Meta is reportedly preparing a new slate of smart glasses that are ditching those pesky cameras.
The News
Zuckerberg previously teased a pair of smart glasses in May alongside the official announcement of Connect’s September dates.
Now, according to a report from The Information, those may be a new class of camera-less smart glasses, slated to ship this Fall.
Internally codenamed ‘Luna’, the glasses are expected to be unveiled at Meta’s Connect developer conference, taking place September 23-24, which is also expected to be the venue for the unveiling of its slim and light mixed reality glasses, Project Phoenix.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the move appears to be a direct reaction to public perception of its current smart glasses lineup, which has seen heightened scrutiny amid wider privacy concerns.
Instead of cameras, Luna is said to include six onboard microphones so users can talk with Meta AI in addition to its consumer AI agent, Muse.
The report also maintains Luna has a quick action button on the side to activate Meta AI, in addition to speakers built into the glasses’ temple arms, which will be notably slimmer than other models.
Meta currently sells a variety of smart glasses as a part of its collaboration with EssilorLuxottica, including a number of Ray-Ban and Oakey frames, as well as its own Meta Glasses house brand frames. The company also sells its Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses, which include a single color heads-up display embedded in the right lens—all of which include outward-facing cameras.
In Meta’s mandatory v26 update, its fleet of smart glasses received what many considered a long overdue hardware check: if the capture LED has been physically removed or damaged, the camera would be disabled, closing a loophole that let users drill out the privacy light to keep recording while hiding the recording indicator.
The move comes amid growing scrutiny over smart glasses privacy, including new legislation in number of US states and cities, such as New York state and Philadelphia. The company was also involved in a class-action lawsuit alleging Meta sent captured footage to a Kenya-based subcontractor for AI training.
Notably, other companies are now producing competitors to Meta’s slate of smart glasses, including Google’s Android XR hardware partners Gentle Monster and Warby Parker.
My Take
Provided the report is true, I don’t think Meta is effectively trying to put the cat back in the bag here with the release of camera-less glasses, partly because it doesn’t make sense in the long term.
The company trains its AI on user data, and having millions of cameras feeding that AI will only help inform their upcoming AR platform, which the company (and the industry at large) sees as its most important consumer segment.
AR glasses need outward-facing sensors, so I don’t really see this as Meta ‘putting the cat back in the bag’, so to speak.
To me, Meta’s choice makes sense from two real perspectives. They can serve the outwardly surveillance conscious user and the camera glasses wearers alike. It also likely will allow them to reduce overall costs, something they’ve already done by making their own Ray-Ban-less Meta Glasses house brand.
