Google was awarded design patents on Tuesday for its Project Glass browser glasses. Project Glass is the company's first venture into wearable computing.

The patents for "wearable display device frame" were filed in October. They are claims for the design of the glasses now in use by some Google employees.

Two of the patents, which were first noticed by the blog Engadget, were awarded to Maj Isabelle Olsson and Matthew Martin,  designers working on Google's Project Glass.  Another related patent was issued to Ms. Olsson and Mitchell Joseph Heinrich. All three patents were assigned to Google.

Although information on the patents is sparse, the images used for the filing are almost identical in appearance to the prototype version Google has shown: a polished and well-designed pair of wrap-around glasses with a clear display that sits above the eye.

Some Google employees, including Sergey Brin, one of the company's co-founders, have been seen out in the wild with the glasses.

As the company explained last month when Project Glass had it debut, the glasses can stream information to the lenses and allow the wearer to send and receive messages through voice commands. There is also a built-in camera to record video and take pictures.