Smart glasses misuse is making headlines, but for visually impaired people like Richard Boggie, AI glasses are a genuine assistive technology that supports independence, safety and connection. Read his perspective here.
Concerns about the misuse of AI and smart glasses.
I’ve been really concerned by the recent misuse of AI/Smart glasses.
I am also appalled at the way some people are using the technology. It’s exploitative and inappropriate, but I’m worried that the public reaction to this misuse will lead to genuine users being challenged.
The recent addition of a pair of Meta glasses to my collection of assistive technologies has been a real game changer. They help me stay safe, understand what’s around me and communicate with friends and family.
How smart glasses help me navigate and understand my surroundings.
Having a video camera built into your glasses provides an amazing range of functionality, especially when linked with AI or other helpful apps. It can help give me navigation to a destination, or describe the scene in front of me. Especially helpful when trying to locate a shop, or when an unexpected obstacle has appeared, like building work. Despite living in Newcastle for nearly 40 years, I do occasionally get lost. And it’s been super helpful to connect up to a friend or a volunteer who can use my glasses’ video feed to help get me back on track.
Why hands-free matters when you use a cane or guide dog.
A lot of these functions can be done using a phone, but it’s much easier to do it hands free. I find I’m quite good at orientating my head to get a good shot of something, much better than I could do trying to point a phone. And hands free operation is great when, like most visually impaired people, I always have one hand taken up with either a cane or a dog harness.
Staying connected with family and friends
One thing I hadn’t anticipated is that the glasses have helped me connect more with family and friends by joining in with photo and video sharing much more. Now I too can bore people with pictures of my dinner!
Smart glasses and personal safety
On a more serious note, they also offer a little more security. If I find myself in a situation where I feel vulnerable. I like that I can quickly snap a photo or record a video.
Smart glasses bans and reasonable adjustments under UK law
So, I hope businesses thinking of banning customers from using smart glasses. That they don’t bring in restrictive policies that impact genuine users of this technology. They need to take account of the needs of people using them as assistive technology. And make the appropriate reasonable adjustments required of them by UK law.
