The next wave of personal computing is about to wash ashore in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles where 8,000 “applicants” will pick up their prototype Google Glass eyewear and begin modeling them around town. After a nationwide competition, Google selected the winners who each will pay $1,500 for the privilege of using a new product that will certainly be at the center of significant debate in the months ahead.
Google Glass can photograph, record video and access the Web through voice command or by tapping a keypad on the frame. Computer windows open in the wearer’s field of vision based on the commands given. In other words, it’s basically a smartphone attached to your head.
Having head-mounted computing power may seem like a huge step forward, a way to free our hands and open our minds to literally see the world in a whole new light. But it is the ability for Google Glass to video record and photograph that will be at the forefront of debate as personal and institutional privacy concerns rise to the top.
In a bit of a public relations stunt, a bar in Seattle has already banned the glasses claiming they infringe on customer privacy. But even more significant may be the impact on places where cameras are strictly not allowed such as locker facilities in gyms and health clubs or courtrooms. Nuclear plants and military complexes also come to mind as locales where a whole lot of pictures are not usually taken.
Perhaps the arena where computerized glasses could meet the most resistance is in the field of casino gambling. The notion that players could sit at a blackjack table and visually record every hand (along with images of all the people participating) cannot sit well with gambling executives.
So far, casino management isn’t talking. Inquiries by this column over the past several weeks about whether casinos would seek to ban Google Glass were met with either “no comment” or ignored completely. A spokeswoman for Caesars Entertainment did note that “anything that records a game in real time would be considered a ‘device’ and illegal by gaming standards.”
One person who supplies surveillance technology to the industry felt that most casinos are either taking a cautious “wait and see” attitude before attempting to ban the glasses or are merely shrugging the whole thing off as just another camera issue that they deal with every day.
The latter reaction may be a casino’s undoing. Up to now, if a player hauled out their smartphone and began snapping pictures or trolling the Web, surveillance cameras would pick up the problem in a second. With Google’s new glasses, a move as subtle as the touching of the frame may not be quite so easy to spot.
As the pilot phase for Google Glass rolls out this month, it will be only a matter of time before one of the participants makes their way into a casino. When they get thrown out, the whole thing will likely be video recorded and posted on YouTube for all to see. And Google will be laughing all the way to the bank.
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