Nearby Glasses

(github.com)

102 points | by zingerlio 3 hours ago

12 comments

  • fusslo 58 minutes ago
    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meta-trial-mark-zuckerberg-ai-g...

    > Judge Carolyn Kuhl, who is presiding over the trial, ordered anyone in the courtroom wearing AI glasses to immediately remove them, noting that any use of facial recognition technology to identify the jurors was banned.

    I am not a believer in Zuckerberg's idea of humanity's future.

  • dec0dedab0de 46 minutes ago
    This is really neat, I gotta find an android device to try it. Reminds me of the good old days of wardriving with kismet and netstumbler.

    I am surprised there isn't an existing BT/BTLE fingerprint table that takes more into account than just what is provided. I would assume each device, or atleast each chipset has subtle quirks that could be used to weed out some of the false positives.

    the link in the readme for the identifiers doesn't work because it's relative to the repo, so it is below. I like that they did this, it's so much better than the OUI table for mac addresses, because some companies (cough cisco) keep getting new ones.

    https://bitbucket.org/bluetooth-SIG/public/src/main/assigned...

  • cpeterso 1 hour ago
    Can the app run on smart glasses, warning you of other smart glasses users nearby? You might not see the notification on your phone.
  • burkaman 1 hour ago
    Tried this on a Pixel 9, after allowing permissions the Start Scanning button does nothing, and there's nothing in the debug log. I do like the idea and might try again in the future if it gets updated. Seems like a good candidate for F-Droid instead of Google Play.
  • bryanlarsen 29 minutes ago
    Currently detects via Meta, Essilor or Snap company ID.

    So it won't detect my XReal's. I purposefully bought my XReal now because it feels like they might be one of the last models released without cameras.

    But theoretically I could have the XReal Eye attachment on my glasses, and could be taking video through that. I don't, but the XReal user next to me might.

    Of course the USB wire hanging from my ear probably makes me look suspicious enough already that the warning probably isn't necessary either way...

  • mrbluecoat 1 hour ago
    Add satellite imagery, nearby self-driving vehicles / Google maps cars, line-of-sight ring doorbells, peripheral street surveillance cameras, police equipment, people in your proximity with a smartphone camera, and various-purpose drones and then you'll have the perfect paranoia alerter.
  • p_ing 1 hour ago
    The dichotomy between the statement in the repo "False positives are likely" and the app message "Smart Glasses are probably nearby" is interesting.
    • burkaman 1 hour ago
      I don't think those are contradictory. Say each notification has a 90% chance of being true, so it's reasonable to say "probably". After 10+ notifications, each of which was individually probable, it is still very likely that at least one of them was a false positive.
  • toomuchtodo 1 hour ago
  • paul7986 46 minutes ago
    Bought my first pair of Meta glasses in Oct 2023 and overall I really enjoying using smart glasses! They are great for quickly/easily capturing life experiences. Also, while traveling or wherever asking and getting information on things your looking at - it's cool & useful. Tho Meta makes trash as my 1st pair died after 14 months of use after a software update and then my 2nd pair only lasted 4 months after some water splashes. I called Ray Ban for tech support and the lady on the phone agreed they are trash per how many calls she gets.

    I don't care to take pics of strangers tho lots of people who havent adopted them are concerned about such.

    Overall no more Meta glasses for me Im waiting for Apple's. They have tons of stores to get your glasses fixed and they don't manufacture trash that breaks! Also, maybe Apple will add a privacy feature so your pics and vids anonymize faces not in your personal network.

    • cole-k 38 minutes ago
      Are you making a counterpoint to the author's premise that smart glasses are an "intolerable intrusion?"

      I'm having trouble understanding the purpose of your comment since it seems like you're just saying the ray ban glasses are bad for a different reason.

      • paul7986 32 minutes ago
        I love smart glasses they are very useful for people who wear sunglasses and use their phone to take pics & videos.

        Of course with all new technology people fight against it. When I wore them on rollercoasters at Cedar Point in 2024 ride attendees said take those off and store them in a locker at the front entrance of the park (that kid / ride attendant hated them) yet as feb 2026 Six flags now allows smart glasses to be worn and 7 million have been sold.

        Overall I am detailing why they are useful, why I think they will be widely adopted and like many technologies before it those who are against them will adopt them too(its a counter argument here). Sure some creeps will use them and with that in mind Apple has the possible ability to solve that privacy issue as they are a privacy company (all pics and vids taken thru APple glasses faces not in your network are randomize/anonymized).

        • paul7986 12 minutes ago
          Also noting my disdain for Meta glasses due to their lack of quality and solid customer service Apple will provide.
  • tamimio 1 hour ago
    Need an iOS.

