Google Glass-wearing woman posts video of alleged S.F. bar attack

A San Francisco woman who says she was attacked at a bar on Haight Street after refusing to stop wearing Google Glass has released video footage of the incident that she filmed with the new technology that spurred the confrontation in the first place.

In a video posted to YouTube, tech writer Sarah Solcum provided a narrative for the footage, which she says captures the weekend attack.

“This is the video that I got on Google Glass at Molotov bar on Haight Street after being verbally accosted and flicked off by the Asian looking girl, I turned on the video, and after I told them I was doing so they got pissed and came after me,” Slocum wrote.

“Unfortunately, I had not extended the video so it cuts out after 10 seconds. Here you can see them -- two people, a male and a female -- trying to block the camera. The guy waving his hands in my face here later rips the Google Glasses off my face and ran out of the bar,” she wrote.

The incident reportedly started out as a friendly exchange between patrons at the bar and Slocum, who has posted extensively about the encounter on her Facebook page and Twitter account.

Some at the bar were curious, asking for demonstrations of the technology, which Google sees as a new way to effortlessly connect people with information, though it has yet to hit the mass consumer market.

But as the night wore on, a group of patrons reportedly became upset about the potential for being recorded by the eyewear, CBS San Francisco reported. The confrontation reportedly turned violent when a friend she was with responded to one heckler by throwing a punch.

The Google Glass was then allegedly ripped off Slocum’s face by a man who ran out of the bar.

“I got verbally and physically assaulted and robbed last night in the city, had things thrown at me because of some ... Google Glass haters,” she wrote. She got the Google Glass back but was allegedly robbed of her purse and phone.

One witness later told a television station that some in the crowd were “just rather insulted that someone thinks it’s OK to record them the entire time they’re in public.”

It seems Google Glass has spurred as much controversy and confusion about how the new technology would integrate into society as it has for its potential.

Another controversy erupted over Google Glass on Oct. 29 when a California Highway Patrol officer issued a ticket to a woman for driving while wearing Google Glass.

She was eventually found not guilty in traffic court, but San Diego Traffic Commissioner John Blair found that wearing Google Glass could be considered distracted driving if authorities are able to prove the eyewear was on -- though it’s unclear how that would be proved.

According to KRON-TV, Slocum wears Google Glass nearly everywhere she goes. Generally they are received well by others, but sometimes it can be difficult, she said.

Fittingly, heated discussions about Google Glass and the incident have erupted on social media and even on Slocum’s own Facebook page.

In another post, Slocum wrote that the incident “has consumed my life since late Friday night.”

“From being assaulted and robbed, to being locked out of my house, to not having a cell, ID, money, house keys, etc., to being contacted by everyone I practically know after posting what happened to me, to being attacked again by people who are questioning my story and calling it a personal PR stunt,” she wrote, “I have been overwhelmed, frazzled, stressed ... crazy last few days.”

Twitter: @aribloomekatz | Facebook

ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com