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Comment by bphogan | Hacker News Reader

I have low vision. The Glass is a wonderful tool for me. The heads-up navigation that helps me walk around in areas I don't know well is great. I can't read the street signs very well and having the audio tell me and help me "see" them better is great.

I think this tool has a lot of potential to make people's lives better.

But instead, people crap all over it and stigmatize it. And that's why I can't really wear it much anymore. I find it useful, but people call me a "glasshole" - especially other developers.

Fact: If you look different, people will make fun of you. Apparently that isn't something you outgrow as an adult.

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>Fact: If you look different, people will make fun of you. Apparently that isn't something you outgrow as an adult.

If Glass evolves to the point that it's mostly providing visual assistance for people with impairments, I don't think that people are going to make fun of it. But people make fun of tourists with their heads buried in maps, of people recording inane videos constantly, of people texting without paying attention to where they're walking, etc.

To rephrase that: people make fun of the behaviors that Glass seems designed to facilitate.

It's not because you “look different”.

You're pointing a video camera in people's faces without asking. That's very rude.

People don't actually care about the camera thing. It is a stated reason to dislike Glass, but the average person gets recorded in all manner of forms while traveling in public that it is hard to believe that the camera aspect is really what matters to people, not to imply it is the same as a CC security camera or a smartphone.

It is a small computer that's strapped to your head with a titanium band. I've worn one for extended periods, and I want to make fun of people I see wearing one; it is jarring and looks absurd. It is also socially acceptable to make fun of it, and how often is that true for something that looks absurd?

I'm pointing a camera at you when I read the messages on my phone too. After all, the camera on the back is facing you. Doesn't mean I'm using the camera.

The "camera in my face" is just an excuse. You're actually being recorded by other things. Anyone who takes the time to learn about Glass would know that the battery would last about 10 seconds if I had the damn camera on :)

That was the real "killer app" for a device like this. Augmented reality is one thing, but even having a wearable reader that could both magnify and fix colour and contrast would be a huge help to an awful lot of people. Or one of the killer apps, at least; many's the time in my youth (as an avionics tech) when I would have killed for a HUD that "knew" what I was looking at when I had both hands busy while crammed feet-only-out into a dark space about the size of a small microwave oven deep in the guts of a military aircraft. I imagine that isn't the only kind of job where something like that would come in pretty handy. But that's not kewl or bleeding-edge, just practical and productive.

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