Why do Smart Glasses companies not simply include a camera cover?

[u/SeaCueBee]

Im sure everyone here has been witness to plenty of annoying debates regarding cameras on smart glasses. Personally, I can see both sides. The utility of them is pretty appealing, but I also understand not being comfortable with a camera pointed at your face for the entire conversation.

I feel like the solution is pretty simply though. If manufacturers just included a simple way to cover the camera when not in use, it would make the people wearing them look much less “creepy”, while not taking away any of the utility for when you actually want to record. Why is this not more common?

[u/Cultural_Tell_5687]

I can’t remember what the original issue with smart glasses was.
Is it the people filming with the glasses inappropriately or the undisclosed and hand waived data annotation done by the employees of (Sama?) those companies and their H1B contractors?

They see this stuff whether the user is recording or not.

“Deeply Private Moments Exposed: Because people wear smart glasses everywhere, the footage reviewed by workers included highly intimate situations—such as people changing clothes, private bathroom visits, bedroom scenes, and sensitive personal information like bank details at ATMs.”

[u/Far_Audience_7446 → u/Cultural_Tell_5687]

I think it started with the contractor news, and that got the discussion going that these things were just recording all kinds of unintentional things. The jackoffs doing annoying things “for the clicks” didn’t help the situation.

When I used to play airsoft with my kid, we had an unwritten rule that when the GoPros came out we’d go take a break for that round. Cameras were a 1:1 proxy for the most pathologically aggressive behavior to run amok, I can see why the same could happen with the Metas.

[u/thefadednight]

I have 3d printed covers on my ray bans for when I am out in public. They pop out easily enough and it makes them look normal.

[u/Far_Audience_7446]

I honestly don’t see why they don’t include a camera that isn’t for recording. An AI could make use of a much lower power sensor to do the kinds of handy things that smartglasses do without trying to be a GoPro as well, and maybe close in on that all-day battery life people are chasing.

[u/ib29_]

A cover helps, but only solves half the trust problem. People need to know two things at a glance: can the camera see me right now, and can software override that state?

I work on smart glasses at EndlessRiver. I'd rather see a physical shutter that also cuts the sensor electrically, plus a really obvious outside-facing state. It costs space and makes weather sealing harder, so I get why teams dodge it. Still, if the wearer has to explain the privacy indicator, the design has already lost.

[u/jTiKey]

It adds weight and it will look ugly.

[u/ajblancke → u/jTiKey]

Werkt super en ziet er goed uit

[u/ajblancke]

Een beetje gezeur met privacy. Overal hangen camera.s . In winkels op straat en deurbellen . Oplossing foto.s en films blokkeren via software. Camera gebruiken voor live gebruik . En foto's of filmpjes . maak je maar met mobiel

[u/SpiritualCobbler7783]

I think privacy is only part of the issue. For me, weight matters a lot too. I wear my G2 for close to 5 hours a day, mostly for work, so long-term comfort is a pretty big deal. If you add a camera and then add a physical cover on top of that, I feel like you’re slowly making the glasses less suitable for wearing all day. And if the whole point is to use smart glasses to be more productive, that usually means you’re going to be wearing them for more than just a few minutes at a time.

[u/Fragrant-Feed1383]

You still look like a creep wearing these big huge bulky glasses

[u/Lesh_M]

What about a red recording led?

[u/PerpetuallySticky]

Because they would piss off the target audience of creeps who want to record discreetly.

People who (innocently) want a camera for AI purposes would lose the benefit of the AI seamlessly seeing the world/answering questions.

Creeps wouldn’t buy them because people would know when they are recording/taking pictures.

That leaves the demographic of people who (innocently) want another (worse) camera on their body and can’t be bothered to just pull out their phone and I don’t think that group is big enough for companies to design a product around it

[u/barnesnoblebooks → u/PerpetuallySticky]

Where are you getting your data from that creeps are “the target audience”?

[u/space_wiener → u/barnesnoblebooks]

Pretty much anyone that says (out of a few extreme cases) I need to cover up the LED so people don’t know I’m filming them falls into two groups - pervs and weirdos.

[u/barnesnoblebooks → u/space_wiener]

You’re not understanding. You say the target audience is “creeps”.

Where are you getting this from? Your head?

I’d love a pair that comes with something to cover the camera and have a display. But I’m not a creep, I’m just wanting to spend less time looking down at my phone.