Uh-oh Google Glassholes: Sugar daddy Intel strokes HUD goggles upstart

Intel has joined an industry-wide drive to make hopeless geeks look totally ridiculous - by ploughing cash into wearable-computing startup Recon Instruments.

Chipzilla has made a "significant investment" into Recon, which makes head-mounted displays for sporty types. Intel could end up squaring off with Google, the maker of experimental all-seeing, all-knowing camera-fitted goggles that beam information into your eyeball.

Intel's dosh will help Recon develop new products and expand its global marketing and sales operation, we're told.

“Wearable computing is a major, accelerating phenomenon that redefines how we use and interact with information,” gushed Mike Bell, vice-president and general manager of the new devices group at Intel.

Canadian biz Recon burst into life in 2008 and sells "a heads-up display (HUD) with a state-of-the-art micro-computer and sensor suite" aimed at people who are good at sport, which involves prolonged amounts of competitive exercise.

Interestingly enough, the company's technology uses Android, the mobile operating system made by Google and used in the Glass prototypes. ®