In Screen Time Writes Tech Reporter Rutger Otto Weekly about the Internet and Everything That Comes with It. This week he tests the camera glasses from meta.
The Ray-Ban Meta HAS Recently Become Avisable in the Netherlands. The Smart Glasses Have A Camera In The Frame That Allows You To Make Hands-Free Images. The Device also has speakers and a microphone, so you can listen to music and talk to meta’s ai assistant. For example, if you want to know what tree you encounter in the forest, the Glasses Will give the Answer. It all feels QUITE FUTUROSTIC. In that respect, I think it’s cool tech.
The Past Two Weeks I Have Tested the Ray-Ban Meta, The Sunglasses Variant. With a voice command or via a button on the frame, I take a photo or video. Only in Vertical Mode, by the way. Because you to share the images on Instagram. Filming Horizontally is not Possible.
Recordings from the Glasses give a special effect. You are direct looking from my perspective, because the lens hangs next to my left eye. Furthermore, I have my hands free to pick things up or show something. Also nice to record a walk with the dog. Or a bike ride, as you can see in the video below.
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This is what a bike ride in utrecht looks like seen through the ray-ban meta
But there is a downside to the ray-ban meta. At a festival in Rotterdam, a man was recently CAUGHT SECRETLY FILMING Women at the Toilets. This led to the Utrecht Pop Venue TivoliVredenburg No Longer Allowing Camera Glasses. Potential Creeps Are Not Welcome.
The Ban is perhaps a bit exaggerated. I think it is Easier to Secretly Film with a Phone, because on the Meta Glasses a Light Flashes Duration Filming or photographing. That flashing light is QUITE MOTICABLE. And you can’t turn it off or block it, although you can find some cumbersome ways to do someething about it online (drilling out the led for example).
I myself feel a bit uncomfortable with the glasses on my head. I am very aware that I am walking around with a camera on my face. And that the light comes on when recording. As a result, I constantly feel hesitant to make (innocent) recordings. In a busy shopping street or at a festival, I would think twice before shooting images. While I have no problems with that with my phone. That feels a lot less sneaky, because everyone is used to it.
There are rightly many objections about privacy around this theme. Should we want people to walk around and masse with cameras in Their Glasses in the Future? Meta Itelf Hopes for Success and Has Already Sold Two Million Copies of the Ray-Ban Meta. And it Doesn’t stop there. Accordance to Mark Zuckerberg, People Without Ai Glasses Will Have A Significant Knowledge Gap In The Future.
The Company also already has a model on the market that is equipped with a screen in the Glass That Seems to Float in Front of Your Nose. You can, for example, show a route or messages from friends on it. That brings new discussions with it. We are already massively on our phones. If Zuckerberg has his way, you won be able to look away from the screen at all anymore.