I remember ~2003 when some bright spark in Morgan Stanley IT had the “vision” that staff should communicate with each other and clients using webcams as it would allow much more nuanced communication and bring us closer to our clients. Suddenly, we came in one day and there was a Logitech webcam on our monitors. It must have taken less than an hour for all of them to be unplugged and stuffed in drawers. People laughed as they said: video calling? that is super creepy, it will never take off.
Today, if someone invites you for a meeting and they turn off their camera, there are two things I think (1) what are you hiding? (2) at what point can I turn off mine, because now I feel super awkward.
What is creepy today becomes normalised over the long run. When cameras were introduced on phones, there was an outcry as people were taking pictures all the time and “invading my privacy”. Remember when there was a push to make all cameras make a loud noise so people around them could tell if they were taking photos? Today if I am in a public space, I fully expect to be in the background of probably a dozen pictures by the time my meal has finished. What was creepy before becomes normalised.
AR glasses have long been in the works. Google first announced their glasses in 2012(!) and whilst the same privacy concerns were raised then, I think the bigger issue was the geeky cyborg design that really added to the creep factor. Today. with Facebook, it is no longer the case.
The problem with AR glasses is less to do with the technology and as much to do with Facebook itself. Their PR team continues to have their work cut out to convince people they are not an evil company and recent reports that show that they know just how toxic their product is does not help.
Taking a step back though, the promise of AR technology, creepy videos aside is huge. Being able to meld the real world with AR will bring a significant new platform on which to layer information. From directions to information about what and who is around us as well as being able to capture more “moments” in an effortless and natural way. Privacy concerns aside, this new platform is starting to become very real.
The technology behind the glasses is truly astonishing. SoloSmart, a company that was spun off from the listed company Kopin (who still own 20%) was responsible for Facebook’s glasses has really pushed forward the tech you see today.
Spend some time looking at the quality of videos. Some early reviewers are saying that they have gotten 4 hours of heavy use out of the glasses on one charge. You are starting to get into the same territory as mobile phones from a few years ago.
I am excited for the future of this technology, yes will continue to have privacy concerns and those will have to figured out but the promise of AR as a new platform for compute will finally truly become real over the next few years.