Google Glass: On the implications of an advanced military command and control system for civil society.

Abstract

In the early 1990ies, the U.S. Army presented the first experimental units of a future soldier’s equipment, featuring a soldier with a networked video camera, various sensors, and connecting the system to the world wide military command and control network. In June, 2012, Google unveiled its prototype Google Glass, a device capable of video and audio capturing with additional augmented reality functions. In this article, a comparison between those military and civilian augmented reality systems and typical application settings will be used to ask for the implications of this kind of technology for the civil society. It will especially be focused on the consequences for civil safety, when the full range of cooperation capabilities available with Google Glass-like devices will be employed by organized groups of criminals or terrorists. In conclusion, it will be argued to assess the implications of this technology and prepare for a new degree of coordination in the activities of groups in the civilian space.