IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2013 - 23

LEADING EDGE

Cyborg Cops, Googlers,
and Connectivism

I

rarely leave my mobile phone out of physical
reach or indeed earshot and it is almost always
powered on. It has become my camera, compass,
calculator, calendar and main communication
channel with literally thousands of contacts in my
networked cloud.
You may agree that this is not dissimilar to
your own current relationship with this disruptive
technology - in essence it has become your personal
electronic portfolio.
It might also occur to you, upon reflection, the
profound impact this technology is now having upon
your communications with family, friends, and work
colleagues. At a stretch you might even acknowledge
that your cell phone is "closer" to you than you ever
imagined possible a decade ago, and thus is, in rela‑
tive terms, wearable.
project Glass is a research and development pro‑
gram by Google to develop an augmented reality
head‑mounted display (HMD). The intended purpose
of project Glass products is the hands‑free display of
information currently available to most smartphone
users, allowing for interaction with the Internet via
natural language voice commands [1].
Known synergies exist between Google's founder
Sergey Brin and professor Steve Mann, University of
Toronto, who is attributed as being the "father of wear‑
able computing." So it comes as no surprise that this
point‑of‑Eye (poE) [2] innovation finds itself subject to
forces that now seek to bring it to market. While we
might recoil aghast at Steve Mann's predictions [3] as
to our wearable, portable, and existential future, we
must also acknowledge that this consumption of hyper‑
connectivity is simply yet another transformation in
humanity.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2013.2247731
Date of publication: 14 March 2013

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

|

SprING 2013

ALEXANDER
HAYES

Given that project Glass now connects wearers
en‑mass and ostensibly ensures that they can continue
with physical activity hands‑free, it creates arguably
one of the largest known veillance vehicles into pre‑
viously unmapped territories that humans already
frequent. A hands‑free, fashionable, and constantly
connected technology positions the product well
among the seemingly unending array of Google's
seamless and integrated services [4].
It is notable that Google's CEO Eric Schmidt is
attributed with publicly dismissing privacy concerns
as unimportant or as old fashioned according to
Dwyer, "When companies sell information for a liv‑
ing, privacy is not their priority" [5].
It now seems evident that this body‑worn technol‑
ogy is set to revolutionize the manner in which we
will interact with each other in the not too distant
future and conversely how others will interact with
that open and captured data thereafter.
Google's first "Glass Session" in 2012, which dem‑
onstrates what it's like to use Glass while it is built,
follows Laetitia Gayno, the wife of a Googler, "as she
shares her story of welcoming a new baby, capturing
every smile, and showing her entire family back in
France every "first" through Hangouts" [6].
The reality emerging from interactions in early
2013 between the general public and these body worn
technologies brought to market by Google are evi‑
denced in recent online interactions that are almost
certain to explode upon mass adoption.
"I'd also challenge your argument about
cameras. We're also constantly surrounded by
surveillance/security cameras pointed at us in
public and private spaces, but most of us don't
act much differently as a result, even though
those cameras are actively recording, because
we've grown accustomed to them" [7].

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