Steve Mann, the "father of wearable computing," has been physically assaulted while visiting a McDonalds in Paris, France.
The Canadian university professor was at the restaurant with his family when three different McDonalds employees took exception to his "Digital Eye Glass" device and attempted to forcibly remove it from his head. Mann was then physically removed from the store by the employees, along with having his support documentation destroyed.
This may be the first ever recorded assault of a person instigated by the prominent display of a Google Glass-like wearable computer.
The incident is particularly troubling, not only because Mann's device is very similar to Google Glass, but because the assault could be a harbinger of things to come as the technology becomes increasingly prominent. Assaults such as this one may become more frequent should people (and corporations) respond poorly to the use of such devices. Details of the assault were made available by Mann on his blog.
He, along with his wife and children, were touring the Champs Elysees area when the incident took place. After sitting down to grab a bite to eat, Mann was questioned by a McDonalds employee about the Eye Glass. Since Mann had spent the day going to museums and landmarks, he had brought a letter from his doctor along with other support documentation explaining the device.
He has worn computer vision of some kind for the past 34 years as part of his research in the field of wearable computing.
His personal description of events/more images of perpetrators (captured on the augmentation!) in the link.
First of all, let's get the jokes aside. Second, this is going to be problematic if such augmentations become popular in the future, if some people continue to act like this.
Now, can someone draw an image of Adam Jensen taking down Ronald McDonald?
