Google Glass being on the top of the high-tech wish list for the 2013 holiday season, it's no wonder that we just can't stop talking about the "wearable computer" that will grant the wearer all of the amenities of a smartphone at the tip of his eyeballs.
But many questions remain as regards exactly how the Google Glass product will affect our very society, with some folks already worried about such issues as ethics (when is it appropriate to take them off?) and also privacy (if you can video record me and broadcast it without my knowing, is that a problem?).
We at iTechPost already discussed the issue of Google Glass' possible interference with public privacy, but now there's a bar in Seattle that -- months before the product has even been officially released -- has decided to ban the glasses forevermore.
5 Point Café says that Google Glass would indeed be a violation of its customers' privacy.
"For the record, The 5 Point is the first Seattle business to ban in advance Google Glasses. And a** kickings will be encouraged for violators." 5 Point Café posted on its Facebook page on Tuesday, March 5.
A few days later, 5 Point Café went even further to post another message about the Google Glass, explaining the bar has received many questions about the product and that customers shouldn't "buy into" the notion that Google Glasses are "sexy."
"They are really just the new fashion accessory for the fanny pack & never removed Bluetooth headset wearing set. What they really look like and who will use them below," 5 Point Café posts, following the quip up with two pictures of clearly aesthetically-challenged individuals wearing Google Glasses.
5 Point Café Owner Dave Meinert told the Luke Burbank Show that part of the ire against Google Glass "is a joke" that he hopes will "get a reaction" out of people on Facebook.
Meinert does concede, however, that "part of it's serious, because we don't let people film other people or take photos unwanted of people in the bar, because it is kind of a private place that people go."
Meinert describes 5 Point Café as "a sometimes seedy, notorious place" at which customers come to get away from public view, something that doesn't meet much accord with Google Glass' video-you/broadcast-you capabilities.
Why the 5 Point Café, you ask? Meinert says that due to the bar's close proximity to online megastore hub Amazon, he gets a lot of techie folks coming in. He continues that though he doesn't mind the tech folks wearing Google Glasses, they're simply not to do so in his bar.
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