The creator of Nearby Glasses made the app after reading 404 Media’s coverage of how people are using Meta’s Ray-Bans smartglasses to film people without their knowledge or consent. “I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech.”
more at: @feed@404media.co
Github (APK) link, if you’re on a privacy phone: https://github.com/yjeanrenaud/yj_nearbyglasses
I mean, eventually there are going to be people with camera’s stealthily integrated directly into their eyeballs recording non-stop.
Like that black mirror episode letting people relive any moment from their past.
I just re-watched Ghost in the Shell SAC Laughing Man last night, and wouldn’t mind seeing these things get hacked with the Laughing Man logo replacing any face it was looking at, re-writing signs, etc.
It apparently works with the bluetooth signals which I found really smart.
Couldn’t people who specifically want to stealthily record people just turn off the bluetooth?
I believe Bluetooth is always on with the Meta glasses, at least the last gen. They offload everything to the phone. I got a pair as a work gift and only use them as sunglasses with headphones built-in so I can listen to podcasts on walks.
I agree but the biggest defense for this is to always assume you’re being recorded when in public even if you’re not. You never know.
The issue becomes relevant in private spaces, to me. Nobody with smart glasses is coming into my home.
Doesn’t this boil down to self-censorship in public? Better not critizise the government in public becaus you never know whos waring smart glasses…
I agree with the core of your point. I’d like to assert, though, that all people exert some level of self-censorship in public on the basis of the opinions of their neighbors and peers. Having to worry about powerful organizations like governments and megacorps also always being there (instead of just sometimes, or usually) adds a new degree of reason to self-censor, for sure.
Yes. You should have to censor yourself for neighbors and peers to have a functioning society. You should not have to do it for corporations. The line is pretty cut and dry and we should fight to keep it.
the biggest defense for this is to always assume you’re being recorded when in public even if you’re not
So women in July should wear tarps?
What posible application is there for this CreepTech?
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would these help lead to more arrest if assaults were captured on the cameras
It might also help find lost puppies, but that’s not a good enough reason to give up any additional amounts of privacy to the megacorporations or to a police state.
Everyone around you has a phone with a camera. Businesses and the government have additional cameras looking all over. The phone camera being less obvious and handsfree seems like an arbitrary choice of where to draw the line
There is no reason for anyone to be walking around and public with hidden cameras.
Is unsolved assault cases currently a problem? That sounds like an answer looking for a problem to me.
I agree 100%, but a thought occurred to me…would these help lead to more arrest if assaults were captured on the cameras. It sucks that such an existential threat to privacy could do real good. Forces some moral and ethical issues that techno feudalism is forcing on us, and we aren’t making the choice.
you should be reading more cyberpunk / scifi literature. There is literally the case for human action and freedom within the machine. And assuming that AI cameras are also the freuquent next step in police states. Do you really want this? Are you allowed to have ambitions outside the machine?
I would love for an AI machine to be all knowing and all pervasive. It honestly sounds like it could be great.
Except definitelt not because we know 100% that nobody could be trusted to be in charge of it.
Ofc I don’t want this. But I look at my wife and daughter and their safety comes first hence the dilemma. And philosophy should be considered as well.
Fucking assholes would sell out the world for a false sense of security.
Those who would give up any measures of Liberty to purchase any amount of temporary Security deserve neither Liberty or Security.
i mean… you can also just look around and see the guy with the dorky out-of-place classes…
I don’t want to have to keep up with the current styles of SmartGlasses from however many makers of these things there are at any given time. I am happy to outsource this awareness to someone I can find good reason to trust to provide me the info I need. Just like I don’t make my own vaccines, because I have no idea how to get the 5G that small.
You are thinking Google Glass. Those aint those anymore.
Na, I’m looking at the RAY-BAN META GLASSES and they look strait out of some 1970s/1980s “I work at NASA/IBM” movie. Still dorky.
now if i could get that app without a phone, and with a warning of nearby phones too…
Warning: there is probably a bunch of phones near you right now.
Prolly use a Flipper Zero
i wonder if it can detect the snapchat ones too.
meta is all about surveillance cant expect anything less
Wasnt there a ton of outrage and such incl people not being allowed on planes, back when google glass was released?
Why is it all OK now?
It still isn’t OK.
It is just that the technology became so small, you can’t differentiate with regular sunglasses anymore.
I mean you kind of still can. Wire frame sunglasses are still too small to have recording hardware.
They should be only with transparent plastic a flashing LED that signals CREEP in morse.
There’s a window of attention for public discourse and there’s fatigue. We, as a group, can only be upset about so much. It’s a tried tactic to just try to distract us with some crazy shit, like Trump did with the alien files. If one crazy thing comes up in the news, other stuff will drop from our radar. And that’s why people try shit again and again and again. Always in the hope that this time people are distracted by other stuff or are finally worn down enough.
