Google Glass Explorer Program would be open to US-based adults on tax day.

Once a club for favored developers, Google’s Glass Explorer Program will open its doors to the majority on Tuesday, April 15, starting at 6 a.m. PDT.

Adults inside the US are eligible to affix, at a price of $1,500 plus tax — apropos considering April 15th is the deadline to file tax returns within the US. That sum will buy the newest version of Google Glass, the company’s somewhat coveted and surprisingly controversial computerized eyewear. This isn’t the overall consumer release, which presumably remains planned for later this year.

“Our Explorers are moms, bakers, surgeons, rockers, and every new Explorer has brought a brand new perspective that’s making Glass better,” Google said via a Google+ post. “But day by day we get requests from those of you who haven’t found a method into this system yet, and we need your feedback too. So in typical Explorer Program fashion, we’re trying something new.”

Previously Google allowed developers at Google I/O to enroll in its program and asked others seeking Glass to illustrate their worthiness by tweeting some high-minded or laudable planned use for the device at the side of the #ifihadglass hashtag.

Now the barrier to entry would be lowered, but only temporarily: Google says the variety of spots in its program is restricted.

So too is interest in using Glass. A Forrester report last year said that only 12% people online consumers could be eager about computerized eyeglasses like Glass. As some extent of comparison, 28% said they’d have an interest in wearing a computerized watch.

Google recently unveiled a version of Android suited to just any such watch. Its Android hardware partners are expected to release Android Wear watches later this year. Apple is additionally said to be engaged on a computerized watch.

Rather than seeking to convincing consumers to embrace something few seem to want, Google has started promoting Glass as a device for enterprise use. The corporate has launched an initiative called Glass At Work to woo developers engaged on projects which can bring Glass to the workplace.

Though Glass continues to be being offered only to individuals within the US, researchers within the UK obtained several Glass headsets and used them to check how Glass can be useful to Parkinson’s patients. Other pilot programs at medical institutions, which include the only at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, suggest that cup has a future in healthcare and other industries where professionals may benefit from technology that does not tax the hands.

To win over the public, Google should give you the chance to convince those that its $1,500 eyewear isn’t a logo of elitist excess, of disregard for privacy, or of social cluelessness.

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Thomas Claburn was writing about business and technology since 1996, for publications consisting of New Architect, PC Computing, InformationWeek, Salon, Wired, and Ziff Davis Smart Business. Before that, he worked in film and tv, having earned a not particularly useful … View Full Bio

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