Meta filed the patent application in February and it is public now, found first by Patentlyze. It describes pairing AI facial recognition with smart glasses to identify people, then drawing on what is known about them when the wearer shoots a photo or a video. A filing does not guarantee any of it reaches customers, and Meta has not said any of it will.
The filing is the fourth time in six months the same work has come up. February brought reports of an internal feature called Name Tag that could pick people out in real time. In June security researchers found the dormant face-recognition code Meta had pushed onto Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta glasses months earlier, able to turn a face into biometric data and match it in the Meta AI app, and Meta later pulled it and said no such feature had launched. Around the same time it licensed face-matching software from Rank One Computing, a supplier whose customers include the US military and law enforcement. The Center for Democracy and Technology warned the technology could be abused against people at risk from stalkers and domestic violence. Meta's glasses already pass for ordinary eyewear, which is why showing when they are watching is the hardest problem on the next pair. Somebody standing nearby has no way to tell being looked at from being identified.