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July 29, 2013 04:13 pm GMT

Move Over Google Glass - GlassUp Is A Less Creepy And Much Cheaper Pair Of AR Specs

glassupRight now Google Glass sits at the apogee of geeky, wearable technology. Last month, interviewinga Glass-wearing Robert Scoble, Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxmanmemorably debunked it in his opening question as “that thing on your head. ” Getting non-techie people to view Glass as anything other than ludicrously geeky is going to be an uphill fight for Google. Arguably, though, even more of a blocker to Glass adoption is people viewing the technology as the epitome of creepy, thanks to its built in camera. Sure a digital eye sited at eye-level lets you share a nice view of that mountain you can see from your hotel window. But in more everyday scenarios it also lets you video your fellow humans as they go about their business and that privacy intrusion is inevitably going to cause some friction. Throw in the whole NSA Prism surveillance fallout and stuff like this is inevitable. Add to that, even though Google has banned (even more creepy) facial recognition apps on Glass’s Mirror API it’s possible to envisage aworkaround that leverages Google’s Hangouts feature — which shares real-time field of vision — to get around the bar.Marco Vanossi,co-founder of GeoPapyrus, pointed this workaround out to TechCrunch — and demonstrates how it can be made to work in this video,creating a Hangout with a robot assistant called Dexter that then analyses what the Glass wearer can see. “You can share your camera view through a Google Hangout and the content in it (people, objects, places, barcodes, qrcodes) can be analyzed and identified,” he tells TechCrunch. “As a result, information can be overlaid on top of it and shown back on your screen.This means that the Hangout app, built and distributed by Google on every Glass device could be used to violate its own privacy rules.” All of which suggests there may be room for an eyeless Glass-style product which preserves privacy be being receive only — and therefore can’t be accused of spying. Enter GlassUp.GlassUp is a prototype pair of augmented reality specsthat does not include a camera. It’s currentlyseeking funds to start manufacturing on Indiegogo.The glasses are designed to allow the wearer to receive text-based messages and updates overlaid over the central portion of their field of vision — so while they intrude on the wearer’s vision, they can’t be accused of intruding on the privacy of the people around them. GlassUp’s creators envisage a typical use-case being

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/hdHkMJ60prE/

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