AI Smart Glasses Help Blind Users at Lower Cost and Raise Privacy Issues

AI smart glasses are allowing blind and low-vision users to identify objects, read labels and navigate travel without assistance, Abc reported. The devices cost about one-tenth the price of traditional assistive eyewear that typically runs $5,000. Sam Taylor, access technology lead at Vision Australia, said the glasses announce items such as a carton of orange juice and read use-by dates through built-in speakers.

He described them as a game changer and noted they also play music, read documents and place phone calls. Taylor has used the glasses with the Be My Eyes app to receive live help from volunteers while traveling across Australia and overseas. Wollongong folk singer Sam Noonan, blind since birth, bought the glasses immediately after seeing a demonstration at a Vision Australia Expo.

She has used them to record and upload music and to describe drawings brought home by her grandchildren. Researchers and legal experts warned that the same cameras can enable covert surveillance. Milica Stilinovic, an emerging technology researcher at the University of Sydney, said men have used the glasses to film women without their knowledge.

Meta smart glasses include a small LED recording indicator, though workarounds to disable it circulate online. University of Sydney law expert Barbara McDonald stated that recording a private conversation and publishing it breaches the NSW Surveillance Devices Act.

She added that posting such footage could also violate the Federal Crimes Act or the Telecommunications Act if used to harass or intimidate.