Facebook’s bet on the future of online social networking will involve the high-tech facial computer predicted by the sage in science fiction. But when it comes to “smart glasses”, the company is not yet in place.
The social media company announced on Thursday a $300-worth of glasses created in collaboration with eyewear company EssilorLuxottica, allowing wearers to take photos and videos from their perspective. There are no fancy displays or built-in 5G connections—just a pair of cameras, a microphone, and some speakers, all of which are incorporated into a set of specifications inspired by Wayfarer.
Facebook believes that wearing a microcomputer with a camera on our face may be fun when we interact with the world and the people around us, and will allow us to further enter its virtual world. But devices like this will seriously question your privacy and the privacy of those around you. They also reflect the further expansion of Facebook into our lives: our mobile phones, computers, and living rooms are not enough.
Facebook is not the only technology company with ambitions for smart glasses, and many early experiments were unsuccessful. Google started selling an early version of the Glass headset in 2013, but it quickly failed as a consumer-oriented product—now it is just a tool for businesses and software developers. Snap started selling its Spectacles with cameras in 2016, but it had to write off nearly $40 million due to unsold inventory. (To be fair, later models seem to perform better.) In the past two years, Bose and Amazon have both caught up with the trend with their own glasses, and everyone has used built-in speakers to play music and podcasts. In contrast, Facebook’s first consumer-oriented smart glasses does not seem so new.
I have spent the past few days wearing Facebook glasses in New York, and I gradually realized that the most important thing about these glasses may be that they are not very smart.
If you see them on the street, you may not be able to recognize them as smart glasses at all. People will be able to pay extra for different frame styles and even prescription lenses, but most of the pair I used in the past week looked like a standard pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses.
To its credit, Facebook and EssilorLuxottica feel that they also look like standard sunglasses-the arms are much thicker than usual, and all the sensors and components inside can be installed, but they never feel bulky or uncomfortable. Even better, they are only a few grams heavier than Wayfarers you may already own.
Facebook’s grand idea here is that by putting a device that can take photos, take videos, and play music on your face, you can spend more time living in the present and reduce the time you spend with your phone. Ironically, however, these glasses are not particularly good in any of these aspects.
Take a pair of 5-megapixel cameras next to each lens as an example-when you’re out in broad daylight, they can take some nice still images, but compared to the 12-megapixel photos that many normal smartphones can take, they look Pale and unable to capture. I can say the same about video quality. The result usually looks good enough to spread on TikTok and Instagram, but you can only shoot a 30-second clip. And because only the right camera can record video-and square video, the same is true-the vantage point seen in your lens often feels a bit uncoordinated.
Facebook says that all these images remain encrypted on the glasses until you transfer them to the Facebook View app on your smartphone, where you can edit them and export them to the social media platform of your choice. Facebook’s software provides you with some options for modifying files, such as splicing multiple clips into a neat little “montage”, but the tools provided sometimes feel too limited to produce the results you want.
The fastest way to start taking a photo or recording a video is to reach out and click the button on the right arm of the glasses. Once you start capturing the world in front of you, people around you will know, thanks to the single bright white light emitted when you are recording. According to Facebook, people will be able to see the indicator from 25 feet away, and theoretically, if they want, they have a chance to slip out of your field of vision.
But this assumes a certain level of understanding of Facebook’s design, which most people don’t have in the first place. (After all, these are very niche gadgets.) A wise word: if you see a part of someone’s glasses lit up, you might show up in your next social media post.
What other speakers? Well, they can’t drown the hustle and bustle of subway cars, but they are pleasing enough to distract me during long walks. They are also loud enough to be used for making calls, although you have to deal with the embarrassment of not speaking loudly to anyone. There is only one problem: these are open-air speakers, so if you can hear your music or the person on the other end of the phone, other people may also be able to hear it. (That is, they need to be very close to you to be able to eavesdrop effectively.)
The right arm of the glasses is touch-sensitive, so you can tap it to jump between music tracks. And Facebook’s new voice assistant has been integrated into the frame, so you can tell your sunglasses to take a photo or start recording a video.
I bet you-or someone you know-wants to know if a company like Facebook will listen to you through your phone’s microphone. I mean, how can the ads you receive feel so personal?
The real answer is that these companies don’t need our microphones; the behavior we provide them is sufficient to effectively serve us ads. But this is a product you should wear on your face, partly made by a company with a long and suspicious history in privacy protection, and it has a microphone in it. How could Facebook reasonably expect someone to buy these, let alone wear them for the five hours or so it takes to drain the battery?
To some extent, the company’s answer is to prevent smart glasses from acting too smart. In the case of Facebook’s voice assistant, the company insisted on listening only to the “Hey, Facebook” wake-up phrase. Even so, you can only ask for three things after that: take a picture, record a video, and stop recording. Facebook will almost certainly teach new tricks to its Siri competitors soon, but turning off these listening features altogether is very simple and may be a good idea.
The company’s deliberate ignorance does not stop there. When you take a photo with your smartphone, your location is likely to be embedded in the image. This cannot be said for these Ray-Bans, because they do not contain GPS or any other type of location tracking components. I checked the metadata of every photo and video I took, and my location did not appear in any of them. Facebook confirms that it will also not look at your photos and videos stored in the Facebook View application to target ads-this only happens when you share the media directly on Facebook.
Except for your smartphone, these glasses don’t know how to work well with anything. Facebook says that even if someone knows how to access your files, they will remain encrypted until they are transferred to your phone-and only to your phone. For nerds like me who like to dump these videos to my computer for editing, this is a bit disappointing. However, I understand why: more connections mean more vulnerabilities, and Facebook can’t put any of these in front of your eyes.
Whether these protective features are sufficient to comfort anyone is a very personal choice. If Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s grand plan is to make powerful augmented reality glasses comfortable for all of us, then it can’t scare people so early.
Post time: Sep-14-2021