*The Meta Ray-Ban 2 Smart Glasses, a collaboration between Meta and Ray-Ban, are at the center of growing concerns about privacy and surveillance.
These advanced smart glasses are equipped with cameras, open-ear speakers, microphones, and voice-command capabilities powered by AI. Users can take photos, answer calls, and even livestream to Instagram, making the glasses an intuitive hands-free device that integrates seamlessly into everyday life, Fox News reports.
However, a recent development by two Harvard students, AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio, has raised significant ethical and privacy concerns. They developed a prototype system called I-XRAY, which demonstrates how these smart glasses can be used to identify strangers in real-time. Using the glasses’ camera feed, I-XRAY can capture a person’s face, scan public internet sources for matching images, and potentially retrieve personal information such as names, addresses, and phone numbers. The developers emphasize that I-XRAY was created to showcase the potential privacy risks associated with wearable tech, not for public use.
The project underscores the privacy challenges posed by advanced wearable technology. While Nguyen and Ardayfio don’t plan to release I-XRAY, they warn that the same outcome could be achieved by anyone with access to existing technology. Their work serves as a cautionary example of how easily smart glasses, coupled with AI and public data, could disrupt privacy norms, sparking vital discussions on data ethics and individual rights in public spaces.
Nguyen and Ardayfio had this to say, “Initially started as a side project, I-XRAY quickly highlighted significant privacy concerns. The purpose of building this tool is not for misuse, and we are not releasing it. Our goal is to demonstrate the current capabilities of smart glasses, face search engines, LLMs and public databases, raising awareness that extracting someone’s home address and other personal details from just their face on the street is possible today.”
Learn more via the YouTube clip above.
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