If you thought that Google Glass was killed by a lack of practicality and privacy concerns, think again. Alphabet X, Google's "moonshot" branch, has unveiled a reboot of the original eyeglass-like wearable called Glass Enterprise Edition. As the name suggests, it's not aimed at the public at all. Despite its many foibles, Glass turned out to be very useful for workers, so the new version targets businesses to help workers do their jobs better.
In early 2015, Google shuttered the Google Glass site, thanking users for "exploring with us," while promising that "the journey doesn't end here." However, while the original $1,500 Glass Explorer's Edition was no longer available to the public, Alphabet continued to supply it to US companies like GE, Boeing, DHL and AGCO.
With Glass, AGCO managed to reduce production times by 25 percent, while DHL increased supply chain efficiency 15 percent. It's also been a boon for healthcare professionals, reducing paperwork loads by over 20 percent and allowing doctors to spend 50 percent more time with patients.
We've ... made improvements to the design and hardware so that it's lightweight and comfortable for long term wear. We've increased the power and battery life too.
With that success, Alphabet X has quietly been working on Glass Enterprise Edition with a design that's more comfortable and can withstand the rigors of work environments. It's also got a bigger display prism, foldable design and speedier Atom processor. "We've ... made improvements to the design and hardware so that it's lightweight and comfortable for long term wear. We've increased the power and battery life too," Alphabet X's Jay Kothari writes.
Source: Engadget
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Two Harvard students recently revealed that it's possible to combine Meta smart glasses with face image search technology to "reveal anyone's personal details," including their name, address, and phone number, "just from looking at them."
In a Google document, AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio explained how they linked a pair of Meta Ray Bans 2 to an invasive face search engine called PimEyes to help identify strangers by cross-searching their information on various people-search databases. They then used a large language model (LLM) to rapidly combine all that data, making it possible to dox someone in a glance or surface information to scam someone in seconds—or other nefarious uses, such as "some dude could just find some girl's home address on the train and just follow them home," Nguyen told 404 Media.
This is all possible thanks to recent progress with LLMs, the students said.
[...] To prevent anyone from being doxxed, the co-creators are not releasing the code, Nguyen said on social media site X. They did, however, outline how their disturbing tech works and how shocked random strangers used as test subjects were to discover how easily identifiable they are just from accessing with the smart glasses information posted publicly online.
[...] But while privacy is clearly important to the students and their demo video strove to remove identifying information, at least one test subject was "easily" identified anyway, 404 Media reported. That test subject couldn't be reached for comment, 404 Media reported.
So far, neither Facebook nor Google has chosen to release similar technologies that they developed linking smart glasses to face search engines, The New York Times reported.
[...] In the European Union, where collecting facial recognition data generally requires someone's direct consent under the General Data Protection Regulation, smart glasses like I-XRAY may not be as big of a concern for people who prefer to be anonymous in public spaces. But in the US, I-XRAY could be providing bad actors with their next scam.
"If people do run with this idea, I think that's really bad," Ardayfio told 404 Media. "I would hope that awareness that we've spread on how to protect your data would outweigh any of the negative impacts this could have."
(Score: 2) by lx on Wednesday July 19 2017, @10:26AM
Corporate glassholes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @10:29AM
Just plain no.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 19 2017, @11:59AM
One of the first industries to embrace the technology, back in 2013, was the adult entertainment [youtube.com] (spoof, but perhaps NSFW).
I can't wait to see what new horizons opens for this enterprise with the new edition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @12:32PM
Are we talking retina display yet?
(Score: -1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @01:31PM (4 children)
People don't like Google Glass.
They have their reasons.
If you attempt to use Google Glass around people you don't know, don't be surprised if you get your ass beat down and your little toy gets smashed to bits.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @01:48PM (1 child)
I'm assuming you are also beating down on police officers for recording you as well?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @02:44PM
Police aren't peddling my shit to marketers, asshole.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday July 19 2017, @05:02PM
>If you attempt to use Google Glass around people you don't know, don't be surprised if
> you get your ass beat down and your little toy gets smashed to bits.
Which part of "Enterprise edition" didn't make it past your anger filter?
