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Two Harvard students have developed a device that major tech companies have avoided making available to the public because of its high risks and threats: facial recognition smart glasses that automatically detect a person's identity. What's more, the students added to the technology the ability to extract other information about a person from the internet, including their home address, phone number, and family members.
The project was created to draw attention to the possibilities of such technologies. Anh Phu Nguyen and Kane Ardaifio, the creators of this device, decided not to distribute the source code of their project, as Nguyen told 404 Media. However, experiments conducted with the use of glasses in real conditions have shown that outsiders can instantly gain access to a person's personal information, violating his anonymity.
The project is called I-XRAY and is based on the use of smart glasses from Meta - Ray Ban, which are available for commercial sale. According to Nguyen, the device allows you to "go from person to name" in just a few seconds. In a demo video published on the X** platform, the developers showed how the technology works in practice: Ardaifio walks past the person at whom the glasses are pointed, and a few seconds later the phone receives information about him. The video also shows how the glasses recognize the face of a random woman on the subway, and then Ardaifio walks up to her and addresses her by name, mentioning details from the search results. Nguyen clarified that the reactions of random people from the Boston subway were deliberately added to the video, creating the impression that the authors of the project are familiar with these people.
Students claim to have recognized dozens of people without their knowledge, although sometimes the data turned out to be incorrect. Nguyen explained that the main motive of the project is to explore the possibilities of technology. At first, the project gained attention as a fun way for pranks and videos, but later some feared that such technology could be used for harassment. One of the examples given by Nguyen concerns a situation where someone could find out the home address of a person on a train and follow him.
Ardaifio noted the shock of some people at the way the technology exposes personal information, including the phone numbers of relatives. The ability to instantly reveal information through a camera has long been considered a dangerous feature of technology. In her book, The New York Times reporter Kashmir Hill described how Facebook and Google developed facial recognition technologies, but decided not to implement them because of the risks. Google CEO Eric Schmidt mentioned more than a decade ago that the company "developed the technology, but abandoned it".
Clearview AI broke this unspoken rule and developed a powerful facial recognition system using billions of images from social media. Clearview AI mainly sells its product to law enforcement agencies and has also explored the possibility of creating smart glasses with facial recognition technology.
To recognizeI-XRAY uses the Pimeyes service, which, unlike Clearview AI, is available to any user. After uploading a photo, the system provides a list of links to images with similar faces. A large language model (LLM) then analyzes the data and extracts personal information such as name, place of work, and other details. Once the system has a name, it begins to search for information in databases containing personal data, including phone numbers and home addresses. During the demo, the developers removed Ardaifio's home address from the search results for security reasons.
One of the most surprising moments, according to Ardaifio, was that people were shown pictures of them from kindergarten that they had never seen themselves. This project shows how much data about a person can be found in the public domain on the Internet.
I-XRAY glasses use the Meta Ray Bans 2 model. A Meta spokesperson commented that Pimeyes' facial recognition technology can be used with any camera, not just Meta's smart glasses. According to the students, they chose these glasses because of their external similarity to ordinary glasses, which makes them less noticeable. However, Meta noted that their devices are equipped with an LED that lights up when recording to alert others to the shooting.
Pimeyes, in turn, said that their system is not designed to identify people, but only provides a list of sources with similar images. However, being able to find a link to a source with a similar face actually makes it possible to identify a person.
Earlier, 404 Media reported on a TikTok user who used similar technologies to publicly "doxx" random people online for entertainment, which caused some victims to feel that their personal space was violated.
Ardaifio said he hoped the project would raise awareness of how to protect their data online, despite the potential negative consequences of using it.
The project was created to draw attention to the possibilities of such technologies. Anh Phu Nguyen and Kane Ardaifio, the creators of this device, decided not to distribute the source code of their project, as Nguyen told 404 Media. However, experiments conducted with the use of glasses in real conditions have shown that outsiders can instantly gain access to a person's personal information, violating his anonymity.
The project is called I-XRAY and is based on the use of smart glasses from Meta - Ray Ban, which are available for commercial sale. According to Nguyen, the device allows you to "go from person to name" in just a few seconds. In a demo video published on the X** platform, the developers showed how the technology works in practice: Ardaifio walks past the person at whom the glasses are pointed, and a few seconds later the phone receives information about him. The video also shows how the glasses recognize the face of a random woman on the subway, and then Ardaifio walks up to her and addresses her by name, mentioning details from the search results. Nguyen clarified that the reactions of random people from the Boston subway were deliberately added to the video, creating the impression that the authors of the project are familiar with these people.
Students claim to have recognized dozens of people without their knowledge, although sometimes the data turned out to be incorrect. Nguyen explained that the main motive of the project is to explore the possibilities of technology. At first, the project gained attention as a fun way for pranks and videos, but later some feared that such technology could be used for harassment. One of the examples given by Nguyen concerns a situation where someone could find out the home address of a person on a train and follow him.
Ardaifio noted the shock of some people at the way the technology exposes personal information, including the phone numbers of relatives. The ability to instantly reveal information through a camera has long been considered a dangerous feature of technology. In her book, The New York Times reporter Kashmir Hill described how Facebook and Google developed facial recognition technologies, but decided not to implement them because of the risks. Google CEO Eric Schmidt mentioned more than a decade ago that the company "developed the technology, but abandoned it".
Clearview AI broke this unspoken rule and developed a powerful facial recognition system using billions of images from social media. Clearview AI mainly sells its product to law enforcement agencies and has also explored the possibility of creating smart glasses with facial recognition technology.
To recognizeI-XRAY uses the Pimeyes service, which, unlike Clearview AI, is available to any user. After uploading a photo, the system provides a list of links to images with similar faces. A large language model (LLM) then analyzes the data and extracts personal information such as name, place of work, and other details. Once the system has a name, it begins to search for information in databases containing personal data, including phone numbers and home addresses. During the demo, the developers removed Ardaifio's home address from the search results for security reasons.
One of the most surprising moments, according to Ardaifio, was that people were shown pictures of them from kindergarten that they had never seen themselves. This project shows how much data about a person can be found in the public domain on the Internet.
I-XRAY glasses use the Meta Ray Bans 2 model. A Meta spokesperson commented that Pimeyes' facial recognition technology can be used with any camera, not just Meta's smart glasses. According to the students, they chose these glasses because of their external similarity to ordinary glasses, which makes them less noticeable. However, Meta noted that their devices are equipped with an LED that lights up when recording to alert others to the shooting.
Pimeyes, in turn, said that their system is not designed to identify people, but only provides a list of sources with similar images. However, being able to find a link to a source with a similar face actually makes it possible to identify a person.
Earlier, 404 Media reported on a TikTok user who used similar technologies to publicly "doxx" random people online for entertainment, which caused some victims to feel that their personal space was violated.
Ardaifio said he hoped the project would raise awareness of how to protect their data online, despite the potential negative consequences of using it.
