By Stephen Schenck

For all the brief previews Google’s made of its Project Glass augmented reality system so far, it’s been extremely cagey when it comes to details about how the glasses will arrive. The best we’ve managed to get so far are comments that a 2013 release might be on the outside edge of possibilities, but Google’s been hesitant to even remotely commit to anything. We’re still at a loss for when a commercial release might be viable, but at Google I/O today the company revealed that a developer’s edition is definitely coming out next year, with a whopping $1500 price tag.

Availability for this developer’s model will be extremely limited, constrained to Google I/O attendees living in the US. Google’s very clear that this is no finished project, and that it’s only for the brave (or foolhardy) who knowingly want the bleeding-edge experience of trying out some in-development gear.

As Google continues to show Project Glass off, it’s become clear that imagery is a huge part of its feature set, and the ability to quickly capture pictures and video without needing to pull out a phone or camera could be its big selling point. On its own, that doesn’t exactly sound like its worth $1500, but the glasses have a lot of maturing to do before they’re ready for sale, so we very well could see them take on some additional roles.

If you had the chance to get your hands on one of these early Project Glass models for the princely sum Google has in mind, would you seize the opportunity, or do you plan on taking a more hands-off approach (no pun intended) until work on the glasses is full completed?

Source: Google
Via: CNET