Steve MannSteve Mann’s EyeTap glasses.Steve Mann is considered by many to be the world’s first cyborg. He has been using wearable computers that assist his vision since the 1970s. Now he wears a display screen over his right eye and is connected to a computer and the Internet. In this edited interview, he discusses “mediated reality”; the coming wearable-computing wars among Apple, Google and RIM; and the brain-computer interface.
Are you the first cyborg?
Yes. If you look through the history of wearables, I was named the father of wearable computing, or the world’s first cyborg. But the definition of wearable computing can be kind of fuzzy itself. Thousands of years ago, in China, people would wear an abacus around their neck — that, in one sense, was a wearable computer.
Will we all be cyborgs soon?
It’s kind of obvious that everyone is moving along that trajectory. What I envisioned back in the 1970s was this thing you would wear as “glass” over your right eye, and you could see the world though that glass. The glass then reconfigures the things you see.
Unlike smartphones, where we have to look at our devices, will wearables look at us?
There’s research showing that glass looks at people, but now wearable computers are people looking at. You just end there, at “at.” That’s what makes it so deliciously wonderful.
What do you mean by “at”?
The use of the wearable computer changes with each person. When this device is your way of seeing, or a seeing aid, it’s how you see the world. When you use it as a memory aid, it is your brain. Consider an Alzheimer’s patient that can’t remember things — that person will use the device as a brain and as a memory aid.
Can you wear your computer on the plane during takeoff and landing?
They inspect it. I have all the right documentation for it, but they have a procedure for checking it over.
What about privacy? Is it lost when everyone is wearing glasses with cameras?
I call this priveillance, which comes from the French word veillance, which means to watch. If you and I were to meet in a coffee shop and you had an audio recorder in your pocket, what’s the difference than if you had a photographic memory and could remember the entire conversation? But, if there were a third party that were eavesdropping on us, that would be more of a violation.
Have your wearable glasses changed over the years?
My apparatus has changed a lot over the years. In the mid-’80s, my apparatus was quite a bit more onerous. I had a big backpack with a helmet system. I was stopped now and again. The new system is very sleek and slender. It looks like a normal product.
Your current glass is physically connected to you, right?
Yes, it’s a device that can be connected to the mind-mesh. It can be connected to the B.C.I.: the brain-computer interface. I usually have it connected to my brain. We formed a little a start-up called Interaxon.ca, where I’m experimenting with thought-controlled computing. I’m developing a technology that allows blind people to see.
Will all computer companies make a version of glass?
Yes. There will be Apple Glass, and Google Glass, and RIM Glass. These companies are all working on glass. I
think everyone is going to be making glass. I think we’re also going to have a glass war instead of a smartphone war.
Where does the word “glass” come from to describe wearable computers?
We’ve been using the world “glass” to describe my EyeTap technology, too, because when you look at someone wearing the EyeTap it looks like they have a glass eye. EyeTap is a device. It’s a principle. It’s a concept.
So is this augmented reality in our eyes?
No. Augmented reality just can’t work. Glass mediates your world; it doesn’t merely augment it. The first thing people will have to realize is that augmented reality doesn’t make sense. Augmented reality just throws things on top, and you get a certain amount of information overload. We call it mediated reality.
What is mediated reality?
An example of mediated reality is — this is something I demonstrated 15 years ago — was ad replacement in eyeglasses. I am a nonsmoker, so I can filter the ads for cigarettes out if I want. We’re not augmenting, we’re not adding — we’re actually taking some things away, too. It’s diminished reality.
You’re married with kids. Does your family wear glass?
My wife has worn glass since the mid-’80s — on and off. My kids wear it often. Recently, my kids wanted to see marshmallows burning on the beach, and I showed them how to start a fire with water in a bottle, and it’s very bright, so we used glass to see it better.