Thoughts After a Week with Google Glass

http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1720

by pascal07 • 13 years ago

31 50 13 years ago

gushie• 13 years ago

I've seen several comments around the web from privacy advocates along the lines of "I'll punch anyone I see wearing glass" or "I'll rip it right off your face" etc.

Have there been any reports of this happening yet?

coolsunglasses• 13 years ago

You expect Internet Tough Guy Syndrome to manifest as physical action?

Spend a week in one of the Anarchist newsgroups on Usenet during the early 90s to see how far that usually goes. ;)

Edit: Bonus - you'll understand why Fight Club was so popular.

mayanksinghal• 13 years ago

I certainly hope not. I was quite shocked to see such comments on Hacker News. While I can understand disapproval for the device, but a proud proclamation that someone would physically abuse another person, that seems out of place and very wrong.

treerock• 13 years ago

http://eyetap.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/physical-assault-by-mcd...

Not Google Glass, but similar.

kimlelly2• 13 years ago

I overheard a guy at the supermarket checkout, he was saying to what seemed to be his GF that he would actually kick people with a Glass from behind because that way he wouldn't be recorded... not very happy thoughts, I have to admit.

What's true though is that we're taking a very dangerous road here:

1. Google Glass means total and permanent surveillance

2. Total and permanent surveillance means people will be afraid to use their right to freedom of expression (out of fear of blowback)

3. Suppressed freedom of expression means: Democracy is dead and a police state becomes very realistic.

Who in their right mind wants that?

EnderMB• 13 years ago

This came up in a pub a few days ago, and one guy piped up to say "If I see anyone staring at me while wearing one I'll hit them".

The guy next to him laughed and said "Brilliant, then he can kick your ass, film it, and put it all over YouTube".

When it comes out, I'm going to buy one, and I'm going to wear it everywhere. I'm willing to bet that no one says anything, and that those that think about doing so won't. People say whatever they want on the Internet, or around friends at the pub, but in the real world they won't bat an eyelid.

RivieraKid6• 13 years ago

Thay may not complain directly, but they may start disliking you, stop associating with you etc.

RivieraKid6• 13 years ago

I think that's a bit of an overstatement, but some people can react similarly like in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDumyGJdLrU (one guy goes around and videotapes people). Of course, I'm not saying that what the guy does is equivalent to wearing Google Glass. Considering that the camera indicator can be disabled, I wouldn't be comfortable around people with Glasses.

uptown• 13 years ago

Like cellphones, I expect they'll become objects targeted by thieves - only it's potentially easier to steal since it's sitting on somebody's head, and their focus may not be on their surroundings if they're interacting with Glass.

hoi• 13 years ago

Locker rooms will never be the same with Google Glass. Peeping at ATMs when someone is using it... I can already see the criminal class thinking up a multitude of uses for it.

On the plus side, it would make an excellent exercise companion. Heart rate monitor, current speed, calories burned etc.

prawn2• 13 years ago

"Peeping at ATMs when someone is using it"

Couldn't they already do this easily with small cameras disguised in pens, buttons, etc? Or a zoom lens from afar watching an ATM?

As for locker rooms, watch out for Robert Scoble in the shower: http://www.wired.com/business/2013/05/inherent-dorkiness-of-...

Drakim• 13 years ago

I don't understand. The glasses are in front of your eyes, so anything you record you would also be seeing naturally with your eyes. If you can record somebody's ATM button presses with the classes, you can simply see the presses with your own eyes.

threeseed2• 13 years ago

We don't yet know what the specifications of the consumer Glass will be. It could have digital/optical zoom in the camera. Also a program could be written to recognise a person's fingers and make statistical assumptions about the keys they would be most likely to press.

But I think the ATM argument is moot anyway. Far easier to skim the card or simply rob them.

RivieraKid6• 13 years ago

Brain is not a recording device, it has a shitty visual memory, you can't show the recording to your friends or share on YouTube.

Imagine that half the people in a locker room were always videotaping using normal cameras – do you expect everyone to be comfortable with that?

TheCondor• 13 years ago

That's just technology and cameras. Right now they are good enough and cheap enough that one is in every pocket on your phone. 10 years and they be smaller, faster, better, and cheaper and there will be more. At some point they won't be noticable and higher fidelity then you can imagine. Good? Bad? Yep both and then there are the things we haven't thought of. It's just how technogy is.

There are already websites dedicated to catching a glimpse of a woman's breast as she goes about life (the "nip slip") there will be full hd video of people doing all sorts of embarrassing things when they thought others weren't looking. The locker room might actually be safe, there is still a moral code there and not a lot of phone camera porn

zacharypinter• 13 years ago

"Peeping at ATMs when someone is using it..."

I think that's more of an argument against ATMs :)

steeve• 13 years ago

Tried them a few months ago, my impression/fear was that they would:

1- go the Segway route (== dorky)

2- go the bluetooth headset route (== douche)

Sad, maybe, but then again the Segway is so awesome to use!

bane2• 13 years ago

As far as head mounted displays go, they appear to be among the smallest on the market. The Vuzix M100 [1] see marketed and styled much more towards the douche demographic. While the Golden-i [2] ends up looking like an orthodontics device marketed to dorks. And there really isn't much in between. Epson's display [3] blocks your vision so that's unworkable, and it looks like the wrap around sunglasses my grandmother wears while gardening.

