Have smart glasses finally hit an inflection point?
8 points by levlaz
8 points by levlaz
I hope it never becomes polite to wear cameras on your face as you walk around, regardless of how stylish they may look. If your smart glasses are prescription and you “can’t” take them off, are you allowed in a public toilet?
The toilet panic has always been a bit of an odd one to me. In a public men’s room, you see clothed backs at urinals and closed stall doors with feet under them. Is the fear that the Glasshole (I remember this exact same panic back when Glass came out) will lean his head over the divider at the urinal to get a pecker peep, or that he’ll hoist himself up over the top of the stall door to watch you poop? Those would be deeply unacceptable behaviors without smart glasses on! Both would also be much easier to accomplish discreetly using a smartphone.
While I cannot fathom how this could possibly be in good faith, let’s assume that it is for a moment. If not the public toilet, what about the gym? What about the locker room at the gym, where people often change clothes and shower? What about in the steam room?
At least with a smartphone camera you have to hold a device and point it vaguely in the direction of the person whose privacy you are violating. These glasses would pass for literal spy equipment in films, built surreptitiously into something routine, with no indication of whether someone is filming you or not.
Even in if it’s not in an area where people should absolutely have an iron clad expectation of at least some privacy and boundaries, why is it acceptable to film the barista serving you coffee? It’s all frankly just gross. It’s not a positive development for society at all.
It was actually 100% in good faith, because the bathroom case is one that’s come up constantly since Glass and has always seemed like a non-issue.
A gym locker room is a much better situation to discuss! It would be totally inappropriate there. I’d say that anyone wearing smart glasses had better take them off before going into a locker room – and if you’re so profoundly visually impaired that you can’t function without them, you should have a pair of dumb glasses on you too.
This is going to have to be accomplished through societal norms and expectations, because the technological cat is out of the bag – you can get a pair of camera glasses on AliExpress for $100. I’d really like to discuss it further but have to get out the door soon, apologies for a shorter reply than I think it deserves.
Even in if it’s not in an area where people should absolutely have an iron clad expectation of at least some privacy and boundaries, why is it acceptable to film the barista serving you coffee? It’s all frankly just gross. It’s not a positive development for society at all.
Hard agree. A polite person would ask permission before filming something like that and sharing it wherever… and there should be a social stigma against surreptitiously doing so.
I live in a jurisdiction where you are allowed to record a conversation you’re a part of, but you’re not allowed to record a conversation between others unless you get explicit, informed consent. Before recording a meeting, you have to get informed consent from all participants, and you are only allowed to ever record people in public places - in any private property or area not immediately accessible to the general public, recording is only allowed if everyone present has given explicit, informed consent. A class in the educational system can only be recorded if everyone present has consented to being recorded.
All of this is going to be, ahem, a bit of a challenge for users of smartglasses.
All of this is going to be, ahem, a bit of a challenge for users of smartglasses.
I think that if, in the context of jurisdictions like the one you describe, smartglasses are to be allowed at all, the gate will probably need to move from recording to publishing. i.e. you can record for your own future reference, but it requires permission from everyone present to publish.
I don’t know how practical that is. But I do think it’d be consistent in spirit; if actual recordings are prohibited, should you be allowed to take notes, for example?
It’s an interesting question, the arc of technological progress makes this type of tech seem inevitable in the future. I can imagine a lot of conflicts in society. We see it today with basic smart phones and cameras in public (i.e all the “first amendment audit” videos floating around on youtube)
I want glasses with a monitor built in so my laptop can be only keyboard shaped. I don’t want my glasses owned by a tech company.
I also want this, so much. My desk area is fairly small, and I need to be able to work other places anyway. It’d be awesome to ditch the big monitors but be able to work wherever I want as if I had them. Also, I kind of think if I could have a display that was only glasses, my “laptop” could have/be a big chonky 10keyless mechanical keyboard, which would make me happy.