[_delirium]

> That would help, but I am not confident that it could be made as socially acceptable as for example smartphones.

I wonder if a classic-style cameraless HUD could alleviate some of the social issues while still retaining enough of the functionality. I mean it'd still take a certain kind of person to wear it, but people who wouldn't wear it who are actively angry at / frightened of Google Glass, rather than merely indifferent to it, seem to be so mostly because of the possibility that the person wearing it could be recording them at any time, without outwardly visible signs (while recording someone by holding up your smartphone is typically pretty obvious). The HUD itself doesn't seem to particularly anger people.

On the other hand, if some devices come with cameras and others don't, people with the no-recording versions might still suffer the same stigma, if the average person can't tell at a glance which is which.

[MBCook]

Removing the camera (+mic) would certainly fix the creepiness for me. Even then, it's still a bit of a problem. The person I'm talking to could just be looking at their Google Glass. It provides a new way to be obnoxious and self-centered, which sadly many people will take.

Truthfully, my willpower isn't that great. I might be one of them if I had Google Glass.

[_delirium]

It was definitely a somewhat weird experience the first time I talked to someone who was wearing something vaguely like this. I had a grad-school interview with Thad Starner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thad_Starner) in 2004. He had a DIY eyepiece he wore everywhere, with a chording keyboard slung on one side near his waist. The whole interview was filled with these weird moments of, "so is he making eye contact, or looking at something in his eyepiece?"

It was sort of an uncanny-valley thing where we were having a face-to-face conversation, but I was not quite sure which of the normal face-to-face cues applied. I don't at all mind different kinds of conversations, but to me an IM or IRC chat feel much more comfortable, because you just switch to a completely different interaction mode. Not necessarily less nuanced if it's people who are "fluent" at chat, but different, so it doesn't feel uncanny in the same way. Might be something I'd get used to with more experience, though.

[shliachtx]

Removing the camera (+mic) would certainly fix the creepiness for me - and make the problem you mention in the next sentence worse. Having a screen in front of your eyes 24/7 can only distract people. Having a camera and mic on it enable you to interact with your surroundings; and while not all apps will use them, it changes the focus and center of the device - thereby changing the way people interact with it.