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Google eyes future

Google co-founder Sergey Brin demonstrates Google’s new wearable Internet glasses at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. (Associated Press)
Michael Liedtke Associated Press
Google co-founder Sergey Brin demonstrates Google’s new wearable Internet glasses at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. (Associated Press)

SAN FRANCISCO – Google is making prototypes of its futuristic, Internet-connected glasses available for people to test out.

Google announced “Project Glass” in April. Now the company is selling the device for $1,500 to people attending its annual conference in San Francisco for computer programmers. It will ship early next year and won’t be available for sale outside the three-day conference, Google I/O, which started Wednesday.

“This is new technology and we really want you to shape it,” Google co-founder Sergey Brin told about 6,000 attendees.

Brin told reporters that Google intends to sell the glasses for significantly less once the product is released to the mass market. He said Google hopes to start selling the device to consumers in early 2014.

With the glasses, directions to your destination or a text message from a friend can appear literally before your eyes. You can converse with friends in a video chat, take a photo or even buy a few things online as you walk around.