These Anti-Google Glass Privacy Glasses Keep Your Privacy Intact

It’s likely that after Google glass is available to everyone in 2014, there will be another company that creates something similar (maybe not as sophisticated) for cheaper. It wouldn’t be outlandish to think that in ten years from now, we will all be walking around with some sort of Glass-like glasses everyday. When that day comes, our privacy will officially be gone. Well, that is unless some of us start wearing these anti-Google Glass privacy glasses.

These are designed to keep your privacy intact if you want to go undercover. If you think it’s offensive when Facebook changes their privacy policy without notifying anyone, how would you feel if you were identified through facial recognition every time you walk passed a person wearing Glass? Is that offensive too? Does it make you wonder what is being done with that information, and whether or not it is being stored?

These anti-Google glass privacy glasses were created by Japan’s National Institute of Informatics. They are designed to block facial recognition algorithms. They also make sure nobody can take your picture without your permission. Just doing those two things will surely protect some of your privacy since your photos, time and location won’t be able to be posted online without your knowledge.

You might think you’d be able to get the same effect by wearing sunglasses, but sunglasses don’t block facial recognition software (since they only block your eyes). These glasses use 11 near-infrared LEDs, which shine a bright light which is only detectable by cameras that use infrared tech (humans can’t see the light). To another person, it will just look like you’re wearing a pair of glasses. In that way, they won’t obstruct communication.

The creators of these anti-Google glass privacy glasses realize that since their glasses only block facial recognition algorithms when it comes to cameras that use infrared light, they need to also create another type of glasses that can block facial recognition on other cameras. They are working on that now. For the moment though, this is the world’s only pair of glasses that blocks any type of facial recognition. There is no word on exactly when these will be available.