Live data from Hacker News

Facebook’s Project Aria Is Google Maps – For Your Entire Life

onezero.medium.com

11–20 of 46 posts

Re: Facebook’s Project Aria Is Google Maps – For Your Entire Life

#11
I'm not averse to the idea itself, in theory - it seems like the logical next step in consumer tech. However, as they've proved with Oculus (and generally their entire existence) I would not trust Facebook one bit with this, and I wouldn't want a pair anywhere near me or my house. What is needed is a federated version, i.e. you have your own pair which stores your own data of your own property and life, and public spaces (libraries, cafes, offices, whatever) can be shared between users, after anonymization algorithms and access control is applied.

Re: Facebook’s Project Aria Is Google Maps – For Your Entire Life

#13
This, like Google Glass, is one of those ideas that has been popularised by science-fiction with the promise that it will make our lives better, but when you get down it's actual real world usage I don't see the benefit it provides.

Sure, it _looks_ cool, but none of the examples shown in FB's promo video are actually meaningful: the red light example, the restaurant... The real world already has UI for that!

Navigation is probably the only good example I can think of.

Re: Facebook’s Project Aria Is Google Maps – For Your Entire Life

#14

This, like Google Glass, is one of those ideas that has been popularised by science-fiction with the promise that it will make our lives better, but when you get down it's actual real world usage I don't see the benefit it provides. Sure, it _looks_ cool, but none of the examples shown in FB's promo video are actually meaningful: the red light example, the restaurant... The real world already has UI for that! Navigat…

translations with subtitles in real time is one I thought of.

Re: Facebook’s Project Aria Is Google Maps – For Your Entire Life

#15
The people currently trying to track everything you do online would really love a future where they can also track all your offline physical activity and map "inside of buildings and homes and all the objects inside of them".

Raph Koster predicted[1] this years ago. I hope anybody implementing this type of tech remembers that all tech is dual use. To understand the full impact of a proposed technology, Raph Koster advised[2], "Every feature must be looked at as a weapon." Promising that "...any faces and license plates captured by Aria glasses wearers will be anonymized." doesn't even begin to address the ways this technology could be used maliciously.

[1] https://www.raphkoster.com/2014/06/11/how-to-build-the-scary...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgw8RLHv1j4

Re: Facebook’s Project Aria Is Google Maps – For Your Entire Life

#16

This, like Google Glass, is one of those ideas that has been popularised by science-fiction with the promise that it will make our lives better, but when you get down it's actual real world usage I don't see the benefit it provides. Sure, it _looks_ cool, but none of the examples shown in FB's promo video are actually meaningful: the red light example, the restaurant... The real world already has UI for that! Navigat…

In the AR circles, what they are building is called the AR Cloud - basically a digital representation of the physical world.

A “complete state” of this digital world has a number of practical benefits for autonomous vehicles/drones, but you’re right that in the path to get there is mostly going to be filled with gaming and advertising, and the occasional niceties. I wrote about some applications here:

https://paul.copplest.one/blog/augmented-reality.html

Re: Facebook’s Project Aria Is Google Maps – For Your Entire Life

#17

regardless of the functionality, I cannot ethically support or use facebook, instagram, or whatsapp.

Much as that appears to be a moral choice, it doesn't actually stop the functionality.

The big problem, the one that nobody seems to be willing to accept is that any AR system will invade privacy, no matter who makes them.

We as a sector have to actually grow up and think deeply about how we manage this threat, before its too late.

Re: Facebook’s Project Aria Is Google Maps – For Your Entire Life

#18
post #15

The people currently trying to track everything you do online would really love a future where they can also track all your offline physical activity and map "inside of buildings and homes and all the objects inside of them". Raph Koster predicted[1] this years ago. I hope anybody implementing this type of tech remembers that all tech is dual use. To understand the full impact of a proposed technology, Raph Koster ad…

The problem is that the threat is multifaceted.

You have the provider aggregation threat: where a service provider could track and map all known faces within reach of any of their user's glasses.

Then there app threat, where an ondevice application that does something "cool" also harvest everything that it can see.

Then there is the government actor threat: where a government piggybacks/creates a law to make sure all movements of type x are recorded.

Its a whole new dimension of fuckery, and its something I worry about.

Re: Facebook’s Project Aria Is Google Maps – For Your Entire Life

#19

regardless of the functionality, I cannot ethically support or use facebook, instagram, or whatsapp.

regardless of the functionality, I cannot ethically support or use facebook, instagram, or whatsapp.

The problem is that they still use you. If your email address was ever in a contacts list uploaded to them, they have a handle on you. They are tracking you on every website (apart maybe from this one) and have constructed a shadow profile for you.

It's the same problem with Google, you can try to avoid them but if anyone you know has a GMail address, you're in their system and they couldn't care less about your consent.

Re: Facebook’s Project Aria Is Google Maps – For Your Entire Life

#20

This, like Google Glass, is one of those ideas that has been popularised by science-fiction with the promise that it will make our lives better, but when you get down it's actual real world usage I don't see the benefit it provides. Sure, it _looks_ cool, but none of the examples shown in FB's promo video are actually meaningful: the red light example, the restaurant... The real world already has UI for that! Navigat…

translations with subtitles in real time is one I thought of.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN