Google Glass Prototype To Be Made Available In Britain

Glass, the controversial high tech glasses that caused a stir last year in the US will be arriving on British shores it has been revealed.

The new gadget, a cross between a pair of spectacles and a smartphone, will go on sale at £1,000. The device is described by Google as "a wearable computing device designed to make it easier to bring people the technology they need without distracting them from the world around them."

Glass users have the ability to search online, read messages and perform other commands using a tiny screen that appears in the corner of the wearer's right eye. The device is operated using a mixture of voice commands, eye movement and touching the frame of the glasses.

Initially a few thousand people will be able to road test an early version of Glass. Google will gather information from these early adopters to iron out bugs and flaws in the device before it goes on sale.

Head of Google Glass, Ivy Ross said "We want it to get it better before it goes on sale to a wider audience." He added, most current users are using Glass to record videos and take pictures and get directions through the map feature.

Many are excited about the potential of Google Glass, but we have already seen fierce opposition to the technology. The term "Glassholes" has appeared in the US to describe users of the device who user it in an intrusive, obnoxious or creepy fashion. There have been several cases where people have been told to leave restaurants and other social environments for using the device inappropriately. Others have banned wearing of the Glass outright.

Earlier in the year a ticket was issued to a motorist in California for wearing Google Glass while driving. The case was later dismissed.

Google have released an etiquette guide for users, offering advice such as "standing alone in the corner of a room staring at people is not going to win you any friends". Whether people in the UK will have the same reaction we have seen across the pond is yet to be seen.

Glass will be available in a number of framing options, and can be test driven at Google's new £1 billion UK headquarters near King's Cross, London.