A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the controversy surrounding
Google’s new Google Glasses. I really
hadn’t heard much about the glasses prior to finding the article and blogging
about it but it seems that Google is once again back in the news with the new
glasses. I found this article by Heather
Kelly of CNN at http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/10/tech/mobile/negative-google-glass-reactions/index.html?hpt=hp_bn5. According to the article a couple of the beta
testers were eating breakfast at a Panera in Florida when they were approached
by an angry customer. The man was quite
upset and felt that they were invading his privacy by wearing the glasses in
public. He even asked them how they
would feel if he were to record them while they ate. This reaction is drastically different from
what the beta testers were used to.
Typically they were approached by people that were curious and wanted to
try on the glasses, take photos or ask questions. Ironically the glasses were not on at the
time of the incident.
The article also points out other negative feelings of the
glasses. There have been cases in
Seattle of restaurants banning the wear of the glasses within their
establishment. There was an incident in
San Diego where a driver was pulled over and issued a traffic violation for
driving while distracted because the driver was wearing the glasses. There is even a group that is called “Stop
the Cyborgs” that are against the glasses and even offer free anti-glass art
and icons to businesses to ban the wear of the device. There is even a nickname for the wearers of
the glasses used by its proponents. It
is “Glassholes” which is not very flattering but funny in my opinion. There have even been federal lawmakers that
have expressed concern over the glasses and their impact on privacy.
According to the article, Google is trying to educate people
about the glasses even though the negative reaction is not the norm that the
wearers have experienced. According to
some of the wearers the concern that people are recording should be eased by
the fact that the glasses cannot be in record all of the time because the
battery would only last for about an hour while in record. They also pointed out that the glass cube in
the glasses is lit up when the device is in use. In order to record with the device the user
must either activate it with voice commands or by touching the glasses.
All in all from what was presented, the glasses do not offer
anything that a current smart phone offers other than the convenience of
recording what you are looking at. There
are ways to look like you are texting or on the internet and be recording
people. I’m sure in a couple of years
the technology will be more advanced and potentially of greater concern but as
of now it really isn’t much greater than that of what already exists. Either way the user of any technology will
figure out a way to use it for evil if that is what they chose to do.
