Winky, New Google Glass App, Just Made Google Glass Even Creepier

Google Glass just got a whole lot creepier. If it wasn't disturbing enough that people are walking around everywhere with fully functioning cameras on their faces, now they can use those cameras to take a photo... by winking. Ew.

Mike DiGiovani of Roundarch Isobar created the app. The purpose, he writes on his Google+ page, is not to creep on strangers, but to make taking photos with Glass easier. He writes:

Winking really changes things. You might not think it's hard to say "Ok, Glass Take a Picture" or even just tap a button. But it's a context switch that takes you out of the moment, even if just for a second. Winking lets you lifelog with little to no effort.

Fine, but there's no denying that this is going to look super weird. (Exhibit A: Lucille Bluth.) Though Google made Android, the smartphone operating system known for its openness to developers, the company is being much stricter on what programs can run on Glass. Software that intimately connected to the users -- right in front of their face -- is inherently more dangerous.

Given that Google designed the camera to take pictures conspicuously -- one has to say "OK Glass, take photo" -- it's strange to see such an app it possible, though Google has said that the Explorer versions of Glass are "intended for developers to play with, hack and even build great apps for." The app is all the more surreal given that the original prototypes for the wearable device didn't even include camera, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said during a TED talk.

Let's all hope Lucille Bluth never gets her hands on this app.