Rumors have spread like wildfire this past summer about Google’s upcoming product, Google Glass. This futuristic wearable computer shoots video in 720p, includes GPS, SMS messaging and the ability to make phone calls as well as a high resolution display that is said to be equivalent of a 25 inch high definition screen from eight feet away. The specs are topped off with the lovely promise of a full day of battery life.
Google Glass will allow you to multi-task by staying connected and communicating even when users are physically active or have their hands full. It will also grant users creative opportunities to record video or take pictures with a simple voice command. This is much easier than having to fish a phone out of a pocket and go through three screens just to take a picture. By the time the camera has finally activated the moment has passed. It also assists law enforcement agencies by giving them more information than ever. Google Glass provides a constant tether to the internet for its wearers.
The common user also has to think about the drawbacks to Glass. Many are worried about the breach of privacy that Glass might entail. Google has developed facial recognition apps that does exactly as it sounds. Walking down the street, Glass would attempt to identify every person you pass. Also, no one around a Glass wearer would be able to identify if the wearer is recording everything around them or not. Third parties around the wearer would have to tiptoe around during their conversation just to ensure that Glass would not pick up any sensitive or private information. Some establishments have already chosen to ban Google Glass even before its release due to its invasiveness.
Dave Meinert, the owner of “The 5 Point”, a bar located in Seattle, Wash. was the first to ban Google Glass due to customers not wanting to be known. “[à]we don’t let people film other people or take photos unwanted of people in the bar, because it is kind of a private place that people go.” Says Meinert in an interview with MYNorthwest.com.
Despite the wide controversy surrounding Google Glass, most assume that it will be successful due to its very fashionable design and innovative technology. Google hopes to launch the developer edition of Glass in the first quarter of 2014 priced at $1,500.
