Why This 24-Year-Old Thumbed His Nose At Google And Took Control Of Google Glass

There's no question about it, Google's new device, Google Glass, has caused quite a stir, at least in the tech world. Glass lovers call themselves "glassholes."

Other people have mixed feelings about the device. A lot of them are creeped out over the privacy implications. For instance, they fear a glassholes' ability to take secret photographs.

Google has been trying to reassure people that the gadget is wholesome by banning things like porn and face recognition apps.

But some people, like 24-year-old programmer Stephen Balaban, don't think the device should be restricted like that. Balaban, one of the developers behind commercial facial recognition startup Lambda Labs, built a facial recognition app for Glass.

Google turned around and banned it.

So Balaban turned around and built "an alternative operating system that runs on Glass but is not controlled by Google," he said, as we previously reported.

We asked Balaban for a few more details about the project. Here's what he told us:

Business Insider: Is your new Glass OS released yet? Will it be available to anyone?

Stephen Balaban: Right now, it's only being shared with fellow engineers and hackers who are comfortable modifying their operating systems. If people want to test it out, they can ask by tweeting @LambdaAPI.

BI: What do you think Google's reaction will be?

SB: Google will continue to prune their walled garden. They think they're building the iPhone, I think they're building the Newton.

BI: Will your OS work with other Glass-like devices?

SB: Yes, it's meant to be used with any ARM-based system. We're already talking with other companies about running the OS on their hardware.