Meta reportedly plans facial recognition for smart glasses
Meta's smart glasses, sold millions of times, could receive facial recognition this year, according to a report. However, it is said to be limited.
The Ray-Ban Meta glasses are finding growing appeal among consumers.
(Image: Meta)
According to a report by the New York Times, Meta intends to introduce facial recognition for its smart glasses later this year. The newspaper cites several sources familiar with the plans.
The feature is internally called "Name Tag" and is intended to allow wearers to identify people in their surroundings. CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly wants to differentiate from competing products and enhance the glasses' AI assistant.
Meta's wearables are currently developing into a sales success: Eyewear partner EssilorLuxottica reported seven million devices sold last year on Thursday. In total, the brand's unit sales are likely to approach ten million. A massive production increase is planned for this year.
Facial recognition limited to Meta users
Meta is currently examining who should be recognizable by facial recognition at all, according to the New York Times report. It is being considered that only people identified with whom the glasses wearer is connected on a Meta platform, or people with a public account on Meta services like Instagram, whom the user does not know personally. Universal facial recognition is not planned.
An internal document seen by the newspaper states that Meta initially intended to provide the feature to participants of a conference for the blind last year before making it available to the general public. However, this step was not implemented. The current plans could also still change.
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Political situation factored in
Last year, The Information reported that Meta had already planned to introduce facial recognition in 2021 but had decided against it. The first generation of Meta's smart glasses was released that year, but found little appeal among consumers. Meanwhile, both the market situation and the political situation in the USA have changed.
The latter has reportedly been factored in by Meta: "We will be launching in a dynamic political environment where many of the civil society groups that we would expect to attack us are focused on other issues," the internal document, seen by the New York Times, states.
In a statement, Meta did not deny the rumors. "While we often hear about interest in such a feature – and some such products already exist on the market – we are currently exploring various options and will proceed cautiously if and before we introduce anything," the company said.
(vbr)
