• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, March 19, 2014

Google aims to bring watches back in vogue after people gave them up years ago with the emergence of mobile phones. On Tuesday the company introduced Android Wear, the operating system that will expand past Google Glass into other wearable technology. The first wearable devices powered by this system will be smartwatches, the kind wearers can interact with through a glance or a spoken word.

The data the device will collect with help from electronics and components will become insurmountable if advertising agencies and Google cannot sort through the signals. Google is working with consumer manufacturers Asus, HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung; chipmakers Broadcom, Imagination, Intel, Mediatek, and Qualcomm to bring the watch to market later this year through fashion brands like Fossil.

The watches will respond to voice search and commands, and textual information. Wearers will have access to a variety of apps, including health and fitness ones.

Say "Ok Google" to ask questions, like how many calories are in an banana, what time an airline  flight leaves, and the score of a baseball game. The apps will have the ability to connect wearers to a taxi service by saying "Call taxi."

Android Wear also will let people access and control other devices from their wrist like starting a music playlist on a phone, or Google cast a favorite movie to your TV.

Google is giving developers a chance to preview the software development kit by downloading a Developer Preview to tailor existing app notifications for watches powered by Android Wear.