Long Before its Official Launch, One Bar Has Banned Google Glass

Well, this comes as no surprise at all. Despite the fact that Google Glass is not set to launch until Q4, one Seattle bar has preemptively banned the product from being worn in its establishment. Google Glass, for the uninitiated, is a product worn like a pair of glasses that can present a heads-up display to the wearer. With Glass, you can do anything from take photos or video to search for a query or translate words into different languages. A robust piece of kit, to be sure.

Dave Meinert, the owner of the 5 Point self-proclaimed “dive bar”, believes that Glass is just bad news. It’s not hard to understand where he’s coming from, either, because if you’re a patron at a bar, getting “wrecked” as the kids say, would you want people walking around with headgear that potentially allows them to record everything?

In this particular case, the type of bar might also play a role in Dave’s thinking. “First you have to understand the culture of the 5 Point, which is a sometimes seedy, maybe notorious place. People want to go there and be not known … and definitely don’t want to be secretly filmed or videotaped and immediately put on the Internet.“

I agree with this thinking, but I do wonder what the differences are between smartphones and something like Google Glass. Smartphones can do anything Glass can do – they just happen to be larger, and likely more noticeable. But is that the only difference? For this bar, it seems so.