Image credit: Joanna Stern

Google Glass, those futuristic, Internet-connected glasses that show digital information right in front of your eyes, is almost ready for the company's chosen group of testers. Today Google announced that the Explorer Edition of Glass, a version just for early testers, will ship this month.

"This month Google hopes to ship Glass Explorer Edition, designed for the first people to examine the potential uses of Glass," a Google spokesperson confirmed to ABC News. "Developers can tinker with Glass and consumers can try it out in the real world."

The Explorer edition, which will cost $1,500, is available to those who signed up for the Explorer program last year at the Google I/O developer conference and those who applied for the #ifIhadglass social media contest. Google asked people on Twitter and Google Plus to submit ideas about what they would do if they had the glasses, which allow you to capture photos and videos right through the glasses. Google announced the 8,000 winners of the contest two weeks ago.

Google has also announced today some momentum in creating applications that work on the glasses. Google Ventures in partnership with venture capitalist firms Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced a program called "Glass Collective." The program will provide seed funding to start-ups and developers developing applications for Glass.

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"All of us involved in the Glass Collective are absolutely certain that developers are going to create thousands of ways for millions of people to use Glass and improve their lives and the world around them," Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, wrote in a blog post.

Google demoed some of the applications for Glass at SXSW last month. It showed off The New York Times app, which will read headlines aloud to the user and show photos, and Evernote, which allows you to take photos or record video and upload them right from the glasses to your Evernote account.

Google has said it aims to have a consumer version of Glass, which everyone can buy, by the end of the year.