SMARTPHONE visors known as "Google Glass" have gone on sale in the UK for the first time.

Tech fans will now be able to buy the eyeware device for £1000 from the Glass website as part of the product's Explorer Program, the name Google gives to users of the device.

The project allows anyone over 18 to buy the prototype headset, effectively a wearable computer, and test it out while it is still in development.

It comes only a month after the head gear, which is controversial because of its ability to shoot video and take photographs discreetly, was rolled out to normal consumers in the US, having previously only been available to Google's software developers.

Ivy Ross, the head of Google Glass, said: "Technology is at its best when it fits seamlessly into our lives. Our goal for Glass is exactly that - to make it easier to bring people the technology they rely on without drawing them out of the moment."

Glass is a result of the company's Google X lab, where staff are encouraged to use "moonshot thinking" in order to create new products.