1 - http://www.vuzix.com/augmented-reality/products_m100ag.html

2 - http://www.mygoldeni.com/gallery/

3 - http://www.qrcodepress.com/augmented-reality-glasses-may-fin...

kimlelly2• 13 years ago

Well, the more I think about it, the more see that being a "dork" or a "douche" is not the problem here:

The problem is that it's a disguised projection of power onto others.

The user is implicitely saying to people around him:

"I can film you and you can't/don't/won't - I can show this to the whole Internet whenever I feel like it. In other words, I control your behavior."

So, Google basically wants you to suck up to the tag line: "Get more power, at the cost of the people around you."

In this context, physical aggression kind of begins sounding plausible, actually...

Djehngo2• 13 years ago

All of which were possible with a phone camera, the only difference with glass is that it's harder to know if the device is recorded.

bane2• 13 years ago

I think glass as a physical product looks cool, and I don't yet have enough paranoia as part of my day-to-day that I'd feel weird about somebody wearing it around me. But I can't see wearing one all day, there's simply no use-case I can think of for me to have one on while sitting at my desk at work.

I like the idea of a head mounted display that doesn't block your vision. It's too bad it's not a true hud. That's going to limit the applications tremendously.

I like having a camera on it. I agree with this article's assessment about the quality of the pictures.

It's great getting directions while hands free, I can almost get those today on my phone with a pair of headphones. Once I set the destination, it becomes hands free. I can even listen to music/podcast at the same time and even have my phone record my distance with an exercise app.

About audio only I can hear, headphones work fine for this and it doesn't feel like a brain worm is burrowing in.

It's almost like you can get 90% of the glass experience with your phone in your pocket, a pair of $10 headphones and a bluetooth google now button on your wrist (fictional). I'd say add in a clip on display or something for a hud but there appears to be incredibly few of those around...and the ones that are out there are bulky enough to by mistaken for a orthodontics headgear...

and I guess that's where glass really is great, I just wish I could repurpose the display a bit...

it's kind of "meh" right now, but we'll see where the apps take it

prawn2• 13 years ago

I think the visual component is important, but you could otherwise get reasonable mileage I assume by having a smartphone, earpiece and Myo [https://getmyo.com/] cooperating.

WA• 13 years ago

I think they look really lame. Good side is that at some point in the future, there'll be a better looking product and we can look back at these old photos from 2013 where people were running around with "bricks" on their glasses and above the ear.

kyro• 13 years ago

Can you imagine what Glass can do to medicine? Imagine a doctor wearing Glass, repeating the patient's symptoms and being given a dynamically updated list of differential diagnoses with formulary medications and next steps in management based on the most recent research. It would be the perfect assistant. I get hot and sweaty just thinking about it.

krenoten• 13 years ago

At what point does the doctor become unnecessary? Someone or some thing needs to know how to interpret the patient's symptoms accurately, but I imagine after expert systems focusing on symptom-> recommendation become commonplace that the next step will be to eliminate the role of the interpreter.

tellarin• 13 years ago

This is basically the same as expert systems back in the 70s, with a cooler UX.

Unfortunately it will probably fail again due to mostly the same reasons, difficulty in knowledge collection and user rejection (by medics, for example) as they feel to "proud" to be "replaced" by a machine. :-/

threeseed2• 13 years ago

It sounds dreadful. I would much rather they be using a tablet so they can be 110% sure that the symptoms and diagnoses are clearly articulated. Having them rushed across a tiny screen or read out sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

Devices like Glass should only be used for small, simple problems where a wrong answer isn't going to result in someone dying.

waterlesscloud2• 13 years ago

I'm doing the PGM class on Coursera, and Prof. Koller mentioned that one reason the expert diagnosis systems never took off in the 90s was that it was hard to integrate them into the doctor's workflow.

She also mentioned that situation was changing with the advent of usable tablets, so maybe we'll see some progress here.

pizu• 13 years ago

Patient examination is rarely about lack of information to complex research, but really about the art of listening and empathy. Therefore, Google Glass like device will most likely distract the doctor from focusing and empathizing with the patient.

wodow4• 13 years ago

Amazing that they were allowed on the casino floor. I would have expected different from a Vegas operation.

waterlesscloud2• 13 years ago

I'm pretty sure they fall under existing bans. Casino personnel probably just don't recognize them for what they are yet.

wodow4• 13 years ago

I would have expected that their highly paid, highly resourced security teams (watching via the CCTV, all the time) don't have up-to-the-day information on possible spy camera tech available to consumers.

wodow4• 13 years ago

> Where to voice control: while the voice recognition is great, there are few places you actually can make use of it. At the office and in public talking out loud to your glasses is not an option.

Yet!

In 2002 I clearly remember being shocked by a cyclist screaming in to his bluetooth headset whilst careering down the road. That's an extreme example, but talking "to yourself" whilst walking is already common in some cities.

Thoughts After a Week with Google Glass

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