As it has with previous digital developments, Fairfax Media is using its overseas readers as guinea pigs with an experiment with Google Glass.

The Australian publisher is trialling a Glass app for Sydney Morning Herald readers outside the country, prior to its launch in the home market.

Readers will be able to access news, sports and business coverage in the UK and North America, with mobile director Stefan Savva saying it was part of a policy to deliver Fairfax content to readers “where and when they wanted it”.

Top stories are summarized to make them more accessible to Glass users, with

text-to-voice technology delivering content to the device’s speakers.

The app is an outcome of Fairfax’s Ignition innovation programme – designed to enable the market potential of new products to be assessed – and responds to the trend of being connected constantly through devices such as Glass, car systems and location services.