starting to test them with single drivers instead of in pairs. Three U.S. states have passed laws permitting autonomous cars as of September 2012: Nevada, Florida, and California. A law proposed in Texas would establish criteria for allowing "autonomous motor vehicles".

Humming Bird Search Algorithm

     Amit Singhal, senior vice president of search, told reporters on Thursday that the company launched its latest "Hummingbird" algorithm about a month ago and that it currently affects 90 percent of worldwide searches via Google. 

Google is trying to keep pace with the evolution of Internet usage. As search queries get more complicated, traditional "Boolean" or keyword-based systems begin deteriorating because of the need to match concepts and meanings in addition to words."Hummingbird" is the company's effort to match the meaning of queries with that of documents on the Internet, said Singhal from the Menlo Park garage where Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin conceived their now-ubiquitous search engine."Remember what it was like to search in 1998? You'd sit down and boot up your bulky computer, dial up on your squawky modem, type in some keywords, and get 10 blue links to websites that had those words. 

"The world has changed so much since then: billions of people have come online, the Web has grown exponentially, and now you can ask any question on the powerful little device in your pocket." Page and Brin set up shop in the garage of Susan Wojcicki -- now a senior Google executive -- in September 1998, around the time they incorporated their company. This week marks the 15th anniversary of their collaboration.