Meta's next smart glasses might not have a camera at all – is the experiment over?

There's been no shortage of criticism of Meta's smart glasses recently, after reports of men using the cameras for nefarious pursuits came to light. But perhaps this is the solution: Meta's next glasses might remove the cameras.

Thought to be codenamed Luna, the glasses are said to keep the features of existing Meta glasses, with microphones for voice controls and speakers in the arms, but forego the cameras to assuage those privacy concerns, according to The Information (via Road to VR).

That will mean that Meta gets to stay on people's faces, Meta AI gets to respond to user requests and the ear speakers can still pipe in music and calls, as well as provide the spoken interactions for users.

Meta then misses out on visual data, while wearers will lack the ability to ask about what they are looking at. At the same time, the ability to take photos and video will be removed - and that should address privacy concerns that people might be sneakily recording you.

While that might address the issue, it still means that Meta has some sort of recording device and there's a chance that if could fall foul of the industry's next privacy hot potato - voice recording without consent.

With the launch of the Apple Watch Series 12, the inclusion of the Audio Intelligence features put audio privacy on the agenda, with Bloomberg highlighting that such listening features could fall foul of eavesdropping laws.

With all that said, there hasn't been a concern around smartphones with voice triggers so far, so it could be that microphone-equipped glasses aren't seen as a threat.

It's said that Meta's new glasses will be launched at the next Meta Connect conference which is taking place in September, meaning that they are on the verge of launching.

Smart glasses are in a tough place right now. The "pervert glasses" name has stuck, the public are aware and a number of venues and businesses have now explicitly banned wearing them. But for many, the best feature of smart glasses is the open-ear style listening and the ability to talk to AI without having to reach for a phone.

It might just be that Meta glasses without a camera are really popular.