Use it at work, leave it at work (too valuable, not safe). Bonus: the boss was hoping to nag you after hours, but the shiny stay-at-work toy took the whole budget, so you don't get a company cell.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 19 2017, @05:22PM
They don't want anyone to use it in public. That's why they're calling it Glass Enterprise Edition. You'll use it at the job and keep it at the job.
People can still get a beatdown by filming with a phone or GoPro.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @01:44PM
I know all companies are US companies but is DHL?
(Score: 2) by Taibhsear on Wednesday July 19 2017, @02:30PM
"We assure our employees that it won't being used to track them or make sure they are doing their work faster, better, longer, harder or they're fired, no siree..." - Some manager in the near future probably.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @03:14PM (9 children)
I'm surprised by the negative comments. Obviously, a heads-up display has many uses, especially at work. TFS has good examples. Obviously, management can also use it to monitor people, but surveillance cameras have been available for a long time.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Wednesday July 19 2017, @03:49PM (1 child)
I am as well. When it first came out, I the level of anonymous posters in various social media threatening violence, etc, made me fairly sure that there was a paid campaign behind it. I always suspected Microsoft, and them showing of "HoloLens" afterwards didn't help.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @04:32PM
If people want to put up with it at work, that's one thing. Location-reporting my face-recognition ID'd mug to Google in public? No fucking way.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday July 19 2017, @04:02PM (1 child)
Obviously, management can also use it to monitor people, but surveillance cameras have been available for a long time.
We live in a world where some companies install cameras under your desk to see if you're sat there (http://www.occupeye.com/)
(or rather they try to - https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jan/11/daily-telegraph-to-withdraw-devices-monitoring-time-at-desk-after-criticism) [theguardian.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 20 2017, @02:47AM
You need to take the ) off the end of the link.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday July 19 2017, @04:08PM (3 children)
Surveillance cameras have blind spots, and knowledge of these blindspots tends to spread amongst shady employees. Head-mounted cameras have blindspots too, but they should fill in a lot of gaps. Let's be real, competent managers want workers to behave as if they're in a panopticon. Competent workers do exactly that, Glass or no Glass. The funny thing is, companies that routinely break the law (by my modeling, most) have an obvious incentive to either keep some discussions Glass-free or delete their recordings on a regular basis; nobody wants to Nixon themselves. This can be done under reasonable pretexts, like protecting trade secrets.
This mess will become a lot more interesting when the government eventually gets involved.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @05:48PM (1 child)
Competent managers should be able to evaluate an employee by his/her/whatever contribution to the company. Failing that, they have to resort to less significant aspects.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday July 19 2017, @06:39PM
Carefully examined, I don't think our statements are mutually exclusive.
(Score: 2) by theronb on Wednesday July 19 2017, @10:56PM
I'm not generally fond of neologisms, but I like the use of "to Nixon" as a verb.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 19 2017, @05:35PM
It's the same flawed approach that puts the screen in the corner and will cause eye strain.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27485628 [bbc.com]
They should make it cover a large/entire field of view like HoloLens. This could also allow them to design it to look like ordinary glasses if they so chose, so that they wouldn't have to hide it in the Enterprise.
If there are concerns about painting over the whole field of view causing distractions, just put most information in a sidebar. Or have it appear in front of you and move to the side. Other applications can use the whole field of view without distracting, like a navigation app that overlays a colored line that you follow to your destination.
Now that they are pitching it to businesses and doctors instead of the general public, distractions are no longer a good excuse. These customers can design a UI that overlays as much of the field of view as required to convey information to the user. Except with HoloLens and not Glass Enterprise Edition.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday July 19 2017, @04:06PM (2 children)
First pictures of the Enterprise Edition [imgur.com]
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday July 19 2017, @04:33PM (1 child)
That was actually The Next Generation Edition, this is the Enterprise Edition. [nocookie.net]
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday July 19 2017, @06:04PM
No, the original version was this [wordpress.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 19 2017, @08:47PM
In other news, 27 contact lenses were found in a woman's eye, so it is not possible that somewhere there is a person with twenty seven Google glasses lodged somewhere? Possibly a combination of the original and both the Next Generation and the Enterprise editions?