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It’s about time: By the end of 2012, Google will launch a pair of Android-powered, augmented reality, head-up display (HUD) glasses. Anonymous Google employees, speaking to The New York Times, say that the glasses will resemble a pair of Oakley Thumps (pictured above), will have 3G or 4G connectivity, a forward-facing camera, GPS, and a full array of movement sensors. They will cost “around the price of current smartphones.”

Augmented reality, or so we are made to believe. But Google isn't the only outfit interested in breaking down the barriers between our technology and our bodies. The US military, predictably, is one step ahead of the technology giant: its far-out research arm, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has augmented reality contact lenses in the works. Why wear fancy tricked out glasses when you could put all that technology directly on your eye?

In the dystopian future, you won't even know when a police officer is looking at your complete government dossier when he is looking at you.