Google Glass elicits strong emotions from folks, but so far it hasn’t caused any major controversy. But as such wearables become more commonplace, societal norms and even laws will have to be put in place as to how such devices may be used. Today, the US judicial branch has set an interesting precedent by clearing a driver who had been driving while wearing Google Glass.
The court found Cecilia Abadie to be innocent after a policeman cited her for “driving while using a visible monitor”, a law which usually stops people from watching TV while driving. The policeman said that he believes the use of Google Glass and other such devices should fall under this category, but the judge disagreed citing there was no evidence that the device was actually on when the driver was stopped.
While this is a very interesting precedent and will, no doubt, be cited in the future, it all comes back to one of the central issues with Google’s device: the lack of an indicator of when the device is in use.
This problem is at the heart of all the controversy surrounding Glass, and no doubt a problem that will have to be given more thought to in the future.
Source: BBC | Image via Wikipedia