Google's sinister glasses will turn the whole world into search giant's spies

They look like something you’d see at a Star Trek convention, perhaps worn with a pair of fake pointy ears. And that’s entirely fitting, given that these high-tech specs are about to propel us into a sci-fi future few could have envisaged a decade ago, The Daily Mail reports.

Google Glass has had the tech world giddy with excitement since it was unveiled nearly a year ago.
Last week, at the South By Southwest technology convention in Austin, Texas, a Google designer gave the first demonstration to a rapt audience.

This remarkable new innovation represents the advance guard of what Silicon Valley is banking on being the next great step in our addiction to the internet: ‘wearable computing’.

Apple and Samsung are working on smart watches, Google is developing talking shoes, but nothing compares to these head-mounted ‘glasses’ that can shoot video footage, search the internet or send an email, all at the command of their wearer’s voice.
To look at, they are nothing special, certainly rather nerdy, but put them on and you are immersed in what the experts like to call ‘augmented reality’.

Each pair of glasses is fitted with a miniaturised camera and web browser which displays digital information on a tiny screen — a clear plastic block the width of a pencil — just in front and slightly above a wearer’s eye.

The arm of the headset, which sits near the wearer’s temple, acts as a touch pad. By sliding your finger up and down it, you can scroll through the text visible in your eyepiece. To select something on the screen, the user simply taps the headset.
The device is also fitted with a tiny speaker, microphone and motion sensors which interpret commands based on the wearer’s head movements.

Google Glass does everything a smartphone does without the bother of having to pull it out of your pocket and fiddle with the controls. Text messages and emails can be dictated by voice command and then read back on the screen to check that the computer has heard — and spelt — everything correctly.

Want to catch up on the news? Wearers can see headlines and pictures and have full stories read back to them simply by tapping the frame of their glasses.

Wear them while driving and the glasses’ in-built GPS system will identify your location and give you turn-by-turn directions via Google Maps. Ask the glasses a question and the answer will pop up on screen.
At the Texas convention, the Google representative gave an in-depth demonstration showing how, in addition to voice commands, simple eye movements can also be used to control the device.
Looking up activates the screen and gentle head motions allow you to scroll through various different programmes.

Google Glass is expected to go on sale by the end of this year at an estimated price of $1,500 (£995). Already, tech junkies have shown themselves willing to pay even more.
When someone claiming to be testing Google Glass offered their device for sale on eBay this month, bidding went as high as $16,000 (£10,610). The auction was cancelled only when it became clear that the opportunistic vendor didn’t yet have the device.

Of all the promised features of these spectacular specs, it is the glasses’ ability to take pictures and shoot video footage and upload it instantly to the internet that is proving most disturbing.
Some fear candid camera snooping will become all too easy when no one realises that the person simply looking in their direction is actually filming them.

And it gets worse. According to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, the company plans to have Google Glass fitted with an automatic picture-taking mode, snapping photos at pre-set intervals. This could be as often as every five seconds.
While people may rightly worry about being photographed without their knowledge or permission, such fears pale into insignificance when you consider the true extent of the insidious reach of Google Glass.
Time and again, Google has proved that it has no time for that quaint old concept called ‘privacy’.