Google Glass and Privacy

Google Glass and Privacy:

These Apparently Do Not Go Together Like Peanut Butter and Jelly

 

What is it that has people in a tiff about Google Glass?

Are the glasses distracting and causing people to crash their cars?

Are they just not fashionable?


Apparently, it’s neither of these. According to a recent study by research firm Toluna, 72% of Americans will not wear Google Glass due to privacy issues[1]. At this I chuckle since these same people are being closely watched and monitored when they enter a department store or even shop online. There every action is studied and their every bit of data is collected and stored for use to market without them evening realizing it.

Due to this unknowing, is Google Glass ahead of its time or are they too open about the functionality it holds? Is it something that is visible and not hidden behind cookies and computer code that people just don't like? Just this year, a woman was attacked for wearing her Google Glasses at a local bar in San Francisco[2]. A woman and a man ripped the glasses off her face and stole her purse saying they didn’t want her “techy kind” around them. So now people have the right to almost perform a citizen’s arrest on those that wear Google Glass?

If you think this is absurd, take a look at this new website called “Stop The Cyborgs”. The site is dedicated to banning Google Glass and setting up designated areas around the world that are Google Glass free.

If you think that the government isn’t going to have a say in Google Glass then you are wrong. Eight members of Congress demanded a range of privacy concerns in a letter to Google’s Chief Executive, Larry Page. People are afraid and when people are in fear they can perform some irrational decisions (the bar altercation is a perfect example). What people don’t understand is that they are under constant surveillance and big data is collected at all times. From the moment they scan their loyalty card at the grocery store to the time they purchase that paperback novel on Amazon with their credit card.

I guess the old sang, “Out of sight, out of mind” really does apply to privacy and big data collection.

Written by Dan Cyr

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[1] Huffington Post article from April 7, 2014

[2] Huffington Post article from February 25, 2014

The future of retail: Augment Reality Dressing Rooms?

Bringing augmented reality into the dressing rooms is something retailers have toyed with for some time now. A few challenges face them before this technology can help convert more shoppers into buyers. Be it online or in retail locations, the idea that customers can try on clothes without going to a fitting room is key, but another important aspect is the ability to share with friends real-time.

Retailer Topshop tried the virtual dressing room in a location in Moscow and it seems although the idea is cool it is far from ready to replace the real fitting room. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/11/kinect-dressing-room_n_860740.html)

Some other retailers who have introduced the virtual fitting room to their online stores are seeing that consumers prefer to see the clothes on even if the experience is not perfect. Before these AR rooms, shopping online was a little more risky. Now customers can see how a ring would look on their actual hand, on their skin color. Customers can get a general idea of how a garment would look on them, making it a better experience and reducing returns.

There seems to be hope for the idea of virtual dressing rooms, even if it is far from perfect yet. A few places for improvement are sizing, keeping clothing aligned with the user as they move, and the fabric texture and detail.

Augmented reality, in general, is in its early stages, but it shows a lot of potential for the retail industry. Buying clothes or accessories online on in stores can benefit a lot from this technology and we have yet to see to what extent.

http://www.dailydooh.com/archives/30991

Augmented Reality's Effectiveness in Treating Phobias

 Written by Joe Stangarone

Augmented reality holds a lot of promise for the future in terms of convenience and productivity. It also stands to be very beneficial in many areas of medicine as well. Given augmented reality's immersive experience and ability to blend the real world with the virtual, the field of psychology will by no means be left out of the many benefits augmented reality has to offer.

One area of psychology in particular that may benefit from augmented reality is the treatment of phobias. Treating people with certain phobias can be a daunting task. This is especially true when it comes to dealing with phobias that involve insects or other animals. Treatment at some point will involve exposure to the phobia, and in the case of live animals, that exposure can be difficult to control. Animals, especially insects, can be very unpredictable. Because of this, therapist can run into trouble during the exposure phase of treatment - which can be a critical time for the patient's progress in overcoming their phobias. The animals may not act in the patient's best interest and there is a real element of danger for the patient in some cases. Furthermore, the exposure can involve gaining access to difficult or impossible places to reach, or the exposure sometimes may have to be in a public setting. All of which can make this portion of the treatment more difficult than it needs to be.

Fortunately, augmented reality can help mitigate all these issues, as a promising program developed by M. Carmen Juan, Mariano Alcañiz, and Carlos Monserrat at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Cristina Botella at the Universitat Jaume I and Rosa M. Baños and Belen Guerrero at the Universidad de Valencia has shown. With this program therapists were able to overlay virtual insects upon the real world. Not only were the therapists able to control the number and actions of the virtual insects, they were able to do it in the environment of their choosing with no danger introduced to the patients. This augmented reality system also holds an advantage over fully virtual reality systems because with it the patiences see their actual hands, arms and surrounding environment. Because of this, the experience of being exposed to their virtual phobias feels more real, hence advancing the treatment more efficiently.

This program holds a lot of promise for the future treatment of phobias. This was stated not only by the individuals responsible for its design, but by the patients as well. Anxiety scores were greatly lowered after the treatment, and the time needed to reduce the patient's fear was shorter than other VR experiments. Furthermore, a questionnaire filled out by all patients in the study showed that they felt completely immersed in the experience, with feelings of anxiety equal to what they would have experienced had the insects been real.

Augmented reality is a technology in its infancy and  is already showing great potential for the treatment of phobias. With this and other areas of health, it is not hard to predict that augmented reality has the potential to make the real world a better place for many people.

What Will Augmented Reality Do to Our Privacy and Basic Instincts?

The Future is Almost Here:

What Will Augmented Reality Do to Our Privacy and Basic Instincts?

Written by Dan Cyr

So let’s say you are walking down the street with your new augmented reality glasses on. Someone on the other side of the street starts to approach you. Before they even get within 10 feet of you, your high tech glasses performed a facial recognition search on the person and found out everything about them. You know where they live, whether or not they have a criminal record, where they went to school and even what their last Facebook status message was.  Finding out they are new to the area, you assume they are just looking for directions and allow the person to approach. What if you found out this person was a registered sex offender (public information) or someone that the police were looking for? What would you do then? Would you run? Call the police? Augmented reality is not only going to touch the limits on privacy and security, but the way humans behave as well.

Reflecting on this near future scenario is exactly what Allesandro Acquisti wants you to do. In his 90-minute presentation to the students at the University of Carnegie Mellon, he explains how augmented reality will change many things. He explains a scary world where faces will be the conduit between online and offline data. “Personal Predictable Information” or PPI as he references it, will be used to make inferences about you and they may be good or bad inferences. Like the situation above, the person could have been a convicted felon but a changed, rehabilitated man. With PPI in the mix, the person wearing the AR glasses would most likely walk in the opposite direction since an inference was made on that other person’s PPI. The two worlds of online and offline data will be blended together where people will not be able to notice the difference. Social networks will act as the “real ID” for people and surveillance on people’s lives will now be easier to do.

With PPI and “Real ID’s” in social networks, what does that due to our basic behavioral instincts? We were born with the “flight or fight” gene. What happens when we do not need this basic behavior anymore? How will we evolve? What will happen if our augmented reality device isn’t working and we are placed in a situation that may call for that basic instinct? These are all scary questions that Allesandro wants us to be ready for. This is why he ends his presentation with almost a warning and says “be prepared for what the future has in store for us” with a reference to the Minority Report.

Are we ready?

Video: “Privacy in the Age of Augmented Reality” by Allesandro Acquisti