Facebook launches ‘smart glasses’ that take photos of what you’re seeing

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Facebook has finally announced its long-rumoured ‘smart glasses’ in partnership with Ray-Ban, which feature two front-facing cameras to quickly capture pictures and video. Additionally, because of the novel nature of smart glasses, it will take time for bystanders to understand and recognise when a pair of smart glasses are ‘smart,’ what data the glasses are capable of capturing, and when and how the glasses are recording even with the built-in visual and audio cues.” John Breyault, of the National Consumers League, expressed a similar sentiment: “I am concerned about users who will intentionally obscure the small light. It’s my hope that this functionality will be incorporated into subsequent versions of the glasses.” As for Facebook’s reputation in general, both Greenberg and Breyault said that its history may have made the company think more seriously about privacy and security of the glasses, with Breyault comparing them to smart speakers or Amazon’s Ring doorbell – a technology which has been hacked in the past, and used for police surveillance. As well as these smart glasses, Facebook is also developing more capable augmented reality glasses which will “add a 3D layer of useful, contextually-relevant and meaningful information on top of the physical world” according to the company’s blog post.