Smart glasses - arent they just pervy?

[Mazinbrum]

Would any of you wear smart glasses? If I saw anyone wearing these I'd be very wary and reluctant to interact with them and I'd never wear them myself. People recording everything on mobiles is bad enough but at least its more difficult to surreptitiously take photos and record you.

[CSR Performance]

I'm about to buy some. Although that's because they now have the ability to enhance hearing via microphone and bone conduction. No intention of recording with them.

They have an LED light on the front when recording so its hardly going to be surreptitious.

[Mazinbrum]

CSR Performance said:

I'm about to buy some. Although that's because they now have the ability to enhance hearing via microphone and bone conduction. No intention of recording with them.

They have an LED light on the front when recording so its hardly going to be surreptitious.

That's a great use for but I'm sure wearers will be disabling the LED.

[Davie]

I've been very suspicious having been shown a pair (so to speak) whilst working in an opticians. Then the lady demonstrating them then pointed out she had a pair on too - I never even noticed. They were slightly chunkier framed but not obviously so.

I recently took my 5yr old daughter to the toilet in Morrisons (other shops are available) and as we went in, a guy came out wearing similar styled glasses... slightly tinted... and it struck me as odd as it's February, in Scotland.

Possibly nothing but it's the uncertainty that makes them quite unnerving.

Edited by Davie on Wednesday 18th February 19:13

[Matty_]

Wearable mini cameras hidden in caps and buttons have been a thing for ages. If someone wanted to record you for nefarious reasons, there were other ways to do it in the past. If anything these are *more* obvious.

[Ham_and_Jam]

Matty_ said:

Wearable mini cameras hidden in caps and buttons have been a thing for ages. If someone wanted to record you for nefarious reasons, there were other ways to do it in the past. If anything these are *more* obvious.

Thats all very well and good, but I don’t think I would be happy in some private situations if I noticed someone wearing glasses with cameras / recording ability.

Its the same as when I see people with cameras / selfie sticks doing pieces to camera, I actively avoid them. At least these people are very noticeable and can be avoided

[Panamax]

WTF is anyone going to record that you're embarrassed about?

I always have my doubts about the guys standing at the urinals with their phones out...

[cliffords]

I have also tried a pair in place of hearing aids . I wear glasses anyway and I need hearing aids now .
I think I will go for them after a bit more research.
The ones I tried, I didn't even know they had cameras options.

[miniman]

cliffords said:

I have also tried a pair in place of hearing aids . I wear glasses anyway and I need hearing aids now .
I think I will go for them after a bit more research.
The ones I tried, I didn't even know they had cameras options.

You might have tried Nuance which are hearing correction only and designed specifically for it. They are very good particularly for early hearing loss as they will amplify what you’re looking at and not the surroundings.

I have a pair of Ray-Ban Meta. Very useful for ad-hoc photos and videos, direction finding and some neat AI integration. The V2 version gives a useable battery life of around 8 hours. I didn’t think I’d enjoy them but they are pretty good.

There’s certainly some bad press about creepy people being creepy but I’d refer back to the good old Duke of Edinburgh who said, if someone gets beaten to death with a cricket bat, do we ban cricket?

[dxg]

Here's a PH-related example of their usefulness that's been doing the rounds over the last few days:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Miata/comments/1r51h1m/m2...

[Ham_and_Jam]

Panamax said:

WTF is anyone going to record that you're embarrassed about?

Im not embarrassed, just don’t want my image plastered on the internet.

Generally people who record in public using selfie stick type stuff upload to social media. I don’t want to be there. It’s my personal choice.

I would imagine people with glasses with cameras may have the same motivation. No problem with that, that’s there choice. Just leave me out.

[Alorotom]

There are a lot of mods for them already to disable the LED ring indicator (from sticker to cover it, to hardward mods).

Personally I am not too bothered, the amount of filiming that takes place everywhere is insane and unavoidable for the vast majority of the time anyways - plus its not like I am being identified in the footage or images (as it currently stands, I appreciate thats a future iteration) and I dont tend to be making a fool of myself in public.

It feels like this is similar to the furore when camera-phones started to become ubiquitous.

[CSR Performance]

Mazinbrum said:

That's a great use for but I'm sure wearers will be disabling the LED.

If you cover the LED then they won't start recording. If someone is going to lengths to get around that with hardware mods, they are obviously determined enough to carry out whatever they are planning anyway and would find a way whether these smart glasses exist or not.

[Monsterlime]

I really want a pair for reading - the ones that have the screens built-in, not bothered by cameras. They aren't quite there yet, and while some AR glasses seem to be ok for reading they wouldn't be something I could wear all the time.

The Even Realities look like the closest to what I want, but don't have an actual reading app yet.

[ChocolateFrog]

Mazinbrum said:

Would any of you wear smart glasses? If I saw anyone wearing these I'd be very wary and reluctant to interact with them and I'd never wear them myself. People recording everything on mobiles is bad enough but at least its more difficult to surreptitiously take photos and record you.

I can see some genuine applications. Imagine going to somewhere like Japan and everything being translated in real time in the real world.

[Terminator X]

What's their USP? Literally no idea why anyone would need glasses that could record 24/7.

It's all very Black Mirror, smart contact lenses incoming ...



TX.

[miniman]

CSR Performance said:

If you cover the LED then they won't start recording. If someone is going to lengths to get around that with hardware mods, they are obviously determined enough to carry out whatever they are planning anyway and would find a way whether these smart glasses exist or not.

Agree entirely. Creepy is as creepy does.

ChocolateFrog said:

I can see some genuine applications. Imagine going to somewhere like Japan and everything being translated in real time in the real world.

Yes this is one of the really interesting use-cases that I'm yet to try but will be doing so in the summer.

Terminator X said:

What's their USP? Literally no idea why anyone would need glasses that could record 24/7.

It's all very Black Mirror, smart contact lenses incoming ...

They don't record 24/7, they record when you choose to record something.

[Countdown]

I have a shockingly bad memory for faces. It would be great if a pair of these would automatically add a name tag to the person i was looking at.

[Alorotom]

Countdown said:

I have a shockingly bad memory for faces. It would be great if a pair of these would automatically add a name tag to the person i was looking at.

Live tagging based on facial recognition is coming soon by all accounts

[miniman]

One amusing thing I tried during a work quiz that I wasn't participating in was:

"Hey Meta, I'm looking at a quiz question, can you answer it please?"

Which it did very successfully.