This Message Won’t Self-Destruct
So you can imagine enjoying your data at your leisure in public from the comfort of your smart glasses.
I’ve noticed many people comfortably enjoying mobile content like streaming during their train commute. Personally, I prefer browsing my mobile content within the confines of privacy rather than in public spaces. Occasionally, when I’m browsing on my mobile amidst the hustle of crowded trains, with someone beside me suspiciously eyeing my screen, I can’t help but think of those movie smart glasses. While Mission: Impossible 2 self-destructing smart glasses remain confined to the realm of fiction, I often wish there was a more sustainable way to enjoy my data in a public setting.
In my earlier story about envisioning broader public adoption of smart glasses, I explored how unobtrusive prompts exclusively visible to users wearing such glasses could elevate everyday experiences. The discreet design of sleek glasses effortlessly integrates into public settings and has already become a popular fashion staple. This stands in contrast to some of the recently introduced bulky AR devices like the Apple Vision Pro, which in its current form, may never find suitability for widespread public adoption.
With the emergence of new technologies, the intriguing potential often resides in their intersection with the widely adopted ones. Take, for instance, the interaction between smart glasses and smartphones in everyday scenarios. How might smart glasses augment our regular smartphone interactions? Could they introduce new dimensions of convenience or functionality to our daily routines?
In this story, I want to paint a scenario where smartphones could intelligently integrate with smart glasses, unlocking a new personalized digital experience. Although I haven’t delved deeply into its technical feasibility or business viability, I find it to be an intriguing possibility if executed successfully.
The need for privacy
Privacy becomes an escalating concern as our smartphone ecosystem integrates more sensitive applications such as digital payments, mobile banking and digital IDs. While solutions like privacy filters have offered a basic level of protection against ‘visual hackers’ in the past, they are not foolproof. A stolen phone still presents a window of opportunity for hackers to execute various forms of data theft, leading to significant financial losses for the victim.
The Current smart glasses problem
Presently, AR technology has the ability to overlay digital information onto the user’s field of view. For example, devices like the Apple Vision Pro can seamlessly display notifications, directions, or contextual information directly in front of the user’s eyes. Moreover, AR glasses can transform blank or seemingly empty screens into gateways to interactive, 3D experiences. Through AR glasses, a blank surface can trigger the appearance of virtual objects or animations, visible only to the wearer.
However, this remarkable capability comes with a drawback. The glasses tend to be bulky, making them impractical for everyday public use. Much of this bulk stems from the integration of components such as high resolution display, radio transceivers, batteries, processors, memory necessary for supporting various functions.
Exploring the middle ground
Is there a middle ground where smartphone functionality remains intact, yet it gains the capability to transmit concealed information to smart glasses capable of overlaying intended content onto the user’s field of view? This could range from a smartphone discreetly conveying hidden or confidential information to presenting a seemingly dark or blank screen streaming encoded content, accessible only through smart glasses. Thus, despite its appearance, the screen harbors concealed data or insights accessible exclusively through the smart glasses when worn by the intended user.
Imagine if mobile phones, instead of streaming the original video/audio in crowded public spaces, now displays encoded content. To the naked eye, it appears unintelligible. However, when viewed through smart glasses, a private virtual world is unlocked, revealing hidden layers of information and personalized experiences.
This idea is akin to watching 3D encoded content without 3D glasses. While viewing 3D content without the glasses may still provide some discernible information, a sufficiently intricate and dynamic encoding could render the content nearly unintelligible to the naked eye. 3D glasses serve as a lightweight example of decoding the content effortlessly. In contrast, smart glasses would require more sophisticated and dynamic decoding techniques to overlay the encoded content streamed by the smartphone. Similarly, this technique could be applied to audio encoding/decoding as well.
During the initial pairing of the smartphone with smart glasses, the encoding/decoding mechanism could be negotiated to ensure privacy. The encoding/decoding technique must be sufficiently randomized to thwart any attempts at third-party hacking. Assuming the heavy lifting is done by the smartphone — streaming and encoding the content — the smart glasses could remain lightweight, focusing solely on decoding and restoring the original content, much like 3D glasses.
Presently, AR headsets incorporate features such as scanning a user’s irises to instantly recognize and log them into their individual accounts upon wearing the headset. Similar scanning technology could be applied in smart glasses to authenticate the user before decoding private data.
In terms of privacy, the smart glasses can be programmed to selectively display sensitive information solely to the intended wearer, effectively ‘whispering secrets’ to the user while safeguarding the information from others’ view. Even if the phone is lost, the introduction of smart glasses decoding adds an extra layer of privacy protection. This effectively minimizes the window of opportunity for hackers to access sensitive user data in case of mobile theft.
Beyond smartphones — Collaboration through shared screens
AR technology revolutionizes personalized learning experiences by presenting educational content customized to the user’s interests and abilities. While this content may appear invisible or blank to others, it holds invaluable insights for the wearer.
Envision a new paradigm in workplace or educational environments, where a trusted shared screen acts as a central hub for collaboration among a team of smart glass users. This screen projects shared data, visible to the naked eye, fostering collective engagement. Moreover, concealed private data could be seamlessly superimposed on this screen, tailored to each individual smart glass user connected to it. Notably, decoding another user’s private data would remain inaccessible unless specifically shared, ensuring privacy and confidentiality.
Here’s how it might work — a portion of data displayed on the shared screen is accessible to all smart glass users for collaboration. However, individual smart glass users can selectively enable their private data to be viewed via this common screen, overlaying atop shared data. In this scenario, the shared screen exists in a superposition state, housing both public and private data from all smart glass users currently connected to it.
Essentially, this scenario serves to highlight how the integration of smart glasses with other smart devices has the potential to reveal an entirely new private world in public settings. Contrasting the control over private data viewing in public settings could unlock distinctive personalized digital experiences.
Will it open avenues for new content creation?
Popular mobile traffic such as streaming today mostly works one-way and its consumed with limited content personalization. The integration of smart glasses with other smart devices could hold a potential to revolutionize content creation itself. Encoding private data overlays onto regular data streaming creates opportunities for immersive, interactive and personalized digital experiences. With the emergence of 5G technology, a platform is already well established wherein new use cases can now harness increased network bandwidth capacity and at higher network speeds. This synergy of technologies not only unlocks new digital experiences but also could pave the way for unprecedented levels of connectivity and innovation.
Hopefully in the future there won’t be any need for such dramatic self-destructible messages. Smart glasses may offer a more sustainable and secure alternative even for the secret agents in Impossible Mission Force , to enjoy private communications in public spaces.
