A regional Victorian woman says she may never need a guide dog again after using smart glasses, but says new rules restricting usage need more clarification.

For the past 16 years, Ms Biggin, who lives in Ballarat, has not been able to do regular things like cross a road or get groceries without the help of a guide dog. But everything changed for the mother of three when she got her first pair of smart glasses. She said she did not think she would ever get a guide dog again. Ms Biggin said AI glasses had given her independence she never imagined she could have.

But the glasses are not without their problems. Ms Biggin said she got stopped at least three times a week by people accusing her of filming them.

“Halfway through the walk I’ll have somebody grab me on the arm and say, ‘Oi, you just filmed me,’ because [the glasses] light up when they’re in use,” she said. “People automatically assume I’m recording them. It gets exhausting having to explain every time.”

Wait … people stop others in the street for this ? I get being concerned in toilets etc but in the street ? ffs

Anecdote, I understand her frustration somewhat, I was pointing my phone at the veggie chiller section in Woollies a couple years back on a Signal vid call to my gf to check with her to confirm what it was she wanted me to get and a 19yr old (estimate, I was 55) girl who was 2m or so away started literally shoving me and slapping me in the chest and yelling loudly “I was a pervert recording her.” I told her to “fuck off” even more loudly but didn’t push back; me 100kg 186cm, she 165cm 65kg or so, would have ended badly initially for her and then longer term for me if I’d shoved her in anger after being assaulted, it’s a bit of a shock being assaulted in a Woolies .

  • shads@leminal.spaceEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    Why would tech bros target a constrained market like the disability industry when they could target the much wider market of perverts? Honestly of there was any hope of these sorts of HMI devices being designed, manufactured or used ethically I would love them, tech enthusiast type I am. I literally bought in the first batch of the HTC Dream that reached my state, and bought the first Samsung Galaxy S (the first generation) that was sold in my state, I was the quintessential early adopter, really wanted to buy Google Glass back in the day. Now I am not and cannot be that person anymore, I see the privacy violations, the damage that unconstrained techo-capitalist manipulation is wreaking on our society and I have to be slow and measured.

    These pervert glasses are bad news, and the pervert isn’t necessarily the person wearing them. If I was blind I would still get the ick from the idea of strapping a device to my face that allowed a techbro to filter and interpret reality, there’s at least a few cautionary tales worth of material in that, see episode 5 season 3 of Black Mirror for one example.