If you’ve just acquired a Google Glass headse, don’t show it off at the movies. Two years after its US release, Google finally made a prototype of its hi-tech eyewear available in Britain last week. The spectacles, which allow the wearer to read emails, take videos, and access the internet via a display fixed above the right eye, are being offered to "Explorers" for £1,000.
However, the ability to record people without their knowledge, with the stroke of a finger over the spectacle frame or a voice command, has prompted privacy concerns. And cinemas are alarmed that criminal gangs could use Glass to distribute pirate copies of blockbusters movies, recording in cinemas is the source of more than 90 per cent of all illegally copied films in their release form. Phil Clapp, chief executive of the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association, said: "Customers will be requested not to wear these into cinema auditoriums, whether the film is playing or not." The Vue cinema chain said it would ask guests to remove the eyewear "as soon as the lights dim".