Apple's Smart Glasses With In-Lens Display May Feature Two Modes

[Varmann]

My thoughts exactly - the privacy implications of this are huge. I have a visual aid called MyEye that will speak aloud text it 'sees' with a camera when one pushes a button. It works fairly well, but the idea is to attach this thing to one of the arms of a pair of glasses. Aside from not wanting to look like a Borg, it just takes too much energy to explain to concerned strangers that the camera is for text recognition and some very primitive object recognition (like approaching doors). Imagine trying to explain with Apple glasses 'oh yes, and it can take and store pictures'. Paranoid types (like me) would be concerned about control of the device when it is just sitting on a table (phones are usually pocketed when not in use). At a minimum there should be a hard-wired LED that flashes a warning if the cameras on the device are taking pictures (I actually think this should be true of all digital cameras by law). I understand that there is no expectation of privacy in public, but cameras keep getting smaller and so the activity of taking pictures has changed. It used to be if you did street photography it was obvious by the camera, camera bag, and possibly tripod. People could gracefully exit the picture if they saw you setting up. Now you just never know when somebody is taking your photo and frankly it is getting a little creepy, not to mention annoying as tourons in my town stop abruptly on the pavement/side-walks and take photographs of the buildings and monuments, obstructing everybody else's path.

Yes, I think the camera/video will cause a lot of bad reputation. Just like it did for google glasses. Most people do not like being recorded all time, especially if not being able tell when people do it. With AR glasses the hidden camera will easily move into more private spaces, few people will like that. Blinking red light is easy to manipulate, so that is not a good solution.

 

[VulchR]

Yes, I think the camera/video will cause a lot of bad reputation. Just like it did for google glasses. Most people do not like being recorded all time, especially if not being able tell when people do it. With AR glasses the hidden camera will easily move into more private spaces, few people will like that. Blinking red light is easy to manipulate, so that is not a good solution.

Not sure what a better solution would be, but at least recording LED's would be a start. Most people would not try disable or cover them, but I suppose some people might.

 

[Varmann]

Not sure what a better solution would be, but at least recording LED's would be a start. Most people would not try disable or cover them, but I suppose some people might.

Yes, but it is the creepy ones that most probable will disable it.

 

[VulchR]

Yes, but it is the creepy ones that most probable will disable it.

It would have to be integral to the electronics camera so that if the camera was saving data the LED flashes. Also it would have to be positioned so it couldn't be covered with ink or tape - perhaps a line of LED's around the edge of the phone. Not so easy to design so that it can't be defeated, I admit. Creeps will always try to be creeps, but still we could make it harder for them.