7 ms·
That show was incredibly on the mark, if Black Mirror was a comedy it would have been that show. The episode about the black engineer who isn't detected by the
by vvanders 8y ago
That show was incredibly on the mark, if Black Mirror was a comedy it would have been that show.
The episode about the black engineer who isn't detected by the motion sensors is basically straight out of HP's webcam fiasco[1](although the show takes it to the logical and hilarious extreme).
[1] http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/race/2009/12/hp-webcam-colorblindbut-not-in-a-good-way.html http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/race/2009/12/hp-webcam-c...
- bobbyi_settv 8y agoHere's that episode on Hulu for anyone who happens to have a subscription and want to check it out: https://www.hulu.com/watch/81765 https://www.hulu.com/watch/81765 In my opinion, BOT is one of the best comedy shows of the past decade and that episode is widely considered to be the best one.
- letsgetphysITal 8y agoThis has been a real problem with facial recognition. Faces used to train engines are typically Caucasian, so the ability to distinguish other ethnicities is quite sub-par. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/04/the-underlying-bias-of-facial-recognition-systems/476991/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/04/the-u...
- pbhjpbhj 8y agoIsn't there a problem with shadow contrast which makes features more difficult to pick out on darker skinned faces? I vaguely recall an East Asian developer giving that reason for why he developed on Western data-sets.
- Rjevski 8y agoMost likely it’s an issue with contrast and overall darker skin colour. Can be solved by illuminating the face with IR though, which should work across all ethnicities.
- pbhjpbhj 8y agoYes, but then you need special equipment rather than standard cameras (that usually filter IR); which would prove the point that it's about physical limitations rather than racism.
- DanBC 8y agoThe racism comes from saying "We recognise human faces" and then not recognising a significant proportion of humans.
- pc86 8y agoThat's not racism, that's laziness. Or perhaps just being a bad engineer, if you want to be more cynical about it. It's not that hard to find both conscious and subconscious examples of systemic or individual racism. Engineers taking the easy path with webcam facial recognition is probably not a good one and serves only to give more fuel to those who claim people jump to the racism cry too quickly.
- dagw 8y agoThat's not racism, that's laziness. If the system had failed for with people with different hair color rather than skin color would they have been equally lazy?
- Dylan16807 8y agoIf it was hitting the same percentages? Very likely yes.
- pc86 8y agoWhat else would they have been?
- krapp 8y ago> That's not racism, that's laziness. Or perhaps just being a bad engineer, if you want to be more cynical about it. It can be both. An attitude that considers facial recognition software acceptable if it only recognizes light-skinned people is both lazy and racist. Only choosing to test on light-skinned people is racist because doing so assumes dark skinned people are an exception or an outlier, rather than an equally valid part of the set of "human faces."
- toomuchgov 8y agoWe call 'em occidental datasets 'round these parts.
- thecatspaw 8y agoWouldnt it make more sense then to develop _not_ on the easycase but the hard ones?
- Jonnax 8y agoYeah but, you know, deadlines to meet and contracts to win.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- faceplanted 8y agogives the best performance metrics as well
- pbhjpbhj 8y agoMVP presumably.
- analyst74 8y agoI find this phenomenon of protecting oneself from being called racist fascinating. Your opinion is not exactly racist, but you had to bring up another minority, in case someone accuses you?
- ForRealsies 8y agoI imagine China has fixed that problem, given their present day "1984-esque" surveillance tech.
- mozumder 8y agoBlack Mirror IS a comedy. Nothing in it is realistic. Don't take it seriously.
- rando444 8y agoJust because nothing in it is realistic, does not make it a comedy.
- mozumder 8y agoJust because two sentences are next to each other, does not make it conditional on the first.
- jexah 8y agoYou're right, it's not always the case, but in that format the second sentence is usually a justification of the first. Also, Black Mirror is not a comedy.
- mozumder 8y agoEvery time I watch it I'm laughing my ass off. It's definitely not serious, or even satirical. Most sci-fi has the problem of trying to model a situation with limited social scope. The fact that they never turn out true is because society has social safeguards to prevent it from happening that the writers don't model. 1984 is also a comedy.
- e40 8y agoI loved that show so damn much. I was crushed when it was canceled.