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A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

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Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#132

I saw a pitch for this tech 5 years ago. Not sure the name of the company. The idea is they can measure engagement (how long you looked), approximate age and sex. Five years ago it didn't seem so sinister. A lot has happened since then, I guess.

I guess public perception of the technology is based on how "creepy" (read: accurate) it is.

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#133
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting the 2002 movie Minority Report is based on a shorty story of the same name published by Philip K. Dick in 1956. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Minority_Report

I was attributing this bit to the film...I suspect the digital signage scene wasn't from the short story.

Ah, right, yep good point. I've read the story but my memory of the film overwhelms my memory of the story. I believe you are correct.

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#134
post #19

In Japan at least, before automated facial recognition, cashiers recorded buyer demographics by hand. I would think other places do it too. Edit: Here is what the buttons look like. Gender and age. https://image.slidesharecdn.com/hvc-c-android-prototype20141...

In a few stores here in Australia, I am asked for my post code (or country of residence if no post code) by the cashier when ringing up a sale. Predominantly at tourist/tour related points of sale, but I've also had it an electronics and white goods stores. No idea if the operator is also recording gender and perceived age group etc., but I do know that on most occasions, you can opt not to answer the post code quest…

When you go to those weekend open inspections in Sydney, you are almost guaranteed to be asked for your postcode. They record that as well.

I actually did some experiments - for different properties in roughly the same area/price range, I told different real estate agents different postcodes. It is beyond reasonable doubt that the code you tell them play a huge role on how they rank you as potential buyers. When you tell them a random north shore post code, you are guaranteed to receive a nice & friendly follow up on the coming Monday, however if you tell them that you live in the west (when mostly inspecting north shore properties), they would smile and immediately end the whole conversation.

The sample size here is ~50, which I believe is big enough to draw some reasonable conclusions.

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#135
post #15

You'd be surprised / scared / outraged if you knew how common this is. Any time you've been in a public place for the past few years, you've likely been watched, analysed and optimised for. Advertising in the physical world is just as scummy as it's online equivalent. Check out the video here http://sightcorp.com/ for an ultra creepy overview. You can even try their live demo: https://face-api.sightcorp.com/demo_basi…

I tried the demo. A little sad, that it sees me as 12 years older than I am, and that I apparently always look angry and disgusted! I'm going to blame it on my glasses and bushy beard, and try to look at the bright side - apparently face scanning systems aren't quite good enough to get a read on me yet. (And try not to be too sad about looking like a grumpy old man) (Anyone else with a glasses, a beard, or other non-…

Glasses and a beard. Pegged me as an angry white guy about five years younger than I am.

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#136
post #15

You'd be surprised / scared / outraged if you knew how common this is. Any time you've been in a public place for the past few years, you've likely been watched, analysed and optimised for. Advertising in the physical world is just as scummy as it's online equivalent. Check out the video here http://sightcorp.com/ for an ultra creepy overview. You can even try their live demo: https://face-api.sightcorp.com/demo_basi…

Why is this scummy exactly? If a salesperson was to try to sell to you in a store, they would take into account how you appear and act to tailor the sale. There's nothing wrong with that. Why is it suddenly bad if a machine does it?

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#138
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The future was here in 1995.... I worked for the U.S. Postal service for a time doing data entry (here as a matter of fact... http://www.sltrib.com/news/3445651-155/the-first-and-last-of... ). That job measured the number of keystrokes per hour of each employee. You had to maintain a 10,000 keystrokes per hour minimum data entry rate, they also spot checked for accuracy. Capturing the data you were suppose to enter (…

What sort of data entry? Seems like OCR/human combo would have been better.

Data entry of all the addresses that the OCRs failed to read.

OCR was pretty bad back in 1995 (which is why the Palm Pilot had a special handwriting for users to learn).

See this NPR piece: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/28/132393643/Undeliverable-Mail-I...

Also "Act Three" of Episode 70 of "This American Life": https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/70/o...

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#139
post #119

It saddens me that there are people in our profession for whom implementing such a thing presents no moral or ethical dilemma.

Has nothing to do with morals - people gotta eat

The alternative in our industry is not starvation.

Re: A crashed advertisement reveals logs of a facial recognition system

#140
post #15

You'd be surprised / scared / outraged if you knew how common this is. Any time you've been in a public place for the past few years, you've likely been watched, analysed and optimised for. Advertising in the physical world is just as scummy as it's online equivalent. Check out the video here http://sightcorp.com/ for an ultra creepy overview. You can even try their live demo: https://face-api.sightcorp.com/demo_basi…

I tried the demo. A little sad, that it sees me as 12 years older than I am, and that I apparently always look angry and disgusted! I'm going to blame it on my glasses and bushy beard, and try to look at the bright side - apparently face scanning systems aren't quite good enough to get a read on me yet. (And try not to be too sad about looking like a grumpy old man) (Anyone else with a glasses, a beard, or other non-…

I uploaded Comrade Putin. [1]

Thinks he is 45 years old. He is 64! Not calibrated for the superior Russian genetics.

[1] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CuV5wciUAAA0aBz.jpg

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