Smartphones already made almost everyone a potential cameraman. But there is still an important social signal when somebody pulls out a phone and points it in your direction.
Smart glasses remove much of that signal.
They can resemble ordinary eyewear while containing cameras, microphones and AI capabilities. Instead of periodically deciding to take out a camera, the wearer can move through the world with the camera already positioned exactly where he is looking.
Researchers at the University of Sydney have described the phenomenon as “ambient capture.” Their ongoing study examined hundreds of social-media videos in which men wearing smart glasses approached women in everyday settings and secretly recorded the interactions for online audiences. The women were filmed in locations including workplaces, gyms and beaches, often apparently unaware that the conversation was becoming content.
A stranger may believe she is having a private, fleeting conversation.
The person across from her may know that thousands–or hundreds of thousands–of people could eventually watch it.
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