Google Glasses with built-in Terminator-style computer displays 'could be on sale soon', says insider

* Fighter-plane-style heads-up display in front of one eye
* Mouse pointer moved by tilting the head
* Built-in camera and Android operating system
* Prototype device 'could be on sale soon'

By Rob Waugh

Google is to unveil a pair of hi-tech glasses with a built-in screen - and the Android device could be on sale soon, says a company insider.

Hi-tech 'heads up display' glasses have been rumoured to be under development at Google's secret 'Google X' lab for months.

Now sources close to site 9to5Google claim to have seen a prototype, which looks like Oakley's Thump MP3 player headset.

The glasses will be armed with cameras, an Android operating system, and could be on sale soon, the source said.

Google specialist Seth Weintraub says, 'Our tipster has now seen a prototype and said it looks something like Oakley Thumps. These glasses, we heard, have a front-facing camera used to gather information and could aid in augmented reality apps.'

'The heads up display (HUD) is only for one eye and on the side. I

The navigation system currently used is a head tilting-to scroll and click. We are told it is very quick to learn.'

'Perhaps most interesting is that Google is currently deciding on how it wants to release these glasses, even though the product is still a very long way from being finished.'

'It is currently a secret with only a few geeky types knowing about it, and Google is apparently unsure if it will have mass-market appeal.'

Last month, Weintraub reported that Google had recently employed MIT wearable computing specialist Richard DuVal, whose PhD was entitled The Memory Glasses.

Various prototype wearable screens have been demonstrated by companies such as Motorola, so the idea is not as out-there as it sounds.

The glasses will run a version of Google's Android - which ties in with reports in the New York Times about the company's ambition to export its popular phone operating system to wearable computers.

In glasses, though, Google's Android search box - which already uses GPS to find nearby 'answers' to searches - could be even more powerful.

Instead of having to look in the mapping application to 'see' where things are, the information could simply be layered on top.

With Google working on a voice-control system similar to Apple's Siri, such devices could do away with the need for a touchscreen at all.

The device is reportedly being developed with Google's 'Google X' laboratory.

Google has already admitted to the existence of the secret laboratory - described as 'Google X' - where scientists work on wild, out-there ideas.

Most Google employees are not even aware the lab exists.

'Google has always invested in speculative R&D projects - it's part of our DNA,' said a spokesperson.
'While the possibilities are incredibly exciting, the sums involved are very small by comparison to the investments we make in our core businesses. In terms of details, we don't comment on speculation.'

The lab is reportedly located in Google's Mountain View, California headquarters - known as 'the Googleplex'.

Engineers are free to work on projects such as connected fridges that order groceries when they run low - or even tableware that can connect to social networks.

Other Google engineers have reportedly researched ideas as far-out as elevators to space.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin is reportedly deeply involved in the lab. It's known, for example, that his business card is simply a piece of silvery metal decorated with the letter X.

Brin, a robot enthusiast, once attended a conference via a robot with a screen showing his face.
It's not unusual for tech companies to have 'ideas labs' hidden away from their ordinary workers - at Apple, for instance, Jonathan Ive's design lab where devices such as iPads are perfected, is guarded as if it was a weapons facility.

Google X, though, is far less conservative than Ive's design lab.

The lab is reportedly investigating the idea of people 'working from home' via robots with screens for 'faces' - an idea also being tested by legendary game developer Richard Garriott.

It's not alien to the company - which also has a fleet of self-driving cars that have clocked up more than 100,000 miles on Californian roads so far.

Google is now rumoured to be readying the 'self drive' vehicles for sale

Famously, Google always allowed engineers '20 per cent time' - a portion of their working hours devoted to more experimental projects.

While Google 'culled' 10 of its less successful experimental projects earlier this year, and also got rid of its 'Labs' section, where ordinary users could test experimental products, some thought that the company was focusing on its 'core' business, and eliminating its more zany ideas.

But it seems '20 per cent time' is alive and well - and living in the Google X lab.