These Smart Glasses Come With a Cover for the Camera

The Inmo Go 3 smart glasses seemingly added a camera cover, right, in response to privacy conncerns.

As smart glasses begin to unleash havoc on society — largely thanks to their clandestine cameras that bad actors use to make mischief — one startup is addressing the problem.

As Gizmodo reports, a Kickstarter for the Inmo Go 3 smart glasses shows off an interesting feature that may reflect the wave of bad news stories chiefly relating to Meta Ray-Bans.

The Inmo Go 3 comes with a “built-in camera cover” that “lets you use your device confidently anywhere.”

The interesting marketing language, use you device confidently anywhere, comes after various organizations and companies have begun banning smart glasses: The College Board banned students from wearing them while taking SATs, Royal Caribbean banned them from certain parts of its cruise liners, and the U.S. Air Force prohibited personnel from wearing them while in uniform.

Gizmodo notes that the Imno Go 3 previously made no reference to the physical camera cover, and it appears that it’s been added in recent weeks as a direct result of the bad press smart glasses have been getting.

Mark Zuckerberg himself was upbraided by a judge for wearing a pair of trendy Meta Ray-Bans to a court appearance, and yesterday PetaPixel reported on a judge in the U.K. who rejected a claimant’s testimony after it was discovered he was using them to receive live coaching while being cross-examined.

There was also a disturbing report which revealed tech workers in Kenya had been watching Meta Ray-Ban videos taken by unsuspecting people for the purposes of labeling images and videos for AI. “In some videos you can see someone going to the toilet, or getting undressed,” one contractor said.

Despite the privacy issues, smart glasses are booming: Meta is said to have sold over seven million units last year and is struggling to keep up with demand.

Apple is believed to be developing a pair of AI-powered smart glasses, and Google has been openly showing off the glasses it has in development, which include taking photos and immediately editing them with AI.

Image credits: Inmo Go 3