Meta reportedly planning to add facial recognition to Ray-Ban Smart Glasses
Meta's next-generation smart glasses could use AI to continuously analyze the environment and even offer facial recognition.
This was reported by The Information, citing several sources close to the company.
The website writes that the next generation of smart glasses, codenamed Aperol and Bellini, are planned for 2026 and could offer a new feature that Meta internally calls "Super Sensing".
Super Sensing allows the new smart glasses to leave their cameras and sensors on for hours at a time, allowing the AI assistant to remember what happened throughout the day. For example, Meta AI could detect when users have forgotten their keys and proactively remind them to pick up an ingredient for dinner. Super Sensing will likely be turned off by default and will need to be turned on.
A similar feature called "Live AI" will soon be available for the current smart glasses in the US and Canada, but will be limited to 30 minutes of continuous AI usage at a time, according to The Information.
Fading privacy worries
Currently, the smart glasses' LED light is activated when users take photos or videos or when Meta AI accesses the camera. The idea is to signal to the environment that recording is taking place. Whether this will also apply to the always-on Super Sensing is still being discussed at Meta, writes The Information. According to one of the sources, Mark Zuckerberg has questioned this.
The site also reports that Meta is once again actively working on facial recognition, a feature that was previously considered in 2021 but rejected due to privacy-related concerns. Earlier this year, the company talked again about equipping its smart glasses with software that can identify people by their faces, the site writes.
The Information cited the loosening of privacy regulations under the Trump administration as the reason for this shift. The site previously reported how Metas had changed internal processes to assess and mitigate potential risks to users' privacy in order to get products to market faster.
Just in April, the company changed the privacy policy of Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses in two ways. Meta AI is now enabled by default, but can still be disabled if users choose. And it's no longer possible to opt out of allowing Meta to store voice recordings to improve its AI products. However, the voice recordings can be manually deleted.
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