While Google’s latest project – developing eyewear that integrates computer technology – may have the technology world buzzing, a recent story by the U.K.’s The Guardian points out that a U of T Engineering professor did it first.

Professor Steve Mann of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, considered the father of wearable computing, started to develop prototypes of such devices beginning in the 1980s while still a graduate student at MIT. His glasses provide an augmented reality for users that integrates computer-generated data with the actual surroundings.

The article follows on the publication last week of a new chapter on wearable computing authored by Professor Mann for Interaction-Design.org, an online scholarly encyclopedia dedicated to human-computer interaction.

You can read The Guardian’s story on their website or learn more about the field by reading Professor Mann’s encyclopedia chapter.