    But I think very soon the whole detection won’t be enough, because most people will have glasses, phones, CCTV, etc., I think the best is protecting yourself, so a cloak mask or similar, where for humans it’s barely visible but for machines it blocks you from being scanned or recorded.

    • luxuryballs 42 minutes ago
      an invisibility cloak! crazy times, maybe we can make anti-smart-glasses glasses that detect smart glasses and have an invisible beam that can target and blind the cameras
      • tamimio 27 minutes ago
        > anti-smart-glasses glasses that detect smart glasses and have an invisible beam that can target and blind the cameras

        I love it! I literally thought of something similar while writing the above comment, something like an EMP that disables all nearby camera sensors for 10min or so.

        • luxuryballs 23 minutes ago
          I’m thinking it could be active enough to actually obscure the camera recording in real time whenever you are in the frame, like an actual beam that goes into the camera lens making the normal light intake all distorted, so it wouldn’t appear to malfunction or fail, it would just be like a refracting smudge in the feed.
  • strathmeyer 1 hour ago
    [dead]
  • tantalor 1 hour ago
    I'm a bit torn on this because (at least in the sci-fi utopia stories) when a critical mass of people are recording full time then interpersonal crime and anti-social behavior is strongly discouraged. It's like an honor-based culture at scale.
    • emptybits 1 hour ago
      > It's like an honor-based culture at scale.

      Except the basis of that culture would not be honour, would it? A critical mass of people scrutinizing and reporting others' actions might lead to a compliance-based culture. It's different IMO. i.e. intrinsic motivation to behave well (honour, morality, decency) versus extrinsic motivation to behave well (fear of unpopularity, law enforcement, mob reaction, etc.)

      • pibaker 0 minutes ago
        It's like how people misunderstand trust. "I trust open source software because I can review the code." No you don't. If you need to review the code then you are already not trusting it. Same deal with "honor" — the entire point of honor is you don't need eyes everywhere to look for misbehavior. You trust people to do the right thing.
      • zephen 11 minutes ago
        I think you're missing the point. Or, on re-reading, the parent is missing the point.

        "Honor culture" or "Culture of honor" is the term for people who are thin-skinned, quick to offense, and worried more about appearances than substance.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_honor_(Southern_Uni...

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing

        It's all about a shame-based society. When someone is made to feel ashamed, they might lash out. It's practically the opposite of guilt, which is directed inwardly.

        At the margins, a shamed person might commit mass murder, while a guilty person might commit suicide.

        Before you get to the margin, both guilty people and shamed people might alter their behavior in beneficial ways, but they do it for subtly different reasons.

    • pityJuke 1 hour ago
      Yes look at this article showing all of the wonderful anti-social behaviour prevented by smart glasses: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx23ke7rm7go

      (hint: smart glasses encourage anti social behaviour for online clout.)

    • Etheryte 17 minutes ago
      Firstly, fear and honor are far from being the same thing. Second, we already have this in our society today via smartphones and things have not changed for the better. If anything, society is more torn than ever.
    • burkaman 1 hour ago
      Mass recording discourages social behavior, not anti-social behavior.
      • drawfloat 1 hour ago
        Recording people going about their day is anti social behaviour.
    • AlecSchueler 53 minutes ago
      Would you consider East Germany a sort of social Utopia?
    • thomassmith65 1 hour ago
      It will be a delight for anyone who ever wished there existed footage of every time they vomited in public or face-planted after tripping on a cobblestone.
    • bryanrasmussen 1 hour ago
      from my recollection in most of the stories that is the primary starting point of the narrative but as the story goes along it turns out what you have is a dystopia, which is what it looks like we would actually get.
    • phoronixrly 1 hour ago
      Which sci-fi utopia stories exactly are you referring to? Please remind me, because all the scifi with ubiquitous surveillace I recall are about dystopias instead.
      • morkalork 1 hour ago
        Right, this is more like Black Mirror S1E3 "The Entire History of You"
      • tantalor 1 hour ago
        I can't recall exactly but it may have been The Light of Other Days
    • roughly 1 hour ago
      50 years ago anti-social behavior included homosexuality.
      • throwway120385 1 hour ago
        Also included drinking from the fountain or sitting in seats or eating at a restaurant with people colored differently from you. I wonder what we're going to make "antisocial" in the next 50 years and whether or not we'll be punishing people for things we'll consider benign again in 75 years. The whole "let's surveil everything to stop all antisocial behaviors" might be going too far just like the idea that everyone should open carry to reduce crime.
        • tclancy 1 hour ago
          Can you show your math on how an example of the opposite of what the person you are responding to you can also mean the same thing? Feel free to skip if you live in a non-Euclidian geometry, but the OP was saying such a thing would have been likely to get people killed in the past for violating a society's mores.
    • jibal 1 hour ago
      That's the opposite of honor-based, and those stories are warnings about going down that path.
    • toomuchtodo 1 hour ago