Windows Recall has re-entered the chat.
Same reason our governments suck ass. Something unpopular tries to get passed again, and again, and again, and again, and eventually people get desensitized and worn out from trying to fight against it. That or it hits on the right time when people are distracted by something else bigger or more important.
Years of privacy violations going deeper and deeper under pretend of “progress” and “pRoTeCt the cHiLdReN”. I am glad that people started rebelling against Flock, and some removed their Amazon cameras following the Superbowl’s ads, but that’s not even close to how much we should be mad at these mass surveillance actors.
Years of privacy violations going deeper and deeper under pretend of “progress” and “pRoTeCt the cHiLdReN”.
I remember Google Glass itself receiving a ton of outrage actually: People hated it and anyone wearing one was made fun of (“glassholes” was a popular insult at the time).
Many years of indoctrination. When Google glass was introduced, it was just ‘a neat idea’. Now it’s a product, and therefore it’s clearly more trustworthy because someone is profiting from it. (/s)
This is fantastic, but from what I understand they use randomized OUIs, so wouldn’t they be undetectable or at least unreliable in detection?
You know what sucks?
In that AR glasses, in theory, are such an interesting technology with lots of potential, and certainly a piece of tech I would love to have and work with and on. Not to secretly record people, but to, well… augment my field of view with whatever digital tools or displays I would like. It would be so useful
It’s honestly kinda saddening to me that it most likely will get completely ruined by our current toxic relationship to technology. A step towards our ever increasing cyberdystopia, and not towards enchanting our limited lives
Obviously either way I don’t trust Meta, but an open-hardware device running a FOSS AR system? It would be nice…
I still hold out hope that this somehow could be resolved, and I would love to contribute to open software for these devices. Maybe one day soon-ish I will. My expertise should be well applicable, after all
but an open-hardware device running a FOSS AR system? Until these display my health, ammo and the direction to my next objective, I’ll pass.
It would be incredibly useful in construction. Having a digital overlay telling you exactly where to put up the framing for a separating wall, or an overlay showing the correct distance between screws, or where wires and pipes are inside a wall? There are so incredibly many awesome possible uses for AR in construction.
They are used for that kind of applications already. You put one of those on, and some technician remotely guides you in doing some maintenance while looking through your eyes. They can mark things in your fov, show you diagrams, whatever. Pretty neat actually.
Unneeded. We already have a tool for that it’s called blueprints, they haven’t failed in over 3000 years.
Blueprints don’t fail, people really really often do though. People measure wrong, or build on the wrong side of the line they’ve drawn. It’s not a question about “Is it essential”, it’s a question about “Will it make it easier, faster and less errorprone”.
Or playing Pokémon GO
Sure, that creepy 48 year old on the subway is just looking for a Charmander.
I always wanted to build an AR app for inside data centers. Imagine looking at a server and being able to open a terminal or desktop that you can immediately interact with on the floor. or have it display resource information like hardware utilization, temps, network throughput and configuration, etc.
it would make a difficult job just bit more manageable.
Pretty sure that already exists.
But it is mainly used for solving hardware problems where a technician can film whatever they are working on with their phone, and a remote technician can “draw” in AR on the image in real time to point towards the things that need manual interventions.
I really like the special tagged tape that could bring up AR tags and details about it. Organization and directions are so more useful.
It would be so cool to have something like this integrated into your monitoring platform. Imagine being able to “tap” on a switch in a rack and be able to view it’s mac table or port assignments
I’m in the AEC industry. Almost any implementation of on site augmentation sucks ass most especially because the tech nerds making them have a really hard time truly understanding the needs OF tradespeople and installers.
Almost all of them are top down implementations meant to assess tooling and field quality rather than actually acting as an overlay aid in construction (which, like, 90% of tradespeople worth their salt don’t actually need FYI).
Also, I’ve found, most of these tech nerds making this shit don’t know how to actually put a building together and are constantly flummoxed by the methodology.
I’ve worked in construction, and now work as a CAD specialist, so I know your pain, but the problem with “how to actually put a building together” is a very wide issue, also present with engineers and architects.
It’s already used in construction as a documentation device. Photos are big as a documentation tool and some inspectors already use wearable cameras as a tool.
The truth is that we already are living in the surveillance state and people are just going to have to “get over” being recorded in public by anyone that walks by.
I don’t like it either. But that’s the reality we’re entering into, where privacy isn’t a right but a privilege and that privilege does not exist save for some very select (if any at this point) places like your home … Maybe.
