AR glasses that can tell names and addresses of people you meet expose huge privacy risks

Two students created augmented reality smart glasses that identify people they see, exposing the risks of mixing AI with facial recognition

Reading Time:4 minutes

The Harvard students’ adapted Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses identify people in real-time using existing facial recognition technology, and can even provide their home addresses if they are listed in public records. Photo: X/AnhPhuNguyen1

Published: 4:15pm, 13 Nov 2024

Imagine a pair of glasses that could tell you the name and address of anyone you met. Harvard students Caine Ardayfio and Anhphu Nguyen made them a reality in just four days.

The students adapted Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and computer software to create spectacles using existing facial recognition technology to identify people in real-time, underscoring the potential for augmented reality (AR) in future.

The glasses were able to deliver someone’s name in just under two minutes using an existing public facial recognition search engine and artificial intelligence (AI). This has raised concern about the unforeseen risks of AI and its mixing with existing technologies.

“We wanted to use it as a platform to make people aware of technology and how to protect themselves,” says Ardayfio in a video interview from Harvard University, in the US state of Massachusetts.

The pair developed a shared interest in augmented AR – the overlaying of digital information in the real world – after they met two years ago, culminating in the glasses project that went viral in September after Nguyen posted about it on X.

“It was pretty self-evident that the technology we had created was fairly powerful and had a lot of complications for privacy,” Ardayfio says.