Smart Glasses: China Accounts for Half of Global Production... Privacy Concerns Linger

China is leading the adoption of smart glasses, accounting for nearly half of global production.

Recent smart glasses come standard with cameras, microphones, and speakers. When linked to a mobile phone, they enable calls, payments, real-time interpretation, and object recognition without the need to take out the device. When a user issues a payment command via voice, the built-in camera scans a QR code to process the transaction directly. A real-time translation feature supporting 122 languages displays translated text on the inside of the lens to facilitate communication, while artificial intelligence identifies objects in view and provides price information.

To operate such sophisticated AI functions, users' voice and visual data must be transmitted to servers. Companies are actively utilizing the collected first-person footage to improve AI. In particular, footage filmed at eye level is considered valuable data for robots to mimic and learn human behavior, as it captures the movement of gaze, the position of hands, and angles.

In June, the Chinese government published regulations requiring user consent when collecting data via smart glasses and prohibiting its use for other purposes. However, critics argue that because these regulations remain self-imposed guidelines, they fail to address potential privacy violations and portrait rights issues regarding bystanders who may be randomly captured by the glasses.