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Participatory Panopticon On Its Way (Maybe)
Picturephoning gives a heads-up on "Recognizr" (you know it's cutting-edge when they leave out the "e"), an iPhone app that will supposedly recognize faces seen by the camera. Here's the promo video:
It's a prototype from the Swedish group The Astonishing Tribe. Apparently, a photo taken in Recognizr (sigh) gets compared to pictures in various social networking platforms, including Flickr (see? no "e"!!!!), Facebook, and the like.
Picturephoning links to a hysterical Daily Mail article, which plays up the STALKRS WILL STEAL UR VIRTUE angle, not really looking at the more interesting -- and potentially more troubling -- aspects. Popular Science is a little more sober, but ultimately not hugely more informative.
Until I see something more than just the one video, I'm going to call this one Plausible, but not at all difficult to hoax. Anybody know better?
Comments
This is easily doable now. FaceRec is a feature on a few high end Japanese phones right now. It recognizes faces in photos you take and then tags them for comparison to other pictures on the phone. Not sure how much further they take it than that,but it is described at about 1:20 into here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6HCzl8m3cU
Nice phone. 12MP camera, 1024x480 touchscreen clamshell. Also has a tv tuner, digital wallet, wifi, and other nice to haves.
Posted by: Howard Berkey | March 4, 2010 3:41 AM
I had heard about this previously, but this is the first I've seen of an application.
To your title point, I always think it's amazing how much information people (myself included) will willingly put out there when we'd be up in arms if the government tried to force the same from us.
Posted by: Joe | March 6, 2010 8:00 AM
Spoof of Recognizr in action. And generally a hilarious episode.
Posted by: Miriam | March 7, 2010 12:04 PM