Going forward I'm just going to refuse to talk to anyone wearing headsets. You can stand there and say all you want, if you'd like to talk to me then take the headset off. I sound like a boomer that doesn't understand wireless earbuds that pause and pass through outside audio automatically. I still take them out out of respect, though, if it's anything more than a sentence.
I wonder how it compares to staring down at one's phone though. At least in an AR scenario, you're looking straight ahead right? I can both see how that could improve your spatial and social awareness, but I can also see how you could tunnel vision on your content just as easily.
When you look at your phone, I can tell you're looking at your phone. If you're wearing a headset I have no idea where you're actually looking. And you could be pointing your face straight at me but completely gone watching a video or something.
Eyes are such a fundamental part of human body language. We need to be able to see each others to have effective communication.
I think people would learn to move out of the way at that point or just use Siri to respond. That felt very much like a “first-time” faux pas when he stops on the stairs.
Steve Mann invented probably the first mediated reality device, the EyeTap, in 1984. Of course, it was a freaking CRT and mirror array strapped to your head, but one of the original proposed use cases was to remap advertising billboards into whatever you wanted. Fast forward 40 years and we're using the same concept to beam ads directly into your eyeballs.
Covering IRL advertisements is the only thing that interests me with this sort of tech. I would love to cover billboards with random memes or even just erase them. THAT would be a reason worth looking goofy as hell for.
Gotta, say, the barrier between you and other people by having a headset obscure most of your face, sure feels strange, as far as human interactions go. They really haven't innovated at all in that regard, despite the promises of the virtual eyes at the front. I can't see the technology becoming ubiquitous in daily life, until it's nearly seamless.