Google’s Project Glass will lock down when it senses theft, patent shows

So how does this work in practice?<p>I see a friend with these glasses. As a joke I pull of his glasses from behind and pretend to steal them, then hand them back, and because it sensed that I stole them (which I did) it is now locked and my friend can't use his glasses any more.<p>There are a lot of details to get right. I hope they thought them all through.

Good foresight. Here's one way things would pan out if you were running around with someone else's extended mind:<p><a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando.html#Tourist" rel="nofollow">http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera...</a> — from Accelerando, by Charles Stross

I find this a bit strange. I think more devices would probably be stolen by setting the device down, or putting it in your bag and it getting snatched, rather than someone pulling it off your head. And unnatural movement is pretty hard to define.<p>Seems like it would be better to just be able to remotely lock them if you know its been stolen than them locking automatically.

"patent shows" -- crazy stuff is tossed into patents all the time just to cover all possible bases. This in no way means that the actual production Glass units will have this feature.

<i>In response to determining an unnatural movement and/or an unauthorized user wearing the HMD, the wearable computer triggers a locking mechanism, which can beneficially provide security measures for the wearable computer.</i><p>So next time that a wearable computer comes to market that wants to lock out unauthorized users, they have to deal with this patent. Seems pretty generic to me.

Come at me, McDonalds!

So you get punched - and the time you want it most it goes into lock mode. I hope it still continues to monitor when it is locked.

Alternative title, "Google's project glass will lock down when Google see fit".