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As someone with prosopagnosia (neurological inability to recognize faces) I find this incredibly frustrating. My everyday life would be immensely easier with as

by ksenzee 11y ago

As someone with prosopagnosia (neurological inability to recognize faces) I find this incredibly frustrating. My everyday life would be immensely easier with assistive tech that told me the names of everyone I see. And now that the technology exists to develop such a useful device, what do we get instead? Mass societal surveillance.

devindotcom 11y ago
Alas the first application of much cutting-edge technology is in the service of authority. I hope you are at least a bit comforted by the fact that the technology is making its way slowly to you.
dougmany 11y ago
I am no expert on this but the article suggested that the database of named photos was the hardest part to obtain for an individual. Since you would (probably) most value a database of people you have met before, a self generated database would be a good start to gaining access to this technology.
- ksenzee 11y ago
  Right, I could definitely train existing facial recognition software on a database of people I've met. The problem is delivery; when I need this information, I'm not sitting at a computer. I need some kind of device, with a camera and a way to feed me the person's name real time, that I can reasonably wear in public without looking like a walking server closet. That's hard to hack together (just ask the Glass team).
cantrevealname 11y ago
That would be the killer app for Google Glass. Not just for your situation, but for salesmen, customer service reps, security guards, politicians, or anyone who needs to recognize lots of people, recall names, and bring up an instant profile about the person standing in front of them. (Granted, even this application has serious overtones of societal surveillance.) EDIT: Anyone care to speculate on why Google Glass doesn't do this? Surely the processing capability is there.
- ksenzee 11y ago
  Google Glass bans facial recognition apps[0]. I've tweeted them about getting an exception for assistive tech but I've never pursued it any further[1]. [0] https://developers.google.com/glass/policies?hl=en https://developers.google.com/glass/policies?hl=en [1] https://twitter.com/googleglass/status/463838878143492096 https://twitter.com/googleglass/status/463838878143492096
  - 15155 11y ago
    A great example of "you don't own your hardware," or "you own your hardware with a hundred strings attached (probably to the software)" RMS called this one.
  - caskance 11y ago
    Google Glass specifically, yes. There will be other products with the same form factor that don't have the same restriction. And you can always just take your chances with sideloading an app even if Google themselves aren't willing to distribute it.
- OkGoDoIt 11y ago
  I briefly worked with a company that made a facial recognition app for Google Glass (http://www.nametag.ws http://www.nametag.ws). Google officially banned us but you could still sideload it. The two major issues were assembling the database of faces (we used mainly LinkedIn photos but you really need multiple photos per person in different light/angles to train it well) and hardware performance (we had to do processing server side but even the basic part running on Glass killed the battery and made it run very hot). The hardware is Glass is basically an underclocked original Moto Droid (the one that launched Android 2.0), and is extremely underpowered for doing local face recognition on a large corpus of faces. I imagine a Glass-like device created a few years from now could be much more viable for this sort of thing. As for the database of people, there are companies that will sell you that (FullContact, Spokeo, Pipl, AllThePeople.net, etc) although the photo quality can still be an issue.
  - ksenzee 11y ago
anigbrowl 11y ago
How do you deal with this in real life? Do you recognize your friends' voices, or have they learned that they just need to identify themselves when you meet?
- kevinchen 11y ago
  I don't want to speak for ksenzee, but a friend of mine with prosopagnosia uses body language (e.g. gait) and clothing to recognize people.
- ksenzee 11y ago
  I have relatively mild prosopagnosia; I can recognize people I know well. My understanding is that the brain's object recognition system takes over from the facial recognition system. It's less efficient but it works well enough. Anyone I know well enough to recognize from the back (by gait, voice, height, hair color, etc.) I can also recognize from the front by looking at their face. It's hardest when I'm first meeting a lot of new people, like at a new job. Other people, with more severe prosopagnosia, can't even recognize their own family members' faces. They rely on gait and voice and other cues. It's really hard on them when, say, their spouse decides to get their hair dyed blue.

by ksenzee 11y ago

devindotcom 11y ago

Alas the first application of much cutting-edge technology is in the service of authority. I hope you are at least a bit comforted by the fact that the technology is making its way slowly to you.

dougmany 11y ago

I am no expert on this but the article suggested that the database of named photos was the hardest part to obtain for an individual. Since you would (probably) most value a database of people you have met before, a self generated database would be a good start to gaining access to this technology.

ksenzee 11y ago
Right, I could definitely train existing facial recognition software on a database of people I've met. The problem is delivery; when I need this information, I'm not sitting at a computer. I need some kind of device, with a camera and a way to feed me the person's name real time, that I can reasonably wear in public without looking like a walking server closet. That's hard to hack together (just ask the Glass team).

cantrevealname 11y ago

That would be the killer app for Google Glass. Not just for your situation, but for salesmen, customer service reps, security guards, politicians, or anyone who needs to recognize lots of people, recall names, and bring up an instant profile about the person standing in front of them. (Granted, even this application has serious overtones of societal surveillance.) EDIT: Anyone care to speculate on why Google Glass doesn't do this? Surely the processing capability is there.

ksenzee 11y ago
Google Glass bans facial recognition apps[0]. I've tweeted them about getting an exception for assistive tech but I've never pursued it any further[1]. [0] https://developers.google.com/glass/policies?hl=en https://developers.google.com/glass/policies?hl=en [1] https://twitter.com/googleglass/status/463838878143492096 https://twitter.com/googleglass/status/463838878143492096
- 15155 11y ago
  A great example of "you don't own your hardware," or "you own your hardware with a hundred strings attached (probably to the software)" RMS called this one.
- caskance 11y ago
  Google Glass specifically, yes. There will be other products with the same form factor that don't have the same restriction. And you can always just take your chances with sideloading an app even if Google themselves aren't willing to distribute it.
OkGoDoIt 11y ago
I briefly worked with a company that made a facial recognition app for Google Glass (http://www.nametag.ws http://www.nametag.ws). Google officially banned us but you could still sideload it. The two major issues were assembling the database of faces (we used mainly LinkedIn photos but you really need multiple photos per person in different light/angles to train it well) and hardware performance (we had to do processing server side but even the basic part running on Glass killed the battery and made it run very hot). The hardware is Glass is basically an underclocked original Moto Droid (the one that launched Android 2.0), and is extremely underpowered for doing local face recognition on a large corpus of faces. I imagine a Glass-like device created a few years from now could be much more viable for this sort of thing. As for the database of people, there are companies that will sell you that (FullContact, Spokeo, Pipl, AllThePeople.net, etc) although the photo quality can still be an issue.
- ksenzee 11y ago

anigbrowl 11y ago

How do you deal with this in real life? Do you recognize your friends' voices, or have they learned that they just need to identify themselves when you meet?

kevinchen 11y ago
I don't want to speak for ksenzee, but a friend of mine with prosopagnosia uses body language (e.g. gait) and clothing to recognize people.
ksenzee 11y ago
I have relatively mild prosopagnosia; I can recognize people I know well. My understanding is that the brain's object recognition system takes over from the facial recognition system. It's less efficient but it works well enough. Anyone I know well enough to recognize from the back (by gait, voice, height, hair color, etc.) I can also recognize from the front by looking at their face. It's hardest when I'm first meeting a lot of new people, like at a new job. Other people, with more severe prosopagnosia, can't even recognize their own family members' faces. They rely on gait and voice and other cues. It's really hard on them when, say, their spouse decides to get their hair dyed blue.