Preamble

I want to clarify 2 things: one, I love these glasses and I can't wait to try them;Two, this article in the parano tone aims to launch the debate on the consequences of using these glasses by the general public.

Glasses features

In the preamble, I will summarize the possibilities offered by these glasses (it would be necessary to write it in the singular, because the current version has only one glass, in front of the right eye).These glasses have the distinction of being able to display information from the Internet in the overprint of classical sight (augmented reality principle), as well as to capture photos, videos or audio.

The device incorporates many sensors, including a camera/camera, 1 speaker, 2 microphones, a WiFi antenna, an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a compass.A Bluetooth connection allows you to take advantage of the Internet connection of a smartphone or tablet, if no WiFi hotspot is available.

In front of the right eye, a mini screen displays real images all kinds of information, either in response to a request from the user, or without even asking anything (Google principleNow).Concretely, to use these glasses, you have nothing to do, or just talk to them!

View of the camera and translucent screen of Google Glass glasses

For the moment (March 2013), these glasses only exist in a single version (Explorer Edition), the special glass being mounted on the right side of a specific frame.In addition to the developers, some were able to be selected to buy the first models in 2013. But Google has already specified that it was expected that Glass was available on glasses or sunglasses: as much as it can thenhave a massive adoption by the general public.

For a more detailed presentation, see the file of my Encyclopedia of Google products/services.

Which is really problematic with the Google Glass

The rest of this article is largely inspired by that of Mark Hurst, published on 02/28/2013, which I of course encourage you to read (in English).

To summarize the previous paragraph, I could say that it is: the future has arrived!Thank you Google for having "offered" it to us!Indeed, we now have the opportunity to completely combine our real life and our virtual life, to capture every moment of our life and to keep it preciously - eternally - for subsequent consultation and shares with friends or all audiences.

You undoubtedly start to carry out the major problem which arises for the user of the glasses: he may no longer be able to dissociate his real life (personal, professional, private and public) from the Google universe.Indeed, if you use these glasses on a daily basis (we can understand you so much their features are attractive), Google can know where you are going, who you meet, what you say, your favorite brands and products, those you hate, in short your habits, with whom you share these elements of your life, etc.

Of course, in its general conditions of use, Google will defend itself from being able to do all of this, but will you believe it?

We will say that you trust Google, but what will happen during the day-inevitable!- Where will you hack your glasses?A stranger, a company, a government could succeed in taking control of your glasses remotely.Without you realizing it!I let you imagine what could happen: loss of confidentiality, transmission of compromising information to third parties, freestyle of your whole life ...

But that's not the main problem of Google glasses.Yet it's already not very reassuring ...

The essential problem is not what the user of the glasses, but all the other people.All those that each user meets glasses.That is to say anyone, including you and me.Mark Hurst was inspired by this tweet dated 24/02/2013, saying roughly "there is a child who wears Google glasses, in the restaurant which was, until this moment, my favorite".

Imagine that you are in a head to face with a person wearing the famous glasses.How will you sure he/she really listens to you?His attention can be diverted because at any time, he can receive a notification, an SMS, consult the internet or worse: take a picture, register or film you, then publish it on the Internet.Besides, do you really know if he films you?Even if you will tear her glasses to tear her off?What about his glasses?No doubt you can't do much.

You will retort that you do not know anyone wearing these glasses.But if on the bus you take, among the 50 people present, a traveler films others with his Google glasses?This video will be recorded on Google's servers (the famous Cloud), not for a few days as is the case with the surveillance cameras that film you on the street, but for eternity.This video can be made public on the Internet (for example YouTube) visible to all.

This video is not a simple file on a hard drive from a surveillance company. It is managed by Google, which has immense analysis possibilities. For example, Google mastering facial recognition (as we saw in Picasa and Google Images, to name only two), it is possible to try to recognize the faces of people located in this bus, that day there. He did not escape you that Google created its own social network, Google+. Since its beginnings, some have not present it as a social network (such as Facebook) but as a system for identifying Google users. But like Facebook, Google+ asks its users to use their true identity. And for the photo of the profile of each user, guess what: Google requires that it contains a face. Google can therefore without any problem connect each face filmed on the bus to a Google user. And therefore to all his online life (in any case that made with Google): the requests made, the sites consulted, the friends, the usual places, the articles written, etc. (the list is very long).

And if I tell you that Mark Zuckerberg said he was very interested in Google glasses, for which Facebook will develop applications?Facebook also has facial recognition technologies (among others since the acquisition of the world specialist Face.com), which will open gigantic possibilities in this network of more than a billion people ...

All conversations recorded on the bus can be analyzed by Google to transcribe them into text.Thus, Google could store what you said in a public space but in what was a private conversation.What if all this is accessible by a simple Google search?

Let's go a little further in projections.Until then I try to describe what can happen when the user of the glasses decides to film or save you.But if he was not behind this recording?If it was Google who triggered video capture?Or a request from a government (or NSA ...)?

Remember the (often legitimate) protests at the time of the release of Google Street View.Each person using Google glasses will be like one of the Google cars that photographs the streets.If there are millions of Google Glass used daily, come into account the mass of information potentially accessible to Google… is it not a version of Big Brother Plus belle (frightening) than what weHas I imagined so far?It is no longer a government that spies us, each of us becomes Big Brother.

Concretely, today (it is not science fiction), at any time and wherever you go, it is possible that you could meet a user of these Google glasses.If it films you, take a picture of you or save you (without you necessarily realizing it), the data can be saved on Google servers for all the rest of your life.

What if the next version of Google Glass was integrated into contact lenses?Know that Babak Parviz, director of the Project Glass team and member of the University of Washington, has already managed to build a contact lens integrating electronics (look at what he said in 2009 on a set).It may be necessary to wait a little more, but we can bet that this technology will be available in the near future for the general public.In this case, as much to say that you will no longer be able to know if the people around you use the wonderful possibilities offered by Google Glass!

Psychological aspects

As if all this was not enough, I see other major problems induced by these glasses.This time, I move from Mark Hurst's article to return to the consequences of the behavior of the user of the glasses.Imagine that spending your days with these glasses, you may no longer be able to do without this virtual world within reach ... of an eye.Mark was talking about distraction problems, but some will object that it is the opposite, the glasses make you more free and closer to the real world than when you walk in the street riveted on your smartphone.If you are permanently distracted, how will you succeed in concentrating?Think of your children who have not experienced a world without these glasses!

However, beyond this distraction problem, I tell myself that you risk preferring the virtual world to the real world! If the real world becomes synonymous with boredom, because less than a real world combined with the real world, do you not believe that the societal consequences will be major? You will no longer look at the landscape available to you, you will be reading your emails or watching a video. You will no longer listen to the one who talks to you, you will be playing with your glasses. Students will find an unprecedented way there so that they no longer bother listening to their teacher at school; I prefer not to imagine what could happen to them to the teachers, facing an army of students who film them without their knowledge, take a picture or record them, before laughing when shared on Facebook! Or these students who can easily cheat during exams. Will the speed dating become googling in real time? And meetings with your colleagues and chefs?

Imagine the generation shock when your children have grown up with it!Because I think that in a few years, we will wonder how we could live without connected glasses, exactly as we wondered how we could live without a mobile phone.

What impact on health?

There are also health questions: what impact of all the sensors and other WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth antennas?What impact on the incessant view and changes in the right eye accommodation?What impact of an asymmetrical effort of the eyes (and the brain)?

What legislative framework?

It is obvious that all these uses directly concern the CNIL and even the law, which will have to seriously look into the issue.I wonder how we will really be able to define an applicable legislative framework ...

Your opinion !

Here, I hope I have not been too scary ... So, Google's glasses: hell or hell?It's your turn to speak !

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