Google Glass Diaries may be most meaningful use of the tech to date

There may be a lot of fears around the potential for Google Glass to be used unethically (in fact, Google recently published a guide on how not be a “Glasshole”), but there’s no doubt that the technology holds serious promise if used meaningfully.

For one of the best examples of how Glass could be used to tell amazing stories in an impactful way, take a look at the work filmmaker Josh Kim is doing with his Google Glass Diaries project.

The first person video diary project aims to tell the stories of people whose stories don’t usually get told ranging from a Betel Nut vendor in Myanmar to a fortune-teller in Thailand.

Most of the videos are in the same format as the one above: one or two minutes from the perspective of the subject, providing a short glimpse into their daily lives. According to FastCompany, Kim reckons the best stories come from people with difficult to understand or aren’t usually seen.

“[With Glass,] we can see more intimate moments and also the ones that we kind of miss already, because a smartphone takes too long to pull out,” says Kim. “And when you have a big bulky camera, the most funny things or the most interesting things usually happen when you put the camera down.”

Kim also reportedly says that, in general, the poorer a person is, the less excited they tend to get for Glass. Apparently, the assumption is that it’s just another gadget that’s common in America but which they could never hope to afford.

In a number of the places Kim visited smartphone penetration remains relatively low so with poor data services. So, says Fastco, people tend to think of it as just another camera.