Apple Glasses Reportedly Launching in 'Late 2027' With These Features

[smaffei]

Meta Glasses are beginning to be banned at events like Comic Cons. You won't be able to get that one-on-one, walk up video with that star you wanted. So, when they start becoming prohibited at events, the Smart Glasses lose their much of their appeal.

 

[Happy_John]

It is easy to imagine an individual's vision anomalies being programmed in to glasses, then the glasses correcting for those individual anomalies (think about how noise control works in AirPods, for instance). It could be much better than building fixed lenses like today's glasses do. E.g. instead of simplistic bifocals or trifocals, smart glasses could seamlessly correct for where the user is looking.

Such glasses (we are imagining here) might autocorrect for specific vision issues on the fly, or even on command: e.g. "Siri, magnify to 6x focused to 10 inches" or "Siri, go to movie viewing mode," or "Siri, magnify to 10x focused on bird in far distance," or "Siri, maintain brightness at daylight levels as dusk approaches."

Obviously coping with computing latency would be a huge issue.

But "pass through" is not the same as "see through".

What you're talking about is "pass through" - for this to work, the user would have to wear goggles, not glasses. The device needs to a camera and then a screen in front of your eyes to process and adjust the image captured by the camera. The screen in front of your eyes would be opaque, because it if was transparent, you would see both the corrected image and the uncorrected image at the same time, which would compound the problem you're trying to solve, rather than solving it.

And, realistically, while people are happy to wear glasses in day-to-day public life, very few people wear goggles/headsets in those situations.

 

[MrTemple]

Design criterion #1: make them not-creepy. Can Apple pull that off? Nobody has so far.

BTW, Ray-Ban is one of the many brands owned or made exclusively by EssilorLuxottica. Their near-monopoly in this market is one of the reasons frames are so freaking expensive. So no surprise Apple prefers to design and manufacture their own frames. They gain some advantage just from bypassing EssilorLuxottica.

The ONLY way I can see to avoid the creepiness is if you can never make/view/share recordings.

Even a giant red recording light would be easy to cover.

Inevitably there would be creepy AF videos come out from these, and Apples name on it wool magnify it far more than we see today.

This pattern of extra attention when Apple does it is a familiar one, but in this case would be good to raise more attention than we currently pay to these glasses.

That would mean the devices would be only for active response to the surroundings, which is a bit odd.

 

[Mega ST]

There must be a strategy how Apple is intending to deal with this smart glasses and privacy topic?

 

[attila]

How do smart glasses accommodate people who need prescriptive lenses?

Easy. They don't have displays! They just tell you what you can already see. Just like an iPhone and Apple Watch.

Pointless? Yes

 

[subjonas]

I’m 98% sure that Apple will give you no way to download videos off this.

The thing is… it WILL be much more massive issue after Apple release them.

Currently it’s largely slept on that glasses can record video much more secretly than a phone. It is a big deal, but it just doesn’t rise to the general media.

Once Apple is in the hand-wringing headlines, the issue will be EVERYWHERE all at once.

This pattern has repeated over and over again for the past 25y.

Apple knows this. It certainly knows that releasing a product that can surreptitiously film in a private place will be used inappropriately.

And that scandal will be run right up the flagpole from facebook gramma shares to evening news to governmental oversight committees.

Personally I think it’s a GOOD thing. Because screw the idea of being recorded by anybody with glasses on. It’s bad enough how people can do it now (even the more surreptitious ways than sneaking with a phone).

So I’m not convinced that Apple will EVER allow you to view/share the recordings you take with a pair of glasses.

Because almost immediately everybody wearing them in public (even in ‘fair’ spaces to film) would be the creepo who’s filming them.

Even a big bright red light can be covered.

Which is a bit of a shame. It would be useful and fun to get POV video of certain things in my life (sports, pets, dashcam/bodycam for random ‘nobody will believe that just happened’ events, etc.

I just don’t see how society will allow it.

And I certainly don’t think our society would be better served by feeling MORE watched in every day life. Look at how it has affected the youngest generations who’ve grown up conscious that their every move could be clipped and shared and make them look awful or amazing.

Absolutely, cameras on wearables are too much of a privacy concern. It doesn't even matter how private and secure Apple makes theirs--if society accepts wearable cameras at all, it will enable people who have no regard for privacy to use creepy wearable cameras under the radar.

If people want to film POV, they should use a dedicated conspicuous device like a GoPro. Leave cameras off everyday wearables.

 

[macshmack]

There must be a strategy how Apple is intending to deal with this smart glasses and privacy topic?

they'll wash their hands off like meta did with some useless guidance.

ed: meta link becomes dotoni something after posting, wtf?

 

[wilderkun]

Apple was apparently going to get around this by using lidar only on the glasses. Not sure how well that would work. Personally I think if the ar glasses allowed a camera, but it couldn’t record would be a way around that. Not sure how popular that would be though. Bizarrely the only thing I DON’T want from ar glasses is the ability to take a photo

 

[eifelbube]

There are many use cases.

1. When walking in New York City, London, Paris, etc. you can be notified of restaurants that are empty vs. full, directions to the nearest subway station and time of the next trains to your route.
2. When walking in Disney World, Universal, etc. you can be notified of wait times to rides around you, times for the next parade or show, and directions to get to the attraction you want.
3. When walking, hiking or biking trails you can be given directions or notifications like 'route ends in 10 minutes' without checking your phone or watch.
4. Your glasses could notice friends or contacts you're walking by - or are near. And notify you - 'Your friend Jennifer is checking you out across the street'
5. Your glasses could watch out for and alert you to creepy people around you who AI thinks might rob or attack you. If this becomes a well made commercial, these could sell like hot cakes.

