A Berlin artist named Julian Oliver has written a basic program called Glasshole.sh that claims to be capable of booting a Google Glass visor from nearby Wi-Fi networks. It’s said to work in conjunction with a small Raspberry Pi mini-computer or comparable device and a USB network antenna to detect a unique character string found in the MAC addresses of Glass headsets.
When the software detects this string of characters, it then uses a program called Aircrack-NG to mimic the network and send a “deauthorization” command which severs the Wi-Fi connection.
Oliver reportedly came up with the idea after another artist was disturbed when people showed up to view his exhibit wearing Glass. The artist had no way of knowing whether or not the Glass-wearing visitors were snapping pictures, recording video or even live-streaming his work over the web.
Oliver’s goal is to protect the privacy of those at restaurants, parties or people playing with their kids in public by thwarting the video-recording efforts of Glass. The one key flaw in this jammer-like approach is that Glass isn’t dependent on an Internet connection to record video or capture images. Sure, this approach would shut down live-streaming but that’s about it.
At the same time, one has to wonder about the legality of creating and using a jammer in public. A month or so ago, a Florida man was arrested and is facing federal charges after police discovered he was using a portable cell phone jammer during his daily commute along Interstate 4 in Tampa to keep people from using their phones while driving.
