Comment by dryicerx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dryicerx | Hacker News Reader

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It's already under development by several startups, including ours (except ours isn't for gov't uses, but to map your personal photos with names using facebook pictures).

The cool thing about facebook's photos is that with their API, you can pull the name->XY locations of the picture which has a person tagged to it (making the facial detection portion super easy). Then with the set of name -> faces[], training the facial recognition database becomes even easier.

Facebook it self has a even more sinister potential. Imagine they train a facial recognition database for everyone already tagged in photos on facebook. Then have a iPhone app, which you can take a picture of anyone... which would spit out the name/info/school/interests/everything. There is nothing technologically stopping this, and it will be just a matter of time.

(puts on my tin foil hat)

http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.h...

6:47 minutes into the demo :)

Will this be a net positive or negative for society? Stalking-type use becomes possible, but maybe people behave better if they feel less anonymous.

This will be a huge change for people who live in cities, but are currently effectively disconnected from one another. Imagine even just knowing the name of each person you pass on the street, and knowing that they know your name. Huge social change. I think it's positive.

I wouldn't want a bunch of unknowns taking photographs of me. I don't want to imagine a society that take photos of each other without your permission.

Just go ask politely their name or something if you defenetely need to know.

And the CIA is an investor in facebook.

(Hey, where did my tin foil hat go!)

"""except ours isn't for gov't uses, but to map your personal photos with names using facebook pictures"""

Like http://www.polarrose.com does?

Yeah kind of. Another place that does facebook face mapping is http://www.face.com.

The facial recognition isn't our main feature, just a decoration/extra on top of our actual product/service which is related to photo organization and synchronization.

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