These are indeed use cases, no doubt. But none of them — unless someone has an applicable impairment — fills an essential need that existing technology cannot. The abuse potential of smart glasses is far greater than their significant quality-of-life improvement potential.

use case #3 - When I hike, walk, run, or bike trails, I do that to get away from emails, texts, notifications, reminders, etc. I want nothing to distract me from the pleasure of nature and motion. Yes, I also have goals with my outdoor exercising. But I track it with the AppleWatch only for post-activity review.

Especially for the things I enjoy in life, I do not need to and do not want to be managed or interrupted (i.e. 'route ends in 10 minutes') by hand-held or even hands-free tech — it’s hands-off for both.

 

[eifelbube]

Absolutely, cameras on wearables are too much of a privacy concern. It doesn't even matter how private and secure Apple makes theirs--if society accepts wearable cameras at all, it will enable people who have no regard for privacy to use creepy wearable cameras under the radar.

If people want to film POV, they should use a dedicated conspicuous device like a GoPro. Leave cameras off everyday wearables.

Given the polarization of opinions on the prominent cultural and political issues of our time, camera equipped smart glasses probably will be accepted and rejected by nearly equal proportions of the population. That would be far too many spy glasses for my taste, leaving me and the like-minded defenseless. I am afraid I would eventually have to take a closer look at this guide for signal jamming …

 

[eifelbube]

Seems many here have stunted imaginations with respect to how these glasses could be used.

Just like the AVP, iPad, A-Watch, iPhone........

It is no longer a matter of imagination, it’s real. Unfortunately, smart glasses have already been used to record individuals surreptitiously and subsequently posting the footage on social media without consent and the social media company refusing or taking an unduly long time to remove it. The recording indicator on Meta glasses can be disabled.

Apple glasses, of course, will prevent such abuse.

 

[eifelbube]

I mean, the Meta Ray-Ban AI glasses sell reasonably well, 7 million units last year in the US, and the current version has been on the market since 2023 (the first one since 2021). Meta postponed the international release planned for this year due to unprecedented demand in the US, and they are planning to scale up production to 30 million units per year.

I am not so sure demand here is the only reason for postponing international release.

 

[eifelbube]

…​

I trust market forces will produce a jamming device to make all the iCreeps see red.

I trust that. This article gives me hope.

 

[eifelbube]

They’re also more obvious with their recording indicators that someone is recording unlike phones.

With phones, when you target and monitor, your posture and/or positioning of hands and arms is quite obvious. Not so with glasses, especially when you defeat the recording indicators.

Site privado

 

[lilkwarrior]

With phones, when you target and monitor, your posture and/or positioning of hands and arms is quite obvious. Not so with glasses, especially when you defeat the recording indicators.

Site privado

You can hack recording indicators of any device.

The same policies to other recordable devices at private establishments apply to glasses.

 

[citysnaps]

It is no longer a matter of imagination, it’s real. Unfortunately, smart glasses have already been used to record individuals surreptitiously and subsequently posting the footage on social media without consent and the social media company refusing or taking an unduly long time to remove it. The recording indicator on Meta glasses can be disabled.

Apple glasses, of course, will prevent such abuse.

It seems you are not aware that smart glasses offer many potential uses other than surreptitiously photographing people.

 

[eifelbube]

It seems you are not aware that smart glasses offer many potential uses other than surreptitiously photographing people.

It may seem so but I am aware of the potential for beneficial uses and said so in an earlier post in this thread. I did not detail the benefits because smart phones already offer them. The problem is that smart glasses companies are more concerned with profits than limiting privacy intrusion abuse. Apple would have to solve it in order to retain credibility as an advocate of privacy protection.

 

[ifxf]

Think $499 is highly possible. Waiting to see the glasses. Should sell well especially with Apple focusing on privacy.

Apple didn’t consider privacy of other people when they released AirTags.

 

[Hellokittystampmyfacein]

Depending on where you are, you don’t need their consent

It doesn’t really matter if you 😡 law is law but the only exception is the bathroom or locker room or somewhere considered private. If you’re out outside or you’re at work it’s considered public space it has to be public space.

 

[brewcitywi]

I’m a sucker for new product categories, I’d definitely try them on and see.

I love unique frames, so I doubt I’d want to wear these as my main glasses. Someone said this earlier, but I also miss wearing my old watches before the Apple Watch. But the AW is so great that I’m always wearing it. A few times, I’ve had the AW on my left wrist and an old watch on my right wrist.

I agree that taking photos and recording videos from glasses is creepy. I’d hate to be in a corporate meeting and have everything I say recorded, it makes me fear “work environment” claims. Also, with cancel culture, it would be so easy for someone to lose their job/business if something was posted out of context and went viral. However, if I’m at my daughter’s piano recital, I’d sure like to record it without holding my iPhone up. How could Apple discern those things, probably impossible.

Also, it took a few versions of Apple Watch before it wasn’t tethered to iPhone. Could this ship untethered in version 1.0? These don’t need a battery pack, do they? Can’t they use the technology for the small battery inside the Apple Watch to keep it stand-alone?

I agree with previous posts…if these are just glasses with cameras, microphones, headphones, is that enough?

But, I like to think of the positives. Hack up my comments!