https://www.macrumors.com/2024/10/02/meta-smart-glasses-facial-recognition
Two Harvard students have demonstrated a modified version of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses that utilizes AI-powered facial recognition to identify strangers in real-time.
The modified glasses use the built-in camera to capture a person’s face and then search the internet for publicly available information. This information can include a person’s name, address, phone number, and even details about their family members.
The students showcased the capabilities of the hacked glasses by identifying strangers on the street and then using the gathered information to strike up conversations under false pretenses.
Raising Awareness of Privacy Concerns
The students have emphasized that their project is intended to raise awareness of the potential privacy risks associated with widely available consumer technology, facial recognition software, and public databases. They have no intention of releasing the code or creating a commercial product out of the modified glasses.
Technical Breakdown
The modified Ray-Ban glasses achieve facial recognition through a combination of techniques:
- Reverse Facial Recognition: Matching faces captured by the glasses with publicly available images on the internet.
- PimEyes: A search engine specializing in facial recognition.
- Large Language Models (LLMs): AI systems used to analyze online information about the identified person.
- FastPeopleSearch: A website providing additional personal information.
Meta’s Response
Meta, the company behind the Ray-Ban smart glasses, acknowledges that facial recognition technology like PimEyes can be used with any camera and is not specific to their product. However, the casual design of the Ray-Ban glasses allows for discreet image capture, potentially without the knowledge of the person being photographed.
The Future of Facial Recognition Glasses
The students’ project highlights the potential for future smart glasses equipped with more powerful processors, on-device AI, and augmented reality to pose even greater privacy risks.
Pimeye’s Response
The developers of PimEyes expressed surprise at the students’ project, claiming their search engine is not designed to identify individuals.