4 ms·

As someone who works in the industry, using face recognition at sporting events is not new at all. Although admittedly algorithms are a lot better now.

by drpgq 9y ago

username223 9y ago
The spokes-droids will clearly just continue to spout meaningless nonsense like this: "MSG continues to test and explore the use of new technologies to ensure we’re employing the most effective security procedures to provide a safe and wonderful experience for our guests." Can you offer any insight into what exactly is meant by "person is considered a problem" and "sometimes used for marketing and promotions." Does that mean "sold to law enforcement and ad targeting companies," or is it a bit less bad?
- jonathankoren 9y ago
  I would imagine that the at system at MSG is similar to Ingenuity Sun Media's system that's been deployed across NASCAR[0]. (The NYT article doesn't identify the vendor, but how many are there?) ISM's system specifically looks at the number of people in the crowd and how many are looking at the screen. Additionally, it tries to identify demographics in the crowd. Which makes sense, because this is meant for mass advertising. Although, I wonder how much more accurate you're going to get with some geewiz face scanner, than traditional demographic information sources. (Lots of middle aged white men at NASCAR? You don't say!) Update: Apparently, you can get better info. > "We've learned the age demographic is more diverse than we thought it would be," Hutchins said. "We're seeing a very balanced male-female [ratio], we're seeing a very balanced adult-young adult [ratio], and we're seeing a bigger crowd than they told us we would see."[1] [0] https://jalopnik.com/the-video-boards-at-nascar-races-are-scanning-your-face-1823610364 https://jalopnik.com/the-video-boards-at-nascar-races-are-sc... [1] http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/story/_/id/20990688/nascar-being-watched-watch http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/story/_/id/20990688/nascar...
  - username223 9y ago
    It's a bit surprising to see that there's enough money in scanning people's faces at car races to develop that kind of "ingenuity." The fact that people went to the track and stared at a motor oil ad for 2.5 seconds hardly seems worth much, especially if they're "anonymous." Also, from the second article: > It's not mapping your face as much as just pulling metadata and data points around the structure of the face. Heh, "metadata and data points." It's depressing to read the same bafflegab over and over.
    - jonathankoren 9y ago
      Yeah, pulling points off my face isn’t metadata. It’s data. Hell, all metadata is data.
- drpgq 9y ago
  They have watch lists of people banned from the stadium.It has been used years ago for hooligans in European soccer stadiums. Demographic info like age and gender can be used. Checking if season seat holders are actually there is something I hadn't heard of, though with the high value of scalped tickets for the Rangers and Knicks, it isn't surprising.

As someone who works in the industry, using face recognition at sporting events is not new at all. Although admittedly algorithms are a lot better now.

by drpgq 9y ago

As someone who works in the industry, using face recognition at sporting events is not new at all. Although admittedly algorithms are a lot better now.

username223 9y ago

The spokes-droids will clearly just continue to spout meaningless nonsense like this: "MSG continues to test and explore the use of new technologies to ensure we’re employing the most effective security procedures to provide a safe and wonderful experience for our guests." Can you offer any insight into what exactly is meant by "person is considered a problem" and "sometimes used for marketing and promotions." Does that mean "sold to law enforcement and ad targeting companies," or is it a bit less bad?

jonathankoren 9y ago
I would imagine that the at system at MSG is similar to Ingenuity Sun Media's system that's been deployed across NASCAR[0]. (The NYT article doesn't identify the vendor, but how many are there?) ISM's system specifically looks at the number of people in the crowd and how many are looking at the screen. Additionally, it tries to identify demographics in the crowd. Which makes sense, because this is meant for mass advertising. Although, I wonder how much more accurate you're going to get with some geewiz face scanner, than traditional demographic information sources. (Lots of middle aged white men at NASCAR? You don't say!) Update: Apparently, you can get better info. > "We've learned the age demographic is more diverse than we thought it would be," Hutchins said. "We're seeing a very balanced male-female [ratio], we're seeing a very balanced adult-young adult [ratio], and we're seeing a bigger crowd than they told us we would see."[1] [0] https://jalopnik.com/the-video-boards-at-nascar-races-are-scanning-your-face-1823610364 https://jalopnik.com/the-video-boards-at-nascar-races-are-sc... [1] http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/story/_/id/20990688/nascar-being-watched-watch http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/story/_/id/20990688/nascar...
- username223 9y ago
  It's a bit surprising to see that there's enough money in scanning people's faces at car races to develop that kind of "ingenuity." The fact that people went to the track and stared at a motor oil ad for 2.5 seconds hardly seems worth much, especially if they're "anonymous." Also, from the second article: > It's not mapping your face as much as just pulling metadata and data points around the structure of the face. Heh, "metadata and data points." It's depressing to read the same bafflegab over and over.
  - jonathankoren 9y ago
    Yeah, pulling points off my face isn’t metadata. It’s data. Hell, all metadata is data.
drpgq 9y ago
They have watch lists of people banned from the stadium.It has been used years ago for hooligans in European soccer stadiums. Demographic info like age and gender can be used. Checking if season seat holders are actually there is something I hadn't heard of, though with the high value of scalped tickets for the Rangers and Knicks, it isn't surprising.