Russian photographer matches random people with social network photos • Hacker News Board

Re: Russian photographer matches random people with social network photos

#71

Post by bigiain » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 12:45 AM UTC

JackFr wrote: post #9

larrik wrote: post #2

The artist (or the article) suggests that the pictures he took on the metro are the 'real' person, whereas the pictures on the social site are the 'ideal' person. I'm not so sure. I think its very possible that the person in the social network photographs is actually far closer to the person they really are than the photo of them riding alone on the subway.

Further, the artist is clearly curating what he shows and what he doesn't and likely has his own message.

To be fair, he's pitching this as an art project, not a piece of social media or privacy research. Of _course_ he's curating the output to maximise his art's impact.

(I really like this sort of "subversive art", that has deeply important educational aspects showing people how the world really is in interesting ways...)

Re: Russian photographer matches random people with social network photos

#72

Post by bigiain » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 12:48 AM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #33

larrik wrote: post #2

The artist (or the article) suggests that the pictures he took on the metro are the 'real' person, whereas the pictures on the social site are the 'ideal' person. I'm not so sure. I think its very possible that the person in the social network photographs is actually far closer to the person they really are than the photo of them riding alone on the subway.

I thought exactly the same - and the photos chosen for the article don't really back up the point either. The pairs look like the same "person" to me, not one real and one fake. Anyway I don't know anybody who busts out their truest expression of self to ride the subway.

I wonder...

Sometimes I suspect my early morning public transport "if you don't turn that stupid ringtone down I'm gonna stab you in the face" self is closer to my "truest expression" than my "look at me having fun being the life of this party" social media fake-self...

Re: Russian photographer matches random people with social network photos

#73

Post by hayksaakian » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 1:14 AM UTC

xentronium wrote: post #30

FindFace is a very interesting piece of technology. It's legit (the authors, N-Tech.Lab, have successfully competed against google and other strong opponents in MegaFace Benchmark). It's not real-time, but fast enough (0.5-1.0 minute time required to recognize faces and provide their profile links). Their business model is freemium (first 10 or 30 searches per month are free), and they're trying to make it a matching…

their website was pretty unhelpful is there a signup page somewhere i want to try it out

Re: Russian photographer matches random people with social network photos

#74

Post by gk1 » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 1:24 AM UTC

hayksaakian wrote: post #73

xentronium wrote: post #30

FindFace is a very interesting piece of technology. It's legit (the authors, N-Tech.Lab, have successfully competed against google and other strong opponents in MegaFace Benchmark). It's not real-time, but fast enough (0.5-1.0 minute time required to recognize faces and provide their profile links). Their business model is freemium (first 10 or 30 searches per month are free), and they're trying to make it a matching…

their website was pretty unhelpful is there a signup page somewhere i want to try it out

Here you go: http://findface.ru/

Looks as though it's only available in Russian and only works for VKontakte (the social network).

Warning: It highjacks your back button.

Re: Russian photographer matches random people with social network photos

#75

Post by imaginenore » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 1:28 AM UTC

I don't believe these claims.

These photos are matched too well, and I suspect he did it manually. Some of the train photos are so bad, there's no way they got automatically recognized.

Not to mention the resources you would need just to get the data on 280 million users, let alone train a neural net on it, and make it work with a 70% success rate.

I think it's a viral way to get app installs. The app reviews are really bad btw, it doesn't work.

Re: Russian photographer matches random people with social network photos

#76

Post by imron » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 1:33 AM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #28

Karlozkiller wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm more surprised that people are surprised. You provide images to the public with your name and face connected to even more personal data. Why are you surprised that this data can then be used by a third, or even a fourth party?

"Provide images to the public" isn't what people do; they provide images to a limited audience, either unwillingly (you can't walk around outside without creating some kind of image, it is not a willed action) or with people they know or expect to know them (online). It's technology which has converted this limited audience to a universal concept of "public".

> "Provide images to the public" isn't what people do;

It isn't what they think they do, but it very much is what they do.

Re: Russian photographer matches random people with social network photos

#77

Post by csmoak » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 1:34 AM UTC

justsaysmthng wrote: post #10

I don't see why this can't be done in real time. Point your phone towards a person in a cafe and immediately figure out her name, age, maybe relationship status, social class, augmented reality style. 5 minutes later accidentally bump into her .. and start a conversation, armed with lots of private info about the person. Or even more basic - thieves picking their targets - is this woman's purse likely to contain a lo…

If you are interested in exploring a world where something like what you suggest is a generally-accepted part of life, check out the book Super Sad True Love Story. http://supersadtruelovestory.com/

This novel is set in a world that takes current social and sharing trends and extrapolates out a dozen years or so. Depending on your thinking, it could be seen as an extreme or a reasonable guess of what might happen in the future.

Re: Russian photographer matches random people with social network photos

#78

Post by morganvachon » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 1:37 AM UTC

larrik wrote: post #2

The artist (or the article) suggests that the pictures he took on the metro are the 'real' person, whereas the pictures on the social site are the 'ideal' person. I'm not so sure. I think its very possible that the person in the social network photographs is actually far closer to the person they really are than the photo of them riding alone on the subway.

> I'm not so sure. I think its very possible that the person in the social network photographs is actually far closer to the person they really are than the photo of them riding alone on the subway.

That's how I see it too, but that may be tempered by my personality. When I'm on public transit or in a crowd, I do my best not to stand out (which is difficult being 6'4" and 240lbs) but when I'm around people I know, I will smile and have fun. When I go to a concert alone, I'm also a bit closed off and tend to dress blandly, but if I go with a friend or a group I'm more lively and interactive, and dressed to suit the music. It's all about being comfortable with those around you, at least for me.

So yes, on the subway I'm the dull guy in the jeans and t-shirt, and on social media I'm almost always with friends in a photo so I'm smiling and having fun.

Nothing out of the ordinary in these photos if you ask me.

Re: Russian photographer matches random people with social network photos

#79

Post by lukeh » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 2:19 AM UTC

csmoak wrote: post #77

justsaysmthng wrote: post #10

I don't see why this can't be done in real time. Point your phone towards a person in a cafe and immediately figure out her name, age, maybe relationship status, social class, augmented reality style. 5 minutes later accidentally bump into her .. and start a conversation, armed with lots of private info about the person. Or even more basic - thieves picking their targets - is this woman's purse likely to contain a lo…

If you are interested in exploring a world where something like what you suggest is a generally-accepted part of life, check out the book Super Sad True Love Story. http://supersadtruelovestory.com/ This novel is set in a world that takes current social and sharing trends and extrapolates out a dozen years or so. Depending on your thinking, it could be seen as an extreme or a reasonable guess of what might happen in…

I was just going to suggest this. Totally Super Sad.

Re: Russian photographer matches random people with social network photos

#80

Post by hayksaakian » Thu, Apr 14, 2016, 2:20 AM UTC

gk1 wrote: post #74

hayksaakian wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

their website was pretty unhelpful is there a signup page somewhere i want to try it out

Here you go: http://findface.ru/ Looks as though it's only available in Russian and only works for VKontakte (the social network). Warning: It highjacks your back button.

thank you