Over recent decades smart glasses have gained increased attention in both the research arena and recently also in the consumer market, even though there is not yet a clear definition of what exactly smart glasses entail and underexposed perspectives are not represented. This study used a rapid review to assess the current understanding of smart glasses with the aim of defining them. Searches were performed across six databases, followed-up by a content-based evaluation of title and abstract. A total set of 14 relevant publications was identified to help arrive at a definition and characteristics of smart glasses. As a result, it was observed in both the research literature and in the public domain that many different names are used for smart glasses, and that in some cases there is unclarity about what constitute smart glasses. Therefore, an adapted definition of smart glasses is developed based on the existing original rationale of ubiquitous computing and taking the current state-of-the-art knowledge into account. This article provides an overview of and suggestion for defining smart glasses from a social sciences’ perspective to better inform researchers, developers, designers and companies who are involved in the design, development, research of smart glasses.

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Wearables, like augmented reality glasses, are more and more commercially available but uptake has been slow and concerns on social and ethical implications are raised. Current adoption theories can provide insights into the adoption or rejection process, but very few studies are conducted in this field to address the social and ethical implications of wearables. This paper provides results about the inclusion of different perspectives, namely diffusion and adoption theories, mutual shaping perspectives and philosophy of technology to study the social interactions and ethical implications of wearables as well. By following this path we would like to develop a model of appropriation in the future to get a better understanding of the acceptance and interactions of emerging technologies such as wearable augmented reality.

For further development of technologies but also for the implementation in real life contexts, it is important to understand users' perspectives on the anticipated use of innovative technologies in an early development phase. In addition, it is also important to get a better understanding of the explanation of this behavior towards technology use in later stages. Although Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) are not really new anymore, the uptake has been slow so far and people showed some extreme reactions. The objective of this study was to analyze the content of YouTube comments on videos of HMDs, in order to get a better understanding of relevant factors in this early phase of potential acceptance of HMDs. We analyzed 379 YouTube comments on HMDs using content analysis. Comments were divided into three groups: HMD, video, and miscellaneous. Comments about HMDs (n=124) were further analyzed. Most of the commenters showed a positive attitude to HMDs. Within the positive attitude, the most expressed themes were comments about the type of use (gaming), positive evaluations (emotions, coolness) and perceived need for an HMD. Within the negative attitudes, negative evaluations (judgments, emotions) were showed most and negative comparisons to other products were made. In neutral attitudes, the main theme was the type of use (gaming). The results specify a couple of user needs and social norms and values which people attach in this early phase to HMDs. In this early phase of acceptance, some early adoption observations were found as in when someone talks about the type of use (felt needs) and positive judgments (social norms). Early signs of rejection were found by negative judgments (social norms) and comparisons with other products (previous practice).