In the “old days,” if you needed eyeglasses, you booked an appointment with your optometrist and underwent an extensive eye exam. You were then given a prescription for new eyeglass lenses. You chose a pair of frames that looked good on you. Your eyeglasses were constructed, then fitted to your face, and off you went until you needed a new script. While seeing your optometrist is still of the utmost importance, since they not only examine the current state of your eyesight but can also test for early signs of other diseases like glaucoma and even diabetes, the digital age has ushered in lots of new online options for the seeing impaired.
For instance, you can now choose frames online and be fitted by digital means right over your smartphone. There’s even an app for determining your precise eyeglass lens prescription. If you so choose, you never have to leave the house in order to have your eyes scanned and fitted for a new pair of eyeglasses. In a word, the business of eyeglasses has gotten “smart.”
Now social media is getting in on the action. A recent report states that Facebook has partnered with the famous Ray-Ban eyeglass brand to launch a new series of “smart glasses” that come engineered with two tiny hidden cameras that can secretly record video and snap pictures while you go about your day.
Coined, Ray-Ban Stories cost about $299 and are outfitted with open-ear speakers, a three-microphone audio system, and dual integrated five-megapixel cameras. The video captured can then be shared with social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and more.
The new smart glasses are said to be a part of Facebook owner and founder, Mark Zuckerberg’s grand plan for a social media, worldwide “metaverse.”
Metaverse
The term metaverse is said to have been coined from the 1992 dystopian thriller “Snow Crash.” It describes “immersive, shared spaces accessed across different platforms where the physical and digital emerge,” which is fancy speak for spying on people, recording their actions, then publishing it without their permission.
Zuckerberg, who has been the target of a congressional investigation in the past for stealing his user’s data, views the metaverse as an “embodied internet.” That said, his next experiment might be placing an internet chip directly into the human brain.
Spyglasses
Eyeglasses and sunglasses engineered with built-in microphones and cameras are not a new invention. Snapchat is said to have released its own version of the spyglasses called Spectacles as far back as 2016. The glasses allowed users to record video secretly and snap pictures of their immediate surroundings and the people who occupied them. Now, Facebook, in collaboration with Ray-Ban, has launched a line of far more stylish smart glasses and sunglasses that contain two hidden cameras and microphones. They will allow the user to secretly take videos and photos of other people while on the go.
The captured videos and images will then be shared from a smartphone app to your favorite social media sites like Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook. An invasion of privacy? Perhaps, but the legalities and illegalities of the smart glasses remain to be seen (pardon the pun).
Smart Glasses Specs
Said to be available in the Meteor, Round, and Wayfarer eyeglass varieties, smart glasses will allow the user to share video via a user-friendly, companion smartphone app. The glasses’ camera weighs in at 1.7oz or 50g. The sound is a Dual 5MP amp. The microphone is embedded while the speaker is open-ear. The glasses also come with a triple array companion app.
Facebook View Price is said to be $299. As of early September 2021, the eyeglasses are available on the global marketplace.
Marketing and Legalities
In terms of marketing, Facebook is shilling the smart glasses as a way to “seamlessly capture,” listen, and share your most original moments with your friends and family via social media. But some will argue that this might be your way of sharing other people’s most authentic moments without their being aware of it. Says Andrew Bosworth, Facebook Vice President of Reality Labs, Ran-Ban Stories is engineered to assist folks with living in the moment and to connect with the people they are not only present with but people they wish they could be with.
However, some analysts believe that legal problems stemming from the smart glasses loom large for the mega social media giant since they will no doubt infringe on people’s civil liberties and make it difficult for innocent people to avoid being on camera. The deputy executive director and general counsel for the Electronic Frontier, Kurt Opsahl, recently stated that the rising popularity of smart glasses and Ran-Ban Stories might further eat away at any sense of privacy you might get in a public setting.
