At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom • Hacker News Board

Re: At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom

#41

Post by hkmurakami » Fri, May 17, 2013, 3:40 PM UTC

kaolinite wrote: post #40

In Japan and some other countries, there is a law requiring cameras to make loud noises so pictures cannot be taken discreetly. I wonder if this will apply to Glass and, if so, what Google will do to enable Glass to be sold in Japan. Is there even an external speaker with which they could make the noise? ( http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/32442/jurisdictio... )

I travelled to Japan in February and noticed that my Nexus 4 suddenly started to make shutter sounds when I snapped photos there, after I connected to my friend's wifi hotspot. Something similar will be implemented in Glass for sure. Of course, there are many workarounds around this, including separate camera applications.

Re: At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom

#42

Post by DanBC » Fri, May 17, 2013, 3:40 PM UTC

Creepers have been creeping for years and years and years.

They peer through curtains; they make spyholes in cubicle walls, and with digital cameras they hide cameras in ceilings and books and showers and shoes.

Voyeuristic porn is a category. Upskirt is word popular enough to have an understood meaning.

I'm a bloke. I'm not worried by those creepers.

But I am uneasy about some users of Google Glass. I'd be really uncomfortable if I was standing at a urinal and someone was next to me still wearing Google Glass.

Re: At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom

#43

Post by jjsz » Fri, May 17, 2013, 3:40 PM UTC

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #20

Nrsolis wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't take a genius to see how cameras in a bathroom could be abused. I wouldn't expect every person who potentially faces Internet-scale humiliation that might come from the prospect of their private parts ending up on someone's FB page to simply shrug it off. I'm counting the days till some Glass-wearing hipster gets his head shoved in a toilet for crap like this. When it happens, I expect THAT will be filmed…

Man, wait till the teenagers start getting class. Sexts are already so common, this is going to be a huge problem.

The majority of teenagers don't upload their sexts or videos. Sometimes it's done to humiliate others, but it usually goes on Facebook. This doesn't change anything.

Re: At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom

#44

Post by lifeisstillgood » Fri, May 17, 2013, 3:41 PM UTC

Memo to Wearable computing engineers:

Remember where I have been and what I have done, or tell me where to go and what to do in the future.

Just stay out of the way of the now.

Re: At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom

#45

Post by magicalist » Fri, May 17, 2013, 3:41 PM UTC

cs702 wrote: post #4

This is a well-written piece, simultaneously praising and mocking Google Glass, with lots of memorable passages that made me smile or laugh. Let me quote just one of them: "At one point as I climbed the stairs and approached the second floor, I saw a group of five people wearing Google Glass, all silently staring off into space. I couldn’t tell if they were wirelessly having a conversation through their eyeballs, or…

Really? I thought it was rather silly, rhetorical to a fault. Just about every single one of those "memorable passages" had the alternate explanation of "they were doing this thing that people normally do, but they had Glass on".

There's some insight there, but the author missed it in getting so focused on zombies with glass, and people with cameras in the bathroom.

Re: At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom

#46

Post by _ak » Fri, May 17, 2013, 3:42 PM UTC

ignostic wrote: post #2

We should never have had any expectation of privacy in public places. I think what scares most people is that they're going to end up on the internet for some reason. Perhaps this shows how self-obsessed we are: to think that anyone is going to care about us walking down the street minding our own business. Maybe it's the uncertainty that makes people uneasy. I can walk down the street recording everyone with my smar…

> We should never have had any expectation of privacy in public places.

I fully agree, but I see this from another perspective. In the past, people in public didn't care so much when they were photographed or filmed in public. Nowadays, so many people in public will claim privacy or their personal rights.

This change in attitude has brought the art form of street photography nearly to extinction. In the past, people often ignored photographers, while nowadays, some people will demand you delete pictures, try to take your camera to smash it, or even threaten to call the police even though they just accidentally ran into your view finder.

In Germany, some privacy fundamentalists have already threatened that are going to destroy Google Glasses when they meet people who use them, and call that "digital self-defense".

Re: At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom

#47

Post by coherentpony » Fri, May 17, 2013, 3:42 PM UTC

Google Glass, while intriguing at first, is something that deeply troubles me.

Re: At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom

#48

Post by kwamenum86 » Fri, May 17, 2013, 3:42 PM UTC

magicalist wrote: post #45

cs702 wrote: post #4

This is a well-written piece, simultaneously praising and mocking Google Glass, with lots of memorable passages that made me smile or laugh. Let me quote just one of them: "At one point as I climbed the stairs and approached the second floor, I saw a group of five people wearing Google Glass, all silently staring off into space. I couldn’t tell if they were wirelessly having a conversation through their eyeballs, or…

Really? I thought it was rather silly, rhetorical to a fault. Just about every single one of those "memorable passages" had the alternate explanation of "they were doing this thing that people normally do, but they had Glass on". There's some insight there, but the author missed it in getting so focused on zombies with glass, and people with cameras in the bathroom.

that's kind of the point...

Re: At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom

#49

Post by lifeisstillgood » Fri, May 17, 2013, 3:43 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #13

>There they were, a handful of people wearing Google Glass, now standing next to me at their own urinals, peering their head from side to side, blinking or winking, as they relieved themselves. I wasn't there so I have to take his word for it, but... I really doubt that. Blinking, of course. People blink. But why, I cannot fathom, would everyone at a urinal be peering side to side and taking pictures of other people…

simply add another accelerometer - two shakes to download, three shakes to delete.

Re: At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom

#50

Post by jjsz » Fri, May 17, 2013, 3:43 PM UTC

If my glasses are prescription and I'm at a yoga class I'll be constantly aware to not stare for too long or go to the first line. It's a huge burden.