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Intel will shut down its New Devices Group, spelling an end to the company's Vaunt smartglasses project:
When Intel showed off its Vaunt smart glasses (aka "Superlight" internally) back in February, we had high hopes for a new wave of wearable tech that wouldn't turn us into Borgs. Alas, according to The Information's source, word has it that the chip maker is closing the group responsible for wearable devices which, sadly, included the Vaunt. This was later confirmed by Intel in a statement, which hinted at a lack of investment due to "market dynamics." Indeed, Bloomberg had earlier reported that Intel was looking to sell a majority stake in this division, which had about 200 employees and was valued at $350 million.
To avoid the awkwardness that doomed the Google Glass, Intel took the subtle approach by cramming a retinal laser projector -- along with all the other electronic bits, somehow -- into the Vaunt's ordinary-looking spectacle frame; plus there was no camera on it. The low-power projector would beam a red, monochrome 400 x 150 pixel image into the lower right corner of one's visual field, thus eliminating the need of a protruding display medium.
Vaunt is what you get when your committee is too scared of the "Glasshole" fiasco to make a useful product. People on camera could easily identify Google Glass because of its protruding head-mounted display and hardware, as well as the camera indicator light. Build the SoC and any flat buttons directly into a black frame, put small camera lenses at the hinges and/or center, use retinal laser projection or make the lenses into full field of view displays, and remove the indicator light. Then the wearer doesn't have a "Glasshole" problem (but those being viewed might still end up with a "Glasshole.")
Also at The Verge, ZDNet, and AppleInsider.
Previously: Intel Unveils "Vaunt" Smartglasses
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday April 19 2018, @06:47PM (1 child)
Your right to record in public is very important. It helps to prevent murders by police and/or hold police accountable. Are you confused about your rights?
And as for private businesses, you will see people pull out phones to take pictures/video/selfies all the damn time. With a shirt or pants pocket, they could capture video footage secretly, and almost certainly record embarrassing audio (try it out yourself by putting a phone in your pocket with a microphone app recording audio). That could probably be combined with some recent machine learning algorithm to quickly write a transcript or identify highlights.
It will be a fool's errand to prevent use of all of the recording devices coming onto the market, including smartwatches, contact lenses soon enough, or cheap purpose-built spy cameras. Those who have the motive to do so will get it done ("you better not be wearing a wire").
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @07:16PM
I have to agree. We can stop the government from conducting mass surveillance on public places, but we can't do anything about individual people with recording devices. I think the answer is technology that allows people to stop all these surveillance devices from recognizing them.