Facial recognition is going to be crucial to being able to search, organize, and discover photos online. One promising startup tackling this problem is Face.com, which launched in private beta 30 days ago as a Facebook application. It scours all your photos and all the photos of your friends using existing tags to train the system. Then it tries to automatically recognize and tag the same faces in other photos.
In 30 days, Face.com has scanned 400 million photos and identified 700,000 different people. All of these are from an initial group of a few thousand beta testers. It is still in private beta, but here are 100 invites to check it out.
The app works surprisingly well, although there are the occasional comic false positives, like the clown picture above that it is 47 percent sure is MG, one of our writers. Wait a second. That isn’t you in the clown outfit, is it, MG?
I would never use this app and will remove friends who do. I just don’t know about this company. They are not in US and who knows what they will do with this data? I mean who funded these guys? This “home-grown” technology where did it come from. Was it through a research paid by Israeli military or intelligence? What will they do with this data. I would even stop using Facebook if facebook does not require my permission before this app is allowed to tag images of me that are hosted by my friend’s facebook account!
Wow, that’s the most conspiratorial, racist thing I’ve read all month. And I’ve looked at 4chan this month!
there we go with the racist card again. Common, I don’t even trust our own government, let alone the government of a foreign country!
Who said this has *anything* to do with any government? My father’s worked for a facial recognition company before and they had 0 government contracts or contacts.
James, it’s good that you are not a paranoid freak.
I am sure you were writing your comment with an aluminum foil hat, right?
Fun fact for the day: Covering a head in metal creates a resonance chamber tuned to pretty much exactly the frequencies they are worn to protect against. If the men-in-black really were trying to beam things into your head, wrapping your head in metal would be the best thing you could do to help them.
Israel has already set up government subsidized telecommunications companies which operate here in the United States. One of these companies is Amdocs, which provides billing and directory assistance for 90% of the phone companies in the USA. Amdocs’ main computer center for billing is actually in Israel and allows those with access to do what intelligence agencies call “traffic analysis”; a picture of someone’s activities based on a pattern of who they are calling and when. Another Israeli telecom company is Comverse Infosys, which subcontracts the installation of the automatic tapping equipment now built into every phone system in America. Comverse maintains its own connections to all this phone tapping equipment, insisting that it is for maintenance purposes only. However, Converse has been named as the most likely source for leaked information regarding telephone calls by law enforcement that derailed several investigations into not only espionage, but drug running as well.
Perhaps face.com is another one?
James, where the hell are you getting your ridiculous “facts”?
A. Are these “government subsidized telecommunication companies” any different than Verizon or AT&T? Because the companies you mentioned are publicly trade companies on the NYSE.
B. No where is it listed that Amdocs has 90% of the U.S. market – it can’t with only $3.16 B in revenue.
It looks like you are talking from the wrong hole or you are getting your “facts” from conspiracy-theoris-for-dummies.com
I got these facts from Brit Hume anchor of Fox News. Look it up yourself without any agenda or bias.
James,
A. To say that Fox News does not have an agenda or is bias is ridicules. But maybe you also beleive that the NY Times or Aljazeera are unbias and have no agenda.
B. The story you are referring to was not reported by Brit Hume but by Carl Cameron who has been known to fabricate stories – look him up.
C. The story was never corraborated by any other news agency nor did any “nameless government official” come forward and reveal “facts” instead of just hearsay.
The problem is people like you believe anything they see or hear – without trying to verify the sources – and then repeat it as if it was fact.
@WTF
LOL Which part of the story is exactly fabricated?
Are you saying Amdocs, does not exist? Or they don’t process 90% of our phone bills? Or their processing system is not in Israel?
Are you saying, Comverse is not an Israeli company? Are you saying they did not get a FBI contract during Clinton years to install the agency’s wiretapping system?
Which part of it is fabricated? Sounds like it is you who does not have any facts or data to support your argument
James,
There are so many holes in the “story”:
1. Amdocs exists but is not a private or government owned company – it is a publicly traded company
2. They do not “process 90% of our phone bills”. Show me from a reliable source where that is stated.
3. Show me from a reliable source where it is stated that they have or had an FBI contract.
4. Carl Cameron was caught fabricating stories in the past and is known for his journalistic fraud – look at his record with John Kerry statements.
This is why I HATE conspiracy theories – it puts the logical guy on the defensive having to prove that the theories are wrong. Do I now have to prove to you that the CIA did not plan 9/11? Do I have to prove to you that the moon landing was not staged in a Hollywood basement?
