According to Business Insider and The Wall Street Journal, Google has created a new name for employees working on its Google Glass eyewear: Project Aura. The name treads very closely to Project Ara, Google's other forward-looking technology effort that aims to build a modular smartphone with easily swappable components. Ivy Ross, who joined Google's ranks in 2014 to head up the Glass initiative, is now leading the Aura group and answers directly to Tony Fadell.

Further, the Journal notes that Google has recently been on a hiring spree, recruiting engineers, developers, and project managers who previously worked for Amazon's Lab126 hardware division before the online retailer gutted that team with deep layoffs in August. Even more interesting, it seems Glass is not Project Aura's lone focus; LinkedIn profiles reveal that the team is working on wearables "beyond" the eyewear that Fadell and Co. are trying to reshape into a viable consumer product. A fully redesigned take on Glass "remains at least a year away" according to the Journal. Separate from that, Google has been testing a slightly revised Glass unit that focuses on specific industries like manufacturing.