It?s a place where your refrigerator could be connected to the internet, so it could order groceries when they ran low. Your dinner plate could post to a social network what you?re eating. Your robot could go to the office while you stay home in your pajamas. And you could, perhaps, take an elevator to outer space.
These are just a few of the dreams being chased at Google X, the clandestine lab where Google is tackling a list of 100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas. In interviews, a dozen people discussed the list; some work at the lab or elsewhere at Google, and some have been briefed on the project. But none would speak for attribution because Google is so secretive about the effort that many employees do not even know the lab exists.
Although most of the ideas on the list are in the conceptual stage, nowhere near reality, two people briefed on the project said one product would be released by the end of the year, although they would not say what it was.
?They?re pretty far out in front right now,? said Rodney Brooks, a professor emeritus at MIT?s computer science and artificial intelligence lab and founder of Heartland Robotics. ?But Google?s not an ordinary company, so almost nothing applies.?
At most Silicon Valley firms, innovation is developing online apps or ads, but Google sees itself as different. Even as it has grown into a major corporation and tech start-ups are biting at its heels, the lab reflects its ambition to be a place where ground-breaking R&D is happening, in the tradition of Xerox PARC, which developed the modern personal computer in the 1970s.
Robots figure prominently in many of the ideas. They have long captured the imagination of Google engineers, including Sergey Brin, Google?s co-founder, who has already attended a conference through a robot instead of in the flesh.
Fleets of robots could assist Google with collecting information, replacing the humans for Google Maps, say people with knowledge of Google X. Robots born in the lab could be destined for homes and offices, where they could assist with mundane tasks or allow people to work remotely, they say.
Other ideas involve what Google referred to as the ?web of things? at its software developers conference in May ? a way of connecting objects to the internet. Every time anyone uses the web, it benefits Google, the company argued, so it could be good for Google if home accessories and wearable objects, not just computers, were connected.
