Google Glass, the futuristic, glasses-like device released last year by the Mountain View tech company, has been making headlines since it's introduction. The device connects to a users smartphone, and provides information on a small screen displayed above the users right eye. The real controversy of the device comes from its hardware: it contains a camera. That means, as the public has discovered since the devices limited introduction (not just anyone can buy them yet), Glass users can record pictures and video, seemingly without those around them knowing. Public trepidation surrounding this specific issue came to a head last month, when San Francisco tech writer Sarah Slocum reported that she was
assaulted and robbed for wearing Google Glass in the popular Moltov's bar.
Slocum was reportedly showing off the device to some curious onlookers at the bar, when another patron alledgedly decided to take (we're guessing liquid courage inspired) action in the form of snatching the device off of Slocum's face, and later stealing her purse containing her smartphone. Luckily for Slocum she was indeed using the device to record at the time, and claims she caught her attacker on camera (while that is great for her, it is ironic given that seems to be what the hubbub was all about in the first place). In the wake of the incident, some other bars in San Francisco, as well as a handful of restaurants across the nation,
have banned the use of Google Glass either directly or indirectly. Some, such as Willows in San Francisco, have
outright banned the device on their premises. Moltov's, the site of the original incident, does not specifically mention Google Glass, but has
since put up a sign stating that video recording is not allowed inside the bar.
This is not the first instance we've seen in which Google Glass is at the center of restaurant controversy. Back in November, a diner was
ejected from Lost Lake, a Seattle-based restaurant, for refusing to remove Google Glass while in the restaurant. The 5 Point Café, a Seattle bar owned by the same restauranteur, also has a ban on wearing Google Glass.
The debate is similar in principle to the problem faced by restauranteurs and patrons regarding the use of E-Cigarette's in establishments. With so many new technologies emerging every day, consumers and entrepreneurs alike are having to reevaluate long standing social protocols, and not all are in agreement.
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Source:
Eater.com,
Image Credit (Flickr)
Tablebases.com
