Pulse of Truth

They're gonna keep trying again and again. Data at eye level is too valuable for these vultures. A company's eventually gonna come up with an irresistible design that'll reach a critical mass of adopters sooner or later. The only thing keeping this thing back so far is the obvious camera on their face.

Pinhole cameras small enough to hide in glasses frames etc have been around for a decent while. The real changes are the continuing shrinkage of computing power, meaning that the footage can be stored and processed by the glasses themselves rather than communicating with a device over radio or requiring the user to remove a microsd to access the footage. Also increases in video quality possible with ever smaller lenses

Edit: basically, in terms of video gathering, intelligence agencies have been able to do this for generations. This really only is improvements in on board compute as far as they're concerned, and potentially useful in shifting the public opinion about these devices (so they can use off the shelf stuff instead of "spy" stuff).

I don’t really see what smart glasses bring to the table that aren’t pretty adequately covered by my smartphone and smartwatch. I can take a quick glance at my watch as a message comes in and easily ignore it when I can’t look. Simple tasks can be done from the watch; more complicated things I’ll want to get out my phone (or maybe even computer). The smartwatch is less obtrusive and likely has better battery life, screen, and intuitive interface. There are plenty of times when I would not want a notification popping up in my glasses. I continue to not want to use voice controls except in very limited situations, like driving my car.

I remember that when Google Glass had its initial failure with the general public they continued to have use for years in job-related roles. I can see augmented reality having use-cases there, but the more I think about it I don’t see any use-case for augmented reality in everyday life that really improves on what I can already do. Sure, it sounds cool, but the reality seems worse than what we already have.

As for the cameras, there have already been camera glasses for years now. The quality continues to improve but the use cases for them seem pretty limited. I like roller coasters and while some parks allow people to record rides with action cameras, many do not. I’ve seen some people using camera glasses to get around those restrictions. Still, “secretly recording videos in places that are restricted” has some clear legal and ethical risks.

You can trust the government. You can’t always trust the people voted in to government.

Kind of a shitty episode, but a good reference.

What is that? Also, why am I seeing a countdown in the middle of my field of view?