Meta's Smart Glasses With ‘Super Sensing’ Capabilities Reportedly Enter Prototype Testing Phase

Meta and Ray-Ban have now launched two generations of smart glasses. The Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 Glasses were launched in September last year, retaining most of the Gen 1 functionalities, featuring a world-facing camera on one side of the frame and an LED recording indicator on the other. In the same month, the Mark Zuckerberg-led tech giant also unveiled the Meta Ray-Ban Display augmented reality (AR) smart glasses. Now, the US-based company is said to be testing a new pair of “all-seeing” and “all-hearing” smart eyewear, which might continuously record audio and take photos to answer a wearer's queries.

Meta's Technology Could Work on Existing Models After an OTA Update

A Financial Times report citing people with knowledge of the matter states that Meta has started testing the prototype of its new “super sensing” smart glasses. The AI-powered wearables will reportedly be capable of continuously recording audio “every few seconds”, dubbed as an “all-seeing” and an “all-hearing” device. Meta's AI models will then be able to use the audio recordings and captured images to generate context-based responses against user queries, the report added.

For example, wearers will reportedly be able to ask Meta's “super sensing” AI glasses to recall their day and answer specific questions regarding something the user saw or heard. The report further highlights that Meta's leadership does not plan to activate the LED recording indicator when the smart glasses are recording audio snippets and images. Other Meta smart glasses are equipped with an LED light on one side of the smart eyewear's frame to let others know that they are being recorded.

However, Meta's rumoured decision could make it harder for people to figure out whether they are on camera or not, leading to privacy concerns. Since Meta's new smart glasses are still in the prototype testing phase, the plans could change in the future, the report pointed out.

Interestingly, the tech giant can also enable the “super sensing” functionality on the existing generations of the Meta smart glasses, the report highlighted. The company will reportedly be able to do this by rolling out a software update to older Ray-Ban Meta Glasses.

According to the report, the company is also considering not storing the raw footage and audio clips on its servers. Instead, it can simply seed the extracted metadata from the files to its servers, allowing Meta's AI agent to respond based on the same. This might raise fewer privacy concerns. This data can reportedly be used to train Meta's AI agents, too.