Google Glass Hacked To Allow Facial Recognition

July 18th, 2013

Even though Google banned such programs, the hacker community made it happen–fairly quickly:

At Philz Coffee in Palo Alto, Calif., a kid who looks like he should still be in high school is sitting across from me. He’s wearing Google Glass. As I stare into the device’s cyborg eye, I’m waiting for its tiny screen to light up.

Then, I wait for a signal that Google Glass has recognized my face.

It isn’t supposed to do that, but Stephen Balaban has hacked it.

“Essentially what I am building is an alternative operating system that runs on Glass but is not controlled by Google,” he said.

Balaban wants to make it possible to do all sorts of things with Glass that Google’s designers didn’t have in mind.

One of the biggest fears about Google Glass is that the proliferation of these head-mounted computers equipped with intelligent cameras will fundamentally erode our privacy.

NPR also chatted with the inestimable Ryan Calo, expert on all things tech.

Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington who specializes in new technologies and privacy, has suggested that gadgets like Google Glass or civilian drones could act as “privacy catalysts” and spur conversations and legal debates about privacy in the digital age. Calo believes the conversations are long overdue.