Those of you who have been wanting Terminator-vision since the films first came out won’t have long to wait. The New York Times reports that Google is not only working on, but will be releasing “smart glasses” fitted with Android-based augmented reality software by the year’s end.

The NYT are citing “several Google employees familiar with the project,” – which is vague enough to merit some wariness.

Still, the paper’s reporting that the fancy futuristic glasses will be based on an Android OS, pack 3G or 4G connectivity, as well as GPS and a range of sensors that’ll be tied in to a low-res camera – which:

will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby.

They’re expected to cost “around the price of current smartphones.”  Which means they could cost anywhere between  R2 000 and R4 500. We also don’t know how these dudes are going to look, but hey it’s a fun new toy from Google, somebody’ll buy them anyway.

Google is said to be paying attention to potential privacy concerns, and “wants to ensure that people know if they are being recorded by someone wearing a pair of glasses with a built-in camera.” So it’s nice that they’re thinking about that.

[Source: NYT]