Google's Brin: 'I Made a Lot of Mistakes With Google Glass' 34
Google co-founder Sergey Brin candidly addressed the failure of Google Glass during an unscheduled appearance at Tuesday's Google I/O conference, where the company announced a new smart glasses partnership with Warby Parker. "I definitely feel like I made a lot of mistakes with Google Glass, I'll be honest," Brin said.
He noted several key issues that doomed the $1,500 device launched in 2013, including a conspicuous front-facing camera that sparked privacy concerns. "Now it looks like normal glasses without that thing in front," Brin said of the new design. He also blamed the "technology gap" that existed a decade ago and his own inexperience with supply chains that prevented pricing the original Glass competitively.
He noted several key issues that doomed the $1,500 device launched in 2013, including a conspicuous front-facing camera that sparked privacy concerns. "Now it looks like normal glasses without that thing in front," Brin said of the new design. He also blamed the "technology gap" that existed a decade ago and his own inexperience with supply chains that prevented pricing the original Glass competitively.
What they don't know won't hurt them (Score:5, Interesting)
So your solution to people being bothered by your creepy always-on camera is just to camouflage it?
Re:What they don't know won't hurt them (Score:4, Interesting)
It is partly that ;but also (frighteningly) that people have got much more used to constant surveillance and cameras everywhere.
I blame tiktok for a lot of it but that isn't the point. 15 years ago there were still spaces where whipping out a camera or holding your phone up to film or photo were taboo; even if cellphones were pretty wide spread and most of them had cameras, a good portion of them really could not do hi-res or video.
Now days it is much more normalized, other than bathroom/changing/locker rooms I am not really sure from a 'social' standpoint cameras are really off limits anywhere anymore.
It is easy to not notice how fast accepted behavior changes these days, this is just another example.
Re: What they don't know won't hurt them (Score:2)
There were camera glasses on the market long before Google Glass was released, and yes, making them look like they don't have a camera in them was a secret to there not being a backlash against them. Not figuring this out ahead of time based on their example was indeed a massive mistake.
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Re: What they don't know won't hurt them (Score:2)
You're right, but your example of a hidden camera device proves the point. Out of sight...
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Yes! That's been the known solution all along. People wanted to punch other people for wearing obvious cameras. But wear a hidden camera, and nobody wants to punch you. ATMs and other public cameras usually go unmolested, and they're known.
People really are ok with being watched (they already were watched all the time, long before Google Glass); they just don't want it pointed out to them.
"I don't want to think about it" is our favorite way to get through problems.
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>"People really are ok with being watched (they already were watched all the time, long before Google Glass); they just don't want it pointed out to them."
1) No, SOME people might be OK with being watched, but generalizing that to all people is ridiculous.
2) It isn't just about it being pointed out. If anything, I (and probably many others) are far more upset about hidden recording than obvious/apparent recording.
3) We are not already watched/recorded all the time.
If I invite someone into my house, I do
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If I invite someone into my house, I do not expect nor would appreciate them recording everything.
See that word "everything" in there is already showing how far the window has shifted. Not so long ago I think most people would have found 'odd' for a visitor to be doing ANY photography in YOUR home. Now a friend visiting might easily say "hey let's take a selfie with these giant steaks I brought for the big game" never mind you are in your home, your kitchen a private space. This just accepted now, but imagine its 30 years ago (1995) and they busted out their 35mm. Would have not at least thought it w
Google Brin (Score:1)
Is he a friend of Tim Apple?
So if people don't know they're being filmed (Score:4, Insightful)
... thats ok then?
Oh boy, is this guy out of touch.
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Close, but not quite. They're ok with being recorded while knowing it's happening; they just don't want to know "too hard." Don't talk about it or flaunt it.
If they ask, you can answer "Yes, you're being recorded. I'm recording you, and so are those security cameras over there, there, and .. ah, I remember that guy from the Power to Perverts meeting last week. I don't see his cameras but I know he has a couple. Aha! See his left shoe?"
[Guy from the PtP meeting suddenly turns and stares back, having heard th
The glass was completely empty (Score:2)
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As first described the Google glasses would have been very useful in industrial environment and for jobs such as railroad locomotive and airliner maintenance - having maintenance instructions automatically overlaying your sight picure based on what you were working on would be a great thing for productivity and safety. Problem is that would have been billions of dollars in development of the hardware and the pattern recognition software alone. Then maintenance documents (drawings, procedures, etc) would hav
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Nerd (Score:5, Insightful)
He's just a nerd who likes nerd things and his wealth made him assume non-nerds were going to like his nerdy thing.
