facial recognition

China’s high-tech tool to fight toilet paper bandits

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From the New York Times: China’s High-Tech Tool to Fight Toilet Paper Bandits.

BEIJING — The toilet paper thieves of the Temple of Heaven Park were an elusive bunch.

They looked like most park visitors, practicing tai chi, dancing in the courtyards and stopping to take in the scent of ancient cypress and juniper trees. But hidden in their oversize shopping bags and backpacks was a secret: sheet upon sheet of crumpled toilet paper, plucked surreptitiously from public restrooms.

Now the authorities in Beijing are fighting back, going so far as to install high-tech toilet paper dispensers equipped with facial recognition software in several restrooms. [continue]

The surprising things algorithms can glean about you from photos

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This is an article I’ll be sharing with all my friends, because it’s important for us to understand the consequences one single photo can have.

Even if you do not tag the people in an image, photo recognition systems can do so. Facebook’s DeepFace algorithm can match a face to one that has appeared in previously uploaded images, including photos taken in dramatically different lighting and from dramatically different points of view. Using identified profile photos and tagged photos and social-graph relationships, a very probable name can be attached to the face. (…)

A person pounding the pavement of a city street can be identified and tracked block-to-block by the unique characteristics of her gait. (…)

Taking a photo or video in public isn’t illegal, nor is taking one with a person’s permission. It’s also not illegal to upload the file or store it in the cloud. Applying optical character recognition, facial recognition, or a super-resolution algorithm isn’t illegal, either. There’s simply no place for us to hide anymore. [continue]

That’s from Andreas Weigend’s article, The Surprising Things Algorithms Can Glean About You From Photos, published on Slate. I think you’ll want to read the whole thing.

A note at the bottom of the Slate article says, in part, “Andreas Weigend is the author of Data for the People: How to Make Our Post-Privacy Economy Work for You.” I am grateful for this Slate article – it has super information and will be a handy thing for me to send to friends and post on a certain bulletin board. So I’ve just bought Andreas’ book, as a way to thank him.

Oh, and about laws regarding the taking of photos: we had a house guest from the Netherlands a while ago. He said it’s illegal in the Netherlands to take photos of people without their permission. Really? That’s a great idea. I wish we had a similar law here.

Are any of you saying no when others want to photograph you?

More on the dangers of facial recognition software

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This facial recognition stuff gets more chilling at every turn. Did you see this article from the Guardian a few days ago? SXSW panel opens window into dangers of facial recognition software .

He said that his facial recognition system is now so good at recognising races, a challenge in the past, that it can be used as a genealogy tool. “It’s coming back with the percentages of race the person is,” he said, mentioning someone who came up 12% Asian despite looking Caucasian. “Oh, I have a Chinese grandmother,” she said, according to Brackeen.

Brackeen said Kairos has been pushing for regulation, and that although he believes Karios’ conduct is responsible, he could not say the same for some competitors. He mentioned FindFace, for example, the Russian company which made an app that could analyze images of people and match it to their social media accounts.

The app was supposed to be for finding friends, but members of online messaging board Dvach started using it to expose identities, harass porn actors and spam their families with the news of their discovery. [continue]

So here’s how it’s going. You’ll be out having a coffee at the neighbourhood cafe, and anybody with a camera will be able to take your photo, submit it to a facial recognition database, and find out more about who you are. What’s your name? Who’s your mamma? Where did your ancestors come from? And more.

Are you ok with that?

Can facial recognition systems help save lemurs?

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Look, a use of facial recognition technology that doesn’t invade my privacy, or yours! From phys.org: Can facial recognition systems help save lemurs?

Facial recognition is a biometric system that identifies or verifies a person from a digital image. It’s used to find criminals, identify passport and driver’s license fraud, and catch shoplifters.

Yes, and to invade the privacy of an entire populace, tracking innocent people who should be left in peace.

But can it be used to identify endangered lemurs in the jungles of Madagascar?

Yes, said Anil Jain, biometrics expert and university distinguished professor at Michigan State University.

Jain and his team modified their human facial recognition system to create LemurFaceID, the first computer facial recognition system that correctly identifies more than 100 individual lemurs with 98.7 percent accuracy. [continue]