Facebook Considering Facial Recognition for its Smart Glasses

• Facebook is considering adding facial recognition support to its augmented reality glasses.
• The company is looking into the legal and privacy issues around allowing the smart glasses to use facial recognition to identify people in the user’s vicinity.
• Facebook is expected to launch its AR glasses at some point later this year.

Facebook is developing its augmented reality (AR) glasses that would compete against similar smart glasses from the competition. We saw the latest AR and VR glasses concepts at CES 2021, and some of those products will hit the market soon. Aside from Facebook, many tech companies are readying their own smart glasses technologies, with Apple’s wearables being prominently featured in recent rumors. A leak a few days ago also showed that Samsung is working on various smart glasses of its own.

It’s unclear when Facebook will launch its devices or what they’ll be able to offer users. But a new report sheds light on a creepy feature that Facebook is considering for the product. That’s facial recognition that would allow the AR glasses to recognize faces and display information on the screen about the people in the wearer’s vicinity.

Facial recognition for AR glasses isn’t a new idea. Google Glass developers toyed with such concepts, with Google ultimately banning the development of such apps in 2013. It was a bad idea back then, and it’s just as bad now, given all the technological advances that would allow smart eyewear to provide even better facial recognition support.

Facebook Vice President Andrew Bosworth told Facebook employees that the company is already evaluating the legal and privacy issues around facial recognition, BuzzFeed News reports.

The exec said nothing had been decided and explained that current state laws might make it impossible for Facebook to offer the feature. Bosworth responded to a question from an employee during a companywide meeting on Thursday. The employee asked whether people would be able to  “mark their faces as unsearchable,” citing the potential for “real-world harm” and “stalkers.” Read Full Article >