Hugo Barra, Director of Google Product Management, holds up the new Google Nexus7 tablet at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, Wednesday, June 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
June 27, 2012 - 2:54 PM
SAN FRANCISCO - Google is making prototypes of its futuristic, Internet-connected glasses available for some computer programmers to try out.
The company is selling it for $1,500 to people attending its annual conference in San Francisco for software developers. It will ship early next year and won't be available for sale outside the conference.
"This is new technology and we really want you to shape it," Google co-founder Sergey Brin said Wednesday. "We want to get it out into the hands of passionate people as soon as possible."
With the glasses, directions to your destination can appear literally before your eyes. You can talk to friends over video chat, take a photo or even buy a few things online as you walk around.
In development for a couple of years, the project is the brainchild of Google X, the online search-leader's secret facility that spawned the self-driving car and could one day let people ride elevators into space.
Google demonstrated the device, known as Project Glass, by having parachutists jump out of a plane above San Francisco. The audience got live video feeds from their glasses as they descended to land on the roof of the Moscone Center, the location of the conference.
Google had given a glimpse of the technology in a video posted earlier this year.
News from © The Associated Press, 2012