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Preservation Program

GlassesResearch preserves endangered smart-glasses knowledge through lawful archiving, reproducible metadata, provenance, and verification.

Preservation order

  1. Identify the source and why it matters.
  2. Record the original URL, publisher, title, date, and access date.
  3. Determine whether the material may be lawfully mirrored.
  4. When mirroring is appropriate, preserve the original file unchanged and record a cryptographic hash.
  5. When mirroring is not appropriate, preserve metadata, citations, archive references, retrieval notes, screenshots where permitted, and a description of the unique information.
  6. Connect the resource to every relevant model, manufacturer, application, firmware version, protocol, or glossary entity.
  7. Assign evidence and preservation status.
  8. Recheck high-risk links periodically.

Preservation status

  • Preserved — a lawful local copy or durable institutional copy is available and verified.
  • Externally archived — a durable third-party archive is identified.
  • Referenced — metadata and live source are recorded, but no archive copy has been confirmed.
  • At risk — source is fragile, abandoned, access-restricted, or likely to disappear.
  • Lost — the source is no longer retrievable; surviving citations and descriptions are retained.
  • Restricted — known to exist, but redistribution or access is limited by law, license, privacy, or safety.

Minimum metadata

Every preservation record should capture:

  • title;
  • creator, publisher, vendor, or community source;
  • original URL or distribution channel;
  • first-known publication or release date when available;
  • date accessed;
  • models and product families affected;
  • artifact type and version;
  • file name, size, and cryptographic hash when a file is preserved;
  • license or redistribution notes;
  • evidence status;
  • preservation status;
  • short explanation of why the resource matters.

Priority queue

Highest priority goes to unique information that is both technically valuable and likely to disappear, including:

  • discontinued-device support pages;
  • firmware and companion-app releases;
  • SDK downloads and examples;
  • community reverse-engineering repositories with few forks;
  • forum posts containing unique packet formats or recovery procedures;
  • teardown and optical measurements unavailable elsewhere;
  • regulatory exhibits that identify hardware relationships;
  • product pages documenting aliases, variants, or historical pricing;
  • conference talks and developer documentation for abandoned platforms.

The preservation mission does not override copyright, license terms, privacy, contractual obligations, export controls, anti-circumvention law, or safety requirements.

Do not publish credentials, personal data, proprietary secrets, private communications, malicious payloads, or unlawfully obtained material. Where distribution is restricted, preserve descriptive metadata and verification evidence instead of the artifact itself.

Provenance rule

Never erase the distinction between:

  • original vendor material;
  • independent research;
  • community reporting;
  • maintainer observations;
  • inference or hypothesis.

Attribution remains attached even when a source disappears.

Archive-first principle

When a resource is genuinely at risk, preserve the evidence and metadata before spending time perfecting its taxonomy. Organization can be improved later; a vanished source cannot.