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He's just a nerd who likes nerd things and his wealth made him assume non-nerds were going to like his nerdy thing.
It was mostly nerds who had a problem with Google Glass... Most people didn't even know it existed.
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What world were you living in?
The idea has promise, but not like this. (Score:2)
I admit I bought into Google Glass with the intent to be a developer, and even had dealing with some startup companies that were trying to use the augmented reality bit to do some admittedly cool things. Unfortunately, the initial version was clunky, had a questionable API, was heavy, wasn't compatible with eye glasses, and made you look like a Borg drone. I could see the product making a comeback, but The Google Graveyard [killedbygoogle.com] suggests otherwise.
As for surveillance, I think that DarkOx is right. I mean, even w
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you cannot tell when an iphone is recording without view of the screen..
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you cannot tell when an iphone is recording without view of the screen..
Exactly. So Google Glass at least had a light. But I can record on my iPhone and just clip the thing to my belt. Nobody is the wiser.
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sorry, I misread your initial comment.
I'll give you 3 guesses... (Score:2)
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Similar pattern with Bill in Micro$oft. Start's a harebrained pet project ("Bob" at M$), then marries the manager. Sergey had at least managed to attract a female companion with his billions prior though.
What does "privacy" mean in a public space? (Score:2)
I get it—I like my privacy too. But let’s be honest: when you’re in a public space, privacy—by definition—is already on pause.
Every person you interact with has two always-on cameras pointed right at you. They're called eyes. They’re HD, low-latency, context-aware, and paired with a memory system that’s a lot harder to erase than a flash card. They’re backed by wetware that’s constantly observing, remembering, and retelling the story—accurately or
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Convers
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Every person you interact with has two always-on cameras pointed right at you. They're called eyes. They’re HD, low-latency, context-aware, and paired with a memory system that’s a lot harder to erase than a flash card. They’re backed by wetware that’s constantly observing, remembering, and retelling the story—accurately or not.
[...]
You call it surveillance. I call it receipt generation. Timestamped. Indexed. Searchable. Immutable.
I'd say the wetware recording is a lot more flaky and less searchable than the new data center version. And that is what I prefer. Especially, I don't want every moment of my life recorded for marketing purposes (because most lowest-cost/maximum-profit products suck these days), let alone for the class prefect to surveil me so as to keep me in whatever line he (or his headmaster, or the education department) feels is the appropriate flavour of the day.
I'm happy to be called out to my face if I lie or misbe
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I'd say the wetware recording is a lot more flaky and less searchable than the new data center version. And that is what I prefer. Especially, I don't want every moment of my life recorded for marketing purposes (because most lowest-cost/maximum-profit products suck these days), let alone for the class prefect to surveil me so as to keep me in whatever line he (or his headmaster, or the education department) feels is the appropriate flavour of the day.
I'm happy to be called out to my face if I lie or misbehave - society is about human interaction, give and take, negotiation, arbitration and adaption, after all - which I intensely dislike being automated to someone else's parameters.
Hey, I appreciate this—it’s a thoughtful pushback and not the usual kneejerk.
I agree with you that wetware memory is beautifully flawed—blurry, human, and full of grace. And yeah, once you add data centers and corporate incentives, things get sharp-edged real fast. The fear that this kind of tech could be co-opted to serve profit margins or institutional control instead of personal agency? That's a very real concern, not paranoia.
That said, I don’t think it’s inevitable.
I don
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Except with something like Google glass, you are not always in a public space. You are sometimes in my private home, or place of business. Do you take them off before you head to the toilet? Every time?
Also receipt generation, while sometimes catches people in lies, serious hypocrisies, far more often just forces everyone to live with every little mistake, word said in moment of anger, etc, forever. Nobody can ever let their hair down, and it makes life suck.
You're the guy who makes other people afraid to
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You're the guy who makes other people afraid to enjoy their slice of pizza at the office party for fear of dripping grease on their tie. If the guy happens to photo it decides to be a douche an wisper 'Man bob is such a slob, remember the office party last year, [holds phone open under the table]' could really hurt someones career, even if it is not really true but was a one time thing but isnt presented that way.
You can tell a lot of lies with those receipts...
You raise a fair concern about how AR tech might affect informal spaces—and I actually agree with part of your point. Context matters. If I'm in your home or your office, I respect your rules, and I’d expect the tech to support modes that reflect that. Basic courtesy still exists, even in the age of smart glasses.
But then you took a hard swerve into character assassination. What you're really upset about isn't surveillance—it's the loss of plausible deniability. You're not afraid people m
That's no big deal (Score:2)
All his other mistakes pale in comparison to the time he not only thought this shit but said it out loud:
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]