Kind Glass By Jenny Feng
Inspired by Black Mirror’s Arkangel, Kind Glass is a pair of AR glasses with bone conduction technology embedded in the frames. The user would wear Kind Glass to experience a life full of positivity, despite it being all a lie. In Arkangel, a chip is implanted into a child, while the parent monitors what the child can see and hear. Violent scenes are pixelated, and violent words are cancelled. Similarly, Kind Glass records conversations and translates the conversation to the user. Everything the user hears is through Kind Glass (while also allowing ambient noise in). On a regular basis where conversations are positive and neutral, Kind Glass functions as a way to better hear the speaker. However, once a conversation turns negative, the user will only hear a positive response generated by Kind Glass. At the same time, through the glasses, a 3D model of the speaker is generated to make the speaker appear as if they are speaking positive words. Kind Glass will protect you from harmful actions and words directed to you, ensuring a happy experience with everyone.
Kind Glass is made to create a utopian society. Though this obviously is not realistic, it’s an interesting approach at addressing the issue of verbal abuse against public workers. Transportation workers often experience verbal abuse from irate drivers or passengers. Kind Glass hopes to prevent transportation workers from hearing and seeing this happen. This conjecture might create more problems, but the technology used in Kind Glass will be feasible and accessible soon enough. It’s scary to think that we might have something like this. Just like some episodes in Black Mirror, it is eerily believable.
