Image credit: Google

Glasses that function like a smartphone? If you've been following Google news recently, you know it's not out of the realm of possibility.

Google plans to introduce what appear to be the glasses of the future by year's end, The New York Times' Nick Bilton wrote today.

According to unnamed sources, which the Times described as Google employees,  the glasses will be Android-based and include a small screen inches from the wearer's eye.  The glasses also will be sold to the public for $250 to $600.

"We are not going to comment on rumor or speculation," a Google spokesman told ABC News via email.

The glasses will reportedly have a 3G or 4G connection, several sensors and a built-in camera to watch the world in real time and relay information about locations and friends nearby.

One employee said the glasses would also use Google software products and display them in a "reality view."

Seth Weintraub, a blogger for 9to5Google, reported on the glasses in December and February.

Earlier this month, he reported that the display on the Google glasses would be on just one side and that the current navigation included head tilting in order to scroll and click.

Rob Enderle, the head tech analyst at his Enderle Group, said head-mounted displays like Google's glasses had been in the market for years.

He said, however, that earlier versions like a pair made by Sony nearly 10 years ago were $25,000, heavy and had a power supply five times that of today's smartphone. In addition, many of them also put the computer screen directly in front of the wearer's face, rendering one blind to the outside world.

"Google's glasses are tied to something we call 'augmented reality,'" Enderle told ABC News via email. "This takes virtual information and overlays it onto a real-world image."

"This could allow you to see in the dark, pick out things like powerlines, for instance, if you were flying a helicopter low or see an approaching Starbucks long before you got clear line of site," he said.

"I think this will be the most exciting technology product release this year," Weintraub wrote today.