I think some of the weirdness is the fashion aspect, but I think there is also more to it than that. Back in 2004 when I was interviewing for grad schools, I had an interview with Thad Starner [1], who wore a HUD eyepiece, and it was a distinctly weird experience. It wasn't weird because it made me think he was a nerd—that wouldn't make him stand out very much from the average CS student or professor who I talked to that weekend.
It felt more like this odd space where I wasn't sure what the socially appropriate behavior was. More than anything else it was like talking to someone with an obvious disability, where there are delicate social conventions around when to acknowledge or not acknowledge it. Sort of like a glass eye. Except that here it was deliberately installed, and not related to an injury or disability. It particularly disoriented me with regards to eye contact. I constantly felt like I was supposed to make eye contact with him rather than staring at his facial device, which took conscious effort to do. But at the same time, I found myself frequently trying to discern whether he was making eye contact with me or rather was looking at the display in the glasses. The normal eye-to-eye gaze part of conversation was completely disrupted for me. I find smartphones much less disorienting simply because it's much more obvious when someone is looking at the screen vs. at you, which simplifies the social conventions. So to me as the "other party" in a conversation, the HUD form-factor is a downgrade in functionality from a handheld screen.
It felt more like this odd space where I wasn't sure what the socially appropriate behavior was. More than anything else it was like talking to someone with an obvious disability, where there are delicate social conventions around when to acknowledge or not acknowledge it. Sort of like a glass eye. Except that here it was deliberately installed, and not related to an injury or disability. It particularly disoriented me with regards to eye contact. I constantly felt like I was supposed to make eye contact with him rather than staring at his facial device, which took conscious effort to do. But at the same time, I found myself frequently trying to discern whether he was making eye contact with me or rather was looking at the display in the glasses. The normal eye-to-eye gaze part of conversation was completely disrupted for me. I find smartphones much less disorienting simply because it's much more obvious when someone is looking at the screen vs. at you, which simplifies the social conventions. So to me as the "other party" in a conversation, the HUD form-factor is a downgrade in functionality from a handheld screen.
[1] http://www.cc.gatech.edu/home/thad/