Google To Have 'Smart Glasses' By End Of 2012

You could soon be able to see where your friends and, how much farther you have to go until you reach the building for your job interview, and other important information just by walking around. That may sound like the kind of stuff you can get by taking out your smartphone and opening a couple apps, but Google wants it to happen right in front of your face. Yeah, the company is planning on releasing its own brand of futuristing glasses with heads-up displays by the end of the year.

The company has not officially announced anything about the project, but an employee with loose lips has been quoted as saying the smart glasses will come fully equipped with mobile broadband connectivity, GPS functionality, and a built-in digital camera. Wearing the glasses will essentially be like grabbing all the locally relevant information you can get on an Android phone and augmenting it into what you actually see right in front of your face.

The software powering the glasses is based on Android, and each pair is set to retail in the range of $250 – $600. That is quite a range, to be sure, and it's unclear if Google plans to offer a wide variety of models or if there will only be one universal pair. The cameras will reportedly have built-in sensors and will adjust the information based on user movement. This kind of stuff has been on display at trade shows for years, but we've never seen it actually materialized. If anyone can make it happen, it's Google.

[via NY Times]