Nowhere to Hide

It is getting harder and harder to stay under the radar these days.  Google just announced that they acquired PittPatt which is a facial recognition technology company.  PittPatt's technology can do various types of facial recognition, including tracking faces in videos and sorting photos according to whose face appears in each photo. Google has already been using some forms of facial recognition technology but the acquisition of PittPatt is said to, “bring the benefits of …research and technology to a wider audience.”

Here is the announcement about Google’s acquisition:

 http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218615/Google_buys_facial_recognition_company_PittPatt?source=rss_hardware&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+computerworld/s/feed/topic/128+(Computerworld+Emerging+Technologies+News)

I am not alone in feeling a tad…ummm…uncomfortable with this new wave of technology.  Soon it will be possible for strangers to view every photo that or video that you have been posed in or possibly reside in the background of.  Is this an invasion of privacy? I think so. You have no control over what photos are out there with your name on them.  What happens when this technology mistakes you for someone else? Here is an article that shares my fears about this new technology. 

http://geeklyadvice.com/facial_recognition_technology

Here is a video that illustrates PittPatt face recognition over a clip from "The Office." “Only face tracks of cast members with frontal / near-frontal instances are recognized; all other face tracks are annotated in white.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ONCp77GhAk&feature=related