Meta"s Ray-Ban smart glasses could get new powers to identify people and fetch information about them via its AI assistant. The social media giant is working on a facial recognition feature expected to arrive this year.
That"s according to a report from the NY Times, which cited people familiar with the plans who chose to speak to the publication. Meta"s unreleased facial recognition feature is internally known as "Name Tag." Mark Zuckerberg reportedly wants it to become a key differentiator for the smart glasses, making the company"s AI assistant more useful on them.
Meta is no stranger to facial recognition tech and got into trouble because of it back in the day. The company previously deployed facial recognition on Facebook to identify people in photos and videos. However, it had to disable the feature due to growing societal concerns and later settled a $1.4 billion fine in Texas.
Fast forward to now, Meta has been discussing the feature internally since early last year and planning its release. According to an internal document from May last year, Meta initially planned to preview Name Tag to attendees of a conference for the blind before making it public. However, that didn"t happen.
It"s hard to ignore that the facial recognition feature comes with its share of privacy risks, ethical concerns, and legal battles if things go wrong. However, the company is reportedly determining who will be recognizable through the feature.
For one, Meta reportedly won"t allow users to pull up information about random strangers on the road. Its scope is said to include people whom a user knows through a Meta platform and people whom the user may not know but have a public profile on a Meta-owned platform, such as Instagram.
The internal document seen by the publication (via MacRumors) also reveals that Meta considered releasing the feature during a "dynamic political environment" in the US when most civil rights groups would be busy elsewhere. The company told The New York Times that it"s "still thinking through options" and will take sufficient time and consideration before launching anything if it decides to take that road.
Meta has released several smart glasses over the years, and last year, the new Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) and Ray-Ban Display glasses entered the market. That said, the smart glasses category is maturing and attracting more players. While a camera-enabled Apple Watch remains a dream, the company is expected to launch its smart glasses with built-in cameras as early as this year.