Superguy

Here's a tech blog calling out UA for stupidity with respect to Google Glass. For those not familiar with Google Glass, they're Android powered glasses that have capabilities to take pictures, display maps, etc, on a small display near your eye. There are pics and explanation of it more in the article.

http://phandroid.com/2014/04/24/unit...lass-airplane/

More available at the link.

petaluma1

Was she able to get through the TSA with wearing Google Glass?

I'd love to see someone wear these glasses into the private room for a resolution pat down and record that pat down.

Superguy

I'd be curious to know that too.

mikeef

Probably thought it was those glasses that you buy in the back of comic books that give you x-ray vision.

Mike

Darkumbra

What happens when the google glasses are prescription glasses?

I'm legally blind without my 'goggles' and while I don't yet have google glass - it's not inconceivable that I'll get a pair in a few years.

FredAnderssen

How about not getting them as prescription glasses, then?

That's cool. Watch video playback to your heart's content, but don't you think there's enough recording going on in the world without you adding to it?

sbrower

What happens in 2 years (? estimate) when the electronics are small enough that you can't see them?

WillCAD

You might be misinterpreting what Google Glass is. It's not a surveillance drone, recording everything 24/7. It's a wearable, voice-activated mobile device with a camera and a display. Certainly, surreptitious recording can be done with it - just as it can be done with any camera-equipped phone made over the last 15 years, or any webcam-equipped laptop made for the last 15 years, or any tablet made for the last 6 or 7 years.

Simply put, there is no reason whatsoever to treat Google Glass different than any other mobile device with a camera and a screen. It's established tech, it's just been put into a new wearable form.

Google Glass is, frankly, a crude first attempt at enhanced vision, hyper-reality, or whatever you want to call the concept. They're bulky and clunky. But give it a few years and I'm sure that someone like Samsung or Apple will come out with sleek, stylish glasses that can be used as either prescription eyewear or sunglasses, and are indistinguishable from plain eyewear.

Tech is everywhere. Instead of admonishing people to not use it, ignore it, or supress it, I think it would be better to acknowledge that it's coming and figure out the best ways to integrate it into our daily lives.

The use of mobile devices on planes is a prime and completely relevant example. Smart phones and tablets can now be used throughout flight, and I think eventually we'll see a removal of the ban on phone calls, as well (though I dread that because of the rudeness and stupidity that seems to permeate the use of cell phones these days).

FredAnderssen

And I won't: I avoid those other devices when I can as well. Google Glass will allow those who want to record to be able to do it more discreetly, which in my estimation is far, far worse.

People's hind-ends are everywhere, too. That doesn't mean I won't admonish them for farting in my face when we're in public. Some of us value our privacy, which means some of us try to find ways to not integrate tech into our daily lives, especially that which involves recording us at any given moment.

Darkumbra

I wear glasses... Wearing google glasses on top of those is too much geek even for me

Superguy

That's a pretty broad assumption to assume that one using Google Glass would automatically be recording stuff. Paint with broad brushes much?

Even if they are recording everything, it's pretty egocentric to assume that they would be following me and recording me. Perhaps they just want to remember every step of a journey or event. If they really want to record me, be my guest. I'm nothing special to look at. There's no expectation of privacy in public. I'm sure I've ended in as background fodder in tons of people's pictures whether on real or phone cameras.

Of course, there's the obvious exception of inappropriate peeping pictures.

Bottom line is it's not your place to tell people how they should use tech. If you don't want to use it, it's your prerogative. Similarly, if someone's using it in public, it's not your place to tell them not to use it, or assume they're recording you.

But back to the main point of the article, UA once again uses a lame excuse to stop use of something a particular FA doesn't understand. The bogus "security" excuses are getting old.

Superguy

Do you assume (pun intended) that everyone who is around you is going to fart in your face, or do you just deal with it when they do?

There is no expectation of privacy when you're out in public.

WillCAD

Peeping pics taken with Google Glass would be, umm, awkward, considering that they have to be on your face to be fully operational.

Never having seen them in person, I would assume that it's possible, if tricky, to get them to take pics while you hold them in your hand, but when you can't see the screen of a mobile device, it's pretty difficult to operate it with a touchpad controller like the one on GG.

CKDGM

There is a physical button as well, but that's still likely to be more obvious than taking a picture with, say, an iPhone (where the Camera app can use the volume-up button to take pictures).

Superguy

Agreed on all counts. I just wanted to caveat it to mitigate a potential strawman counterpoint.