But you will believe what you want…
@WTF
What a sleazy use of sophistry to try to associate me with some 9/11 BS crap. I don’t have to explain myself to you. Obviously, you are an apologist for Israeli government and I am just a citizen watching out for myself and other fellow citizens.
James,
Again, for the third time – Amdocs is a public traded company on the NYSE – not a government company. Fact: its ticker is DOX.
It has as much to do with the government as AT&T or Oracle or Microsoft or any other public traded software/service/telecommunication company.
That is the problem with posting comments. No one has to explain himself or take responsibility.
You just write some fabricated lie as truth and repeat it over and over until it sticks. And if someone questions your “facts” – instead of revealing your sources (which I asked you several times) – you accuse them of being unpatriotic or part of the cover up.
You are a dangerous person James.
First, doesn’t iPhoto ‘09 already do this…..
Second, I always considered Israelis white people.
- This pointless comment brought to you by Barnabee Butafucco, inventor of the world famous USB rock.
– P.S. James, we’re watching you. We can see you through your screen. Don’t try and scream as no one can see this part of the comment but you. You will only look foolish. And don’t try running for help, as we will see you… trying… to run for help. We can see everything. Nice shirt. –
LOL! How do I look with the aluminum foil over my head?
Like an idiot with aluminum foil over his head.
Dante wrote…Second, I always considered Israelis white people.
lol..what’s that supposed to mean. Just because they are white people they can be trusted? So anyone who is not white, can’t be trusted?
I am sorry, that is the dumbest comment i have heard.
I have played with this app since the beta invites were given on TC last time.
I somehow still feel doubtful in terms of them identifying the pictures. Too me it ’seems’ like Social Tagging rather than face recognition. It’s basically asking the users and their friends .. Is this “John”(18%) …. You either say Yes, No, or Other. So, ofcourse it will be accurate cause a friend is vouching for the picture. Also, as I could not find out which of my friends have the app added, it adds to my curiosity. If I knew none of my friends had added the app and none of Johns, but it still suggests … Is this john (18%) …. than that would be really awesome.
BTW face.com good job definitely wish you Good Luck. It would be nice to see a white paper on your technology behind face recognition.
on an unrelated note, i’ve recieved two facebook phishing scams in the last 30 minuted, both .im suffixes any news?
just got a third
So far it has found some interesting images. Personally I don’t mind the technology, though the implications are a powerful reminder that simply making your facebook profile private, and untagging yourself in potentially embarrassing photos isn’t enough.
The info should either be on the web, or it shouldn’t. There is no in between.
I was at that party when MG was wearing the clown makeup. Oh man, what a party animal!
The hat really makes the outfit.
Oddly enough I have dressed as a clown before. Though not that clown.
I’ve been in the beta for a while now. At first glance the facial recognition appears to be frightenly good, however then consider that the subset of people it needs to select from is restricted only to people in your friend list.
It also knows who the owner of the album is, thus there is a good chance the owner of the album will also be in the photo.
No doubt it has access to other data in your social graph that narrows the list of candidates it needs to recognise to a very small number.
does face .com have a business model? my opinion is that facial recogintion is not important nor necessary in the revenue stand alone business model scheme of things. facial sorting is probably best for law enforcement and human tracking by corporations.
PhotosLocator.com – get the picture
Any company that does cool stuff with very boring data is worth something but I don’t think 2009 is the year to be taking on such a project because the acquisition model just doesn’t work anymore.
Locator said…
facial sorting is probably best for law enforcement and human tracking by corporations.
I agree here. The technology is useful in law enforcement and industrial applications, but apart from that, their only hope is to be acquired by someone. Anyway good luck to the company.
Conspiracy apart I am not sure what would be the benefit of using the app. I know in todays world our pictures are spread all across from photo sharing sites to blogs etc. etc.
But once it find the pictures of mine what do I do?
I was really hoping to use this software to search all of facebook for random pictures that I’m in the background of or that were taken by people who don’t know me (friend of friend of friend). i already know the pictures i’m in that my friends have put up….it’d be more fun to see the random ones that are taken by people I don’t know! Sounds like this software can’t do that….bummer.
I found the MG clown!
http://www.flic...ech/2990200475/
How they are going to make money?
Beside face recognition, could this be turned into a general image search with automatic tagging?