Google has been pretty up front about its plans for Google Glass — the company said the first "Explorer Edition" of its virtual reality headset would arrive early in 2013, and now the glasses themselves have shown up at the FCC. That said, it's not clear yet that these will be the glasses that end up shipping to developers who ordered a pair back at Google I/O last summer. The glasses appear to have 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi — though one of the FCC's filings only reveals 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, so it's hard to say for sure — and the latest Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy technology on board. Another conflict we've noticed is the charging method, as one filing lists a USB charger and another lists a "barrel" connector.

Perhaps more interesting is a note that indicates Glass will contain a "vibrating element" that will provide audio to the wearer "via contact with the user's head." We can't be sure until we see it ourselves, but that sound an awful lot like bone conduction technology, which would make a lot of sense for this product. If true, this corroborates a patent application Google filed for a "wearable computing device" with bone-conduction speakers. While the filings haven't revealed any other significant details, it's a good sign that this product might soon be making its way to the developers who dropped $1,500 down on one of Google's most ambitious products ever.

Sean Hollister contributed to this report.