(Newser)
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The Canadian known as the "father of wearable computing" found that cyborgs are not welcome at a McDonald's in Paris. Steve Mann, a university professor who has spent more than 30 years wearing the "EyeTap Digital Glass" computer vision glasses he invented, says workers tried to rip off the glasses—which need to be removed with special tools—while he was eating there with his family. Mann says he showed the workers a doctor's note explaining why he wears the digital headgear, but they crumpled it up and forcibly removed him from the restaurant, damaging the glasses, the CBC reports.
Mann says he was on the way to the bathroom when the workers attacked. As he was thrown out, there was a complication that made matters much worse. "The cargo pants I wear have a large number of pockets, most of the way down both legs, so my iPhone and the processing boards, motherboard of a miniature PC, and the glass control board went dead shortly afterward, and that’s when the glass went totally dark," he says. "My iPhone and some of the other pieces still don’t work." The professor—who posted images of the incident on his blog—isn't seeking punitive damages from McDonald's, but he would like the fast food chain to pay for the repair of his equipment, and perhaps to support vision research, because his glasses are designed to help people with vision problems.
