Ready or not, the Glassholes are coming back

Tech companies are working on glasses. They don't want to go first.

They all remember how the "Glassholes" who wore them in public made the world laugh. They have been waiting, bidding their time, refining their prototypes, and making sure investors know that they are not going to let the first potentially iPhone-sized opportunity slip by.

The next step is being taken by the internet giant. When Big Tech reappears on people's heads, you should know we're on the verge of dealing with them again.

Image: Google

This won't be the era of Glassholes all over again, according to a post on the company's website. The cameras and microphones on its glasses don't support photography and videography according to the company. They do collect visual data, but they don't want you to imagine using it to record someone else.

There are many questions on the company's support page, including "What is image data used for?", "How long is it stored?", and "How will I know if I'm in close proximity to products being tested?" If there is a decision to save images for analysis, there is a light that goes up.

It says nothing about restaurants and bars, where Glass got wearers in trouble years ago, that it won't be using them in schools, hospitals, churches, playground, and the like.

If you don't like this idea, there's nothing I can do to convince you otherwise, and I'm not going to pretend to know whether such a device should exist in the world. It won't be long before Apple, Microsoft, and others throw their glasses into the ring if the test doesn't end in disgust.

We have had a decade of pointing phones at things in public to prepare us for what is to come.

Mobile camera use has exploded since the day in 2012 when a team of Google skydivers landed on Moscone Center. The point-and-shoot has been completely destroyed by phone cameras. It was weird to take a photo in a bar or restaurant in 2012 but now it would be weird not to take a photo of a meal. Are you afraid of accidentally capturing a stranger in your photo? It is a common occurrence that a background person is used as a selling point for a phone.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Mobile cameras aren't just filming when a person pulls their phone out of their pocket, they're flying through the air. We've had most of a decade to get used to the idea that another person's camera might be looking down on you from above. The majority of the consumer drones came after the release of the DJI Phantom.

The adoption of 4GLTE brought with it instant video publishing and live streaming. The reason you can record the police is because of it. Remember when pundits wrote about the idea of "sousveillance", where people use their own cameras to watch others? We took the phones there.

Image: Mike Desmond / WBFO-FM Buffalo

There is very little expectation of privacy outside of your home as public spaces are full of cameras. Society hasn't mounted many challenges to the proliferation of cameras How would you enforce filming if it were illegal? It is difficult to tell if someone is recording, checking TikTok, or just doing work on the go.

Ellis Hamburger said we are all Glassholes. Even technology holdouts have begun to rely on pocket computers for bare necessities as the Pandemic progresses. People who swore off technology for things they could do in person begrudgingly turned to Amazon, DoorDash, Facebook, and more. I think some of them will be more open minded about the benefits of technology.

Even headsets are not as stigmatizing as they were during the Pandemic. Even though the sales numbers are relatively small, the use of virtual reality increased during the 2020 lockdowns. The rise and fall of virtual reality can be traced back to the fateful 2012 launch of Glass.

masking is a good way to hide your identity from cameras and reduce the spread of germs. It isn't hard to imagine countries that would tolerate citizens wearing a mask like the one depicted in the movie "Bane" You might remember a time when people didn't like the idea of wearing a headset in public.

Photo by Amanda Lopez for The Verge

It wasn't the first to dip a toe back in the water. Meta and Ray-Ban Stories are both on the fourth generation of their Spectacles camera glasses, and you can argue that is similar to what Google is doing now. The kind of stink that Google Glass experienced a decade ago has yet to be generated by none.

If a future pair of glasses proves to be more intrusive than our current phones and drones, that may change. Given the track record of some of the companies building them, there will be serious questions about data collection and privacy.

The biggest challenge facing Apple, Microsoft, and other companies in the future is figuring out how to build more compelling and convenient augmented reality experiences. There is an intriguing idea that the company has when it comes to real-time language translation.

It is difficult to watch that video and see a Glasshole. It is too easy to spot the Vaporware.