If you want to bend and spread, you do you. You don’t have to tell us to “get over” it and share your fetish. That’s a not-nice thing to do.
I’m just being realistic about the future. You already are carrying around a machine that’s listening and watching. You’re walking into and out of stores where you’re on camera. Hell you’re driving past however many cameras in your car or walking past them on the street, every business, every office, every space has cameras now.
Thus, I think eventually more and more augmented reality devices will be seen because people will come to appreciate their uses outside of just being recording devices once that concern is overcome. In other words, wearing AR glasses won’t get you default labeled as some perverted weirdo.
You don’t need to bend over and spread but we’re past the point where there should be any expectation of privacy in public spaces. I’m not saying I like it, I’m saying I expect our society to continue to move towards a surveillance model where privacy simply cannot be expected in any public space.
Do I think it’s dystopian and bad, yes, yes I do. I also think we need strong privacy protections for our private domiciles. That doesn’t mean my opinion is aligned with what actually is going to happen in our world.
I don’t want it but it’s what is going to happen and has been happening.
No, people do not have to get over that. People need to stand up for their rights. Being in a public space isn’t justification to have your movements recorded and logged 24/7. Stop being the fucking knee you coward.
I’m just being realistic about the future. You already are carrying around a machine that’s listening and watching. You’re walking into and out of stores where you’re on camera. Hell you’re driving past however many cameras in your car or walking past them on the street, every business, every office, every space has cameras now.
Thus, I think eventually more and more augmented reality devices will be seen because people will come to appreciate their uses outside of just being recording devices once that concern is overcome. In other words, wearing AR glasses won’t get you default labeled as some perverted weirdo.
You don’t need to bend the knee but we’re past the point where there should be any expectation of privacy in public spaces. I’m not saying I like it, I’m saying I expect our society to continue to move towards a surveillance model where privacy simply cannot be expected in any public space.
Do I think it’s dystopian and bad, yes, yes I do. I also think we need strong privacy protections for our private domiciles. That doesn’t mean my opinion is aligned with what actually is going to happen in our world.
I don’t want it but it’s what is going to happen and has been happening.
While I agree that AR glasses will become widespread, there’s still time to advocate for and implement privacy focused regulations. Especially early on as people are upset about the technology
While not perfect solutions, enforcing stuff such as recording LEDs and such are steps in the right direction
“Here’s a list of reasons why all hope is lost and you too should bend the knee.”
That’s all I read. C.O.W.A.R.D.
You’re a silly person, aren’t ya.
Yeah fuck me for acknowledging AR glasses or other AR tech could be very useful but it’s being limited by our privacy concerns that are basically theater at this point.
Truly I am so cowardly Mr big internet man.
What does this even mean? You gonna punch every other person you see?
Fuck off with your disingenuous comment
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You don’t need to actively punch everyone you see. Just punch the Nazis. For the privacy part, what one could reasonably do once the tech becomes affordable is to eg.: wear passive EMP devices or something similar that disable cameras near you (at some point, the tech has to fit in a space too small for EMP shielding).
Drop the cameras and microphones and replace them with a couple accelerometers and gyros. Paired with your phone’s GPS tracking, the glasses can tell where you’re looking without actually seeing anything. You can get handy features like a floating ‘turn here’ sign over your exit while driving with GPS navigation without recording anyone or anything at any time. Better battery life, too.
GNSS isn’t really accurate enough for this, especially in urban environments where there is poor line of sight to most of the satellites.
Tbh I don’t even mind cameras that much if they were entirely controlled by the individuals themselves. I have a much bigger issue with it when you’re streaming my facial recognition data to Evil Megacorp 2™ servers that also feed directly to the “Not Spying… Again” agency, though.
What about a camera that is covered by a cap that can only be lifted if they press the mechanical button on the side of the glasses?
You could still film things like posters to get more information about the event, while not filming everyone all the time.
Is that what you’re referring to? https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-facial-recognition-glasses These people have no ethics and no moral code. They know we’ll hate it, so they want to sneak it!
I don’t think that would work particularly well with AR: People get sick if movement isn’t synced up properly, not having any sort of cameras or sensors at all would exacerbate that problem.
If you are talking about a simple HUD, then that might be a lot more viable, but for AR and the tech we currently have, some sort of camera or sensor array is kind of a requirement practically speaking.
See, I don’t really want full AR. I want a HUD, a very small number of rudimentary AR features, like floating windows for text documents or videos, physical buttons on the arms of the glasses, small drivers by the ears for audio, and battery life that will last most of the day. I already have to wear glasses and if I’m paying more for extra features I want ones that will last the whole time I might want them, not just the six or so hours a day that the current offerings have.
