face recognition
Cameras
HP Face-Tracking Webcams Don’t Recognise Black People
2:00AM Adam Frucci | This is awkward. It appears that HP’s new webcams, which have facial-tracking software, can’t recognise black faces, as evidenced in this video. More »
Software
iPhoto Discovers Face in Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
7:20AM Mark Wilson | iPhoto’s face detection isn’t perfect, but we can’t blame the software for spotting a face in this unbaked batch of cookies. More »
Software
What To Know About iPhoto ‘09 Face Detection and Recognition
11:00PM Wilson Rothman | In testing iPhoto for a full review (coming soon), I’ve plowed through more than 30,000 photos using over 40 identified faces, mostly human. Here’s how iPhoto’s face detection and recognition works—and doesn’t work: More »
Computers
Enhanced Photos Can Bypass Any Face-Recognition Software
12:00PM Gizmodo US Edition | BKIS, a Vietnamese security centre, recently demonstrated that face-recognition security programs found in Toshiba, Asus and Lenovo laptops can be bypassed with a special photo. More »
Screens
Panasonic Lifewall Is the All-Knowing Gesture-Controlled TV of the Future
7:00AM John Herrman | If only the ancient Chinese Had Panasonic’s LifeWall, they could have fended off nomadic tribes with HDTV instead of bricks and battlements. But since we live in the future, we can shut out the rest of the world with television that not only stretches from floor to ceiling, it follows people around the room. Panasonic’s prototype LifeWall, exhibited at CEATEC outside Tokyo, is a room-sized screen that tracks and remembers users with face recognition, which the firm calls You-Know-Me-TV. galleryPost('panasoniclifewall', 3, ''); More »
Online
10:59AM Nick Broughall | Most people have thousands of digital photos in their collections. One of the cool new features available in Picasa’s Web Albums (which kind of got swept away in the torrent of Chrome coverage the last couple of days) is the ability to tag faces in your photos quickly and easily.
If you have photos on a Picasa web album already, you can enable the feature in settings. It then scans all your photos in the Picasa web album, before grouping similar faces together. You then work through those by giving name tags.
You’ll quite often have to repeat the same person in different groups of photos, so it’s a far from perfect solution. But it does make the tagging process much quicker than manually going through every photo.
It’s also secure, enabling better searching and more freedom for specific collections of photos, and you can share tagged photos with the people in them easily as well. Any images you share via Picasa also only shares the nicknamed tag you’ve put on the photo, not any further details like contact information.
This is a really useful development for cataloguing your photos, but why it’s only available online and not in desktop photo management software like iPhoto or Picasa for Windows is beyond me. Hopefully we’ll see it rolled out to desktop applications sooner rather than later.
[Picasa nametags] More »
Picasa Adds Face Recognition To Web Albums
10:59AM Nick Broughall | Most people have thousands of digital photos in their collections. One of the cool new features available in Picasa’s Web Albums (which kind of got swept away in the torrent of Chrome coverage the last couple of days) is the ability to tag faces in your photos quickly and easily.
If you have photos on a Picasa web album already, you can enable the feature in settings. It then scans all your photos in the Picasa web album, before grouping similar faces together. You then work through those by giving name tags.
You’ll quite often have to repeat the same person in different groups of photos, so it’s a far from perfect solution. But it does make the tagging process much quicker than manually going through every photo.
It’s also secure, enabling better searching and more freedom for specific collections of photos, and you can share tagged photos with the people in them easily as well. Any images you share via Picasa also only shares the nicknamed tag you’ve put on the photo, not any further details like contact information.
This is a really useful development for cataloguing your photos, but why it’s only available online and not in desktop photo management software like iPhoto or Picasa for Windows is beyond me. Hopefully we’ll see it rolled out to desktop applications sooner rather than later.
[Picasa nametags] More »
Science
New Biometric Face Scanner Can Tell the Difference Between Identical Twins
1:20AM Adam Frucci | A new biometric face scanner from the Japanese company Sagawa Advance has taken the technology to the next level, able to differentiate between identical twins with no problems at all. It does this by using an infrared scanner to analyse a whopping 40,000 data points on your face. More »
Gadgets
Biometric Testing for Workers on London Olympics Building Site
10:53PM Addy Dugdale | Over 100,000 construction workers on the 2012 Olympics venue in London will be subjected to biometric tests while they build the site. The two-tier system will scan hands and faces, and should be up and running by June this year, when work starts on the 50-acre site. And these measures, part of the $700 million security budget, will not just be for the building contractors, either. More »
Random Stuff
Cigarette Machine to Teens: “Get Outta Here Ya Damn Kids!”
11:00AM Gizmodo US Edition | Listen up, Japanese teens: vending machine maker Fujitaka Co. is on to your sneaky cigarette-buying ways, and has created a machine that uses a camera and face recognition software to try and stop you. The machine takes your picture when you press the “Adult Recognition” button, and analyzes your face for wrinkles and sagging. If it thinks you aren’t saggy enough, you must insert your licence for age verification. In a test of 500 people, the machine spotted adults with 90% accuracy. Looks like the big kid with the crustache sitting at the back of your math class is about to be your new best friend; at least until you smoke enough to get wrinkled and buy cigarettes on your own. [Textually via The Raw Feed] More »
Computers
