Raise the Roof
On top of the 110-foot Moscone West building in San Francisco, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, left, offered Google I/O attendees a step-by-step recreation of the previous day’s Project Glass stunt demo. The recreated stunt was captured in HD video but also transmitted as a Google+ hangout via the Google Glass augmented reality shades Brin is sporting in this shot.
Oh, The Insanity!
The Airship Ventures Zeppelin, seen here during the initial jump, had to fly ahead of some coastal fog on Thursday as the skydiving team prepared to repeat their leap into thin air.
Almost Jump Time
The skydivers conferred with Brin and the rooftop team, alerting them to the 30-second pre-jump point. Google equipped each individual skydiver with different Wi-Fi equipment for redundancy’s sake in what Brin called a "very challenging" wireless environment.. People on the building’s roof beamed up signals into the sky via hand-held transmitters.
Taking Flight
And they’re away! The skydivers used their wingsuits to navigate crosswinds and updrafts as they maneuvered themselves to open their chutes for a landing on Moscone West. This shot from Wednesday shows how the Google+ Hangout feed looks, with each Google Glass wearer’s view shown on the screen.
Bird’s Eye View
Another view of a wingsuit-equipped skydiver on Thursday from the point of view of one of his teammates showed San Francisco’s downtown and the Oakland Bay Bridge in the background. Brin said Google cooked up the idea to pull of this stunt only a couple of months ago and had to get numerous authorities to sign off on it.
Touchdown!
It’s high fives all around as the skydiving team once again lands safely on the roof of Moscone West with their package.
A Successful Hand-Off
The skydiving team hands off a package to the next group of couriers, a crew of rooftop racing stunt bike daredevils.
Urban Mountaineering
Phase Three of the Google Glass delivery system involved rappelling down the side of Moscone West to get the package to a final group of couriers on the third floor of the building.
End of the Road
On the final leg of a thrilling journey, a second team of stunt bikers raced through the crowd at Google I/O to deliver the package to the keynote stage—which happened during the Day One demo but not in Thursday’s recreation of the stunt.
The Google Has Landed
Brin received word atop Moscone West that the Project Glass package had been delivered, signaling the start of the breakout sessions and lunch.