If that’s all you want, making something that just clips onto your existing glasses might be pretty viable.
Except that one cool thing with AR is being able to have it tell what you’re looking at is. Not just positioning things in space. A lot of cool shit that could be done with AR, like real time text translation, object identification, etc needs some kind of camera, even if it just sees IR light. Lotta cool shit needs a microphone, too.
Using an AR display on those glasses with frames that thick is such a horrible idea. Google was on the right track with the HUD displayed on a frame-less prism that doesn’t block half your vision.
Last thing I’d want is to be in the middle of something with my hands full and the display bugs out, blocking the one eye, making me screw something up.
Last thing I’d want is to be in the middle of something with my hands full and the display bugs out, blocking the one eye, making me screw something up.
Maybe don’t cause your own problems.
I agree, it would be nice.
Admittedly, this is cyberpunk as fuck.
Should not be needed… but it’s a fucking cool solution.
Should be expanded for IP cams
Install this on kali nethunter and make glassholes pay for their crimes.
Paywalled article. Here’s the link to the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.pocketpc.nearbyglasses
Edit: it’s licensed under a license I never heard of. I’m curious, I don’t understand why it was needed.
“Why draft new licenses? Until now, there has been no standardization of this kind of source code license, even though it has become increasingly common. This has resulted in confusing and overlapping licenses, which need to be analyzed one at a time. Lack of standardization has used up the time and resources of many in the software industry, as well as their lawyers. The objective of the PolyForm Project is standardization and reduction of costs for developers and users.”
Seems like that exact XKCD about standards.
That license looks like Creative Commons Non-Comercial, which is not an open source license.
This is an unpopular opinion, but using licenses to actively prevent commercial exploitation of voluntary communal labor is not a bad thing. I would even argue that allowing commercial exploitation of free, communally-maintained software is downright unethical. I don’t tolerate this pejorative “it’s not open source unless the rich and powerful can exploit it” bullshit.
If you dont want corpos to exploit it, you go with GPL. Then they are forced to share back.
I like AGPL in theory, but in practice it never works like that. They are protected by a smoke screen — you don’t know if they are using something, how they are using it, or what they’ve built on it — and even if something did leak about their usage they are protected by money — the vast majority of FOSS projects won’t have the resources to pursue any kind of legal enforcement or reasonable remedy. In practice, they will use and build on A/GPL software while contributing nothing back in blatant violation of the spirit and intent of the license, because who is going to find out or enforce it?
This is not a remotely unpopular opinion, sharing is awesome and corpos can suck it
Thank you, I see this so often and it always irks me.
"oh but you’re limiting your reach with this license because companies won’t want to us— boo fucking hoo, maybe not everything is about market-share and having a morbillion downloads.
I know, and yet the code is open source. Confusing.
No, the code is available, which is not the same as open source.
They do call it “open source” in the docs though.
True, but I have no issue preventing commercial use. I view that as just as good if not better than traditional open source.
That’s called “source available”. FUTO basically did the same thing with their stuff after the community rightfully got angry over their use of “open source” in their docs.
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Say no more
Yeah I noticed it in the favicon too. Bad aftertaste.
Perfect response. Record someone without consent, it should be the last time those glasses are wearable.
I can’t speak to the laws in other nations but in the US it depends a lot on where they’re recording. If you’re just out on the street, it’s not only not a crime to record in public, it’s a protected right. So if you punch them they’d be solidly in their rights to mace you or break your legs, maybe even shoot you in many states. And then have you arrested and force you to pay for a new pair of glasses.
But if they were doing that shit on private property or somewhere worse like a restroom, give them the ol western bouncer treatment and send them flying out the door with a broken pair of glasses. I mean you could assault them out bin public too, but there could be some unpleasant consequences.
Breaking someone’s legs requires excessive force, so no, you would not be within your rights to break someone’s legs for punching you in the face. That would absolutely be an escalation of force and not legally defendable.
In order to shoot someone in self defense, you have to prove that you feared for your life. Its not a get out of jail free card.
It really depends on the state. Quite a few people have been killed by being sucker punched. So if you punch someone out of the blue they can say they feared for their life.
And breaking legs, the amount of force depends on the person. My daughter broke her own legs twice just by slipping on a stair a little. What if they’re carrying a retractable baton and when you punch them they hit you in the knee with it? Not unreasonable in a lot of the US.
Again though, its not a get out of jail free card. There needs to be a clear threat to life and limb. Just being punched is not an invitation to shoot somebody. Stop spreading false and dangerous information.
It also depends on where and other context. If it is an old frail man or a woman being punched by a dude twice their size it absolutely can be. I also said it depended on the state and I said maybe. I’m not spreading false information.
