The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/230349
Looking Good in Wearable Technology Google Glass www.google.com/glass/start/ View-A-Bill to ensure they are not being overcharged by dead timekeepers. Clearly, one of the more intriguing pieces of wearable tech is Google Glass. Glass aspires to be cool, but it is not there, at least not yet. We are much more discriminating about things we put on our faces than our wrists. There is something about the frame that comes off as Borg Jr., which is perhaps a tech fashion faux pas. Feedback from early adopters of Google Glass reflects specialty uses, but little utility for the general public. Victims of paralysis often derive great benefits from Glass. An orthopedist in Ohio recently streamed an interactive knee surgery via Glass. Glass looks like a great heads-up display for occasions wherein there is not a canopy or windscreen against which to project the display. Following that logic, it is easy to imagine other uses such as providing real-time info to competitive distance runners. The bigger question is whether someone will come up with a genuine killer app for Glass. It's hard to imagine a legal-specific use. The only hypothetical use that comes to mind is as a courtroom document camera, but it is easy to imagine how that could go horribly wrong. (Think of the movie "The Naked Gun," and imagine Leslie Nielsen wearing Glass instead of a lapel mic.) We also saw the announcement of the NFC Ring. The NFC Ring was announced in mid-2013 on Kickstarter and quickly hit its fundraising goal. An NFC Ring, worn on someone's finger, unlocks things — doors, phones, computers, etc. — just by immediate proximity, perhaps in combination with a password. Some newer models of automobiles provide this type of proximity-based functionality wherein one can unlock a car and start the engine without ever taking the key out of one's pocket, and it has been extremely successful. Google and others have indicated they will also produce NFC rings. An NFC Ring, worn on someone's finger, unlocks things — doors, phones, computers, etc. — just by immediate proximity. This seems like a great idea right out of the gate, obvious and simple. Within the legal profession, it could be a godsend for employees who seem to have perpetual difficulty with passwords or using the "something you have" in a two-factor authentication model. The NFC Ring is still in development, so for the time being … we wait. It will be interesting to see which devices succeed or fail in the coming months, what vendors will be donating at "vendor bingo" at ILTA's annual conference in 2014 and what we'll want for our birthdays a year from now versus what will be forgotten. Surely there will be not only new makes and models of rings, glasses, smartwatches and smartbracelets, but maybe other types of devices as well. Let's hope these devices are useful and look cool. Peer to Peer 79