Pros and cons of smart glasses
While there are serious privacy concerns, this technology can assist older Australians.
They have been dismissed as “spy glasses” and linked to antisocial behaviour, but the latest innovation in personal devices has many practical uses for seniors and people with disabilities.
Smart glasses are controversial mainly because they include a camera. And, while the glasses are designed to display a light when that camera is in use, they have been banned in some public places due to privacy concerns.
But that hasn’t stopped huge demand for the devices. Kmart was rushed when it recently launched its Anko branded camera glasses, priced at $89 a pair.
That’s a bargain compared to the industry-leading $400-plus models that are produced by tech company Meta in collaboration with the likes of Ray-Ban and Oakley.
Despite the controversy, Google – which abandoned an earlier attempt at the technology – Apple and other companies are said to be joining the race to produce a version of the device which may one day replace mobile phones as the must-have personal gadget.
While much of the media’s attention has been on the camera’s potential use as a spy device, smart glasses are stacked with technology that is not just fun to use but genuinely useful.
Users describe it as a wearable computer; one that allows them to listen to their music through discreet speakers in the wings, navigate their way around unfamiliar places using search and map functions, discover useful information, translate signs and speech, read documents, and communicate with their smartphones and other devices.
A blind British man, Kevin Ramsey, recently told the BBC that smart glasses had changed his life for the better.
“If you go to a restaurant then it is able to help you read the menus,” he said. “You can go into shops, pick up an item and ask ‘what is this?'’and it will tell you.”
In a letter to The Guardian, a British optometrist, Aled Brassington, said the smart glasses were a boon to his clients with vision impairment.
“For many of these patients, leaving the house is already an act of courage,” he wrote. “Unfamiliar streets, unreadable signs, the constant low-level anxiety of navigating a world built for the fully sighted. These glasses have quietly made that easier.”
Mr Brassington cautioned about media coverage referring to them as “pervert glasses”, saying this had “added a new anxiety: not whether they can manage the journey, but whether strangers will assume the worst of them for wearing the thing that makes it possible”.
However, there are legal considerations concerning their use, not only when it comes to taking photos and videos but in recording audio of private conversations without consent.
University of Sydney emeritus professor of law, Barbara McDonald, told ABC News that this would be in breach of the NSW Surveillance Devices Act. Other states have similar legislation.
Those laws don’t make smart glasses illegal, they just limit the way they can be used.
Given their practicality and popularity, it seems certain that smart glasses are here to stay. The only thing stopping their wider adoption is that they are not yet as advanced as smartwatches or phones.
Current models are limited by the need to keep their components light and compact, so the glasses are comfortable to wear and maintain a stylish, or at least unobtrusive appearance.
Of course, if history tells us anything, it’s that those obstacles will be overcome, probably sooner than we think.
But the concerns about the use of smart glasses won’t go away. Law-enforcement agencies are certainly interested in their potential uses, but it’s ultimately up to individuals to do the right thing or face the consequences.
The golden rule for using the camera, according to online content creator, Brent Timm, is “don’t be a creep”.
The travel vlogger told 9News he uses the camera in his smart glasses “as a vessel to transport people to places they might never visit, or have always wanted to see”.
But he added, “I see a lot of terribly creepy content online, specifically targeting women.”
Timm also noted that some countries have zero tolerance for taking photographs in certain public places, with some of his fellow content creators having had expensive equipment confiscated by authorities during their travels.
The take-home message seems to be to follow the rules and use the technology responsibly. If in doubt, take the glasses off and put them away.
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