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Real-Time, Detailed Face Tracking On a Nokia N900
ptresadern writes "Researchers at the University of Manchester this week revealed a detailed face tracker that runs in real-time on the Nokia N900 mobile phone. Unlike existing mobile face trackers (video) that give an approximate position and scale of the face, Manchester's embedded Active Appearance Model accurately tracks a number of landmarks on and around the face such as the eyes, nose, mouth and jawline. The extra level of detail that this provides potentially indicates who the user is, where they are looking and how they are feeling. The face tracker was developed as part of a face- and voice-verification system for controlling access to mobile internet applications such as e-mail, social networking and on-line banking."
I love my N900, it's a shame Nokia doesn't. Still waiting for MeeGo, and to get the best out of my device I've OC'ed it slightly, not to mention transition and touch screen sensitivity tweaks which all make the phone much more usable. What I want to know is why can't they get it right the first time? Since they didn't, how hard would it be to adopt similar tweaks directly into the OS so it doesn't feel so sluggish? It had/has so much potential, but I'm afraid for now, we'll never see it. As soon as Apple releases an iPhone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard, I'm in.
The extra level of detail that this provides potentially indicates who the user is, where they are looking and how they are feeling.
Phone: I noticed that you've been watching that blonde over there, and you appear to be sad. Would you like a list of local escort services?
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Articles like this make me glad that I bought the n900 because it is the premier development environment for phone based science, unfortunately, the downside is that there aren't very mainstream apps for the n900 (google maps being the most glaring absence).
Face Post!
This is going to be an excellent addition to Tipmann X7 paint gun based automatic home defence system.
Menu preferences settings
Press "1" for between the eyes
Press "2" for in the throat
Press "3" for in the testicles
Press "4" for tripple wammy
Those game demos looked a lot like the standard implementation of OpenCV. It's too bad there isn't any security on this technology as merely showing a picture of the person to the camera defeats it.
How well do they work with black people? These have been issues in other face recognition systems.
controlling access to mobile internet applications such as e-mail, social networking and on-line banking.
First one kinda iffy.. second one makes sense.. third one, no way in hell!
It's the old convenience vs. security argument. Personally for things like my money, I'm willing to go the extra mile and enter a password (or some kind of one time code if only my bank offered it).
Can't find any detailed info, but from looking at their demo, I'll guess they are probably using the Viola-Jones method, possibly with a "tree" cascade to detect face angles. The last time I checked, libopencv provided most of the tools to build such as a system, as well as pre-trained detectors for individual face features. Not much invention going on here, but possibly some innovation -- I'd be interested to see more info, if anyone knows where to find it.
If I want something like an N900, but I don't plan to use it on a cell phone carrier, is the N810 any good?
And it was not expensive at all... just a bunch of Post-It papers...
(trademarks not mine etc.etc.)
The extra level of detail that this provides potentially indicates who the user is, where they are looking and how they are feeling. The face tracker was developed as part of a face- and voice-verification system for controlling access to mobile internet applications such as e-mail, social networking and on-line banking.
We're sorry, but we do not recognise the sad face with which you view your bank account. Please try again when you are more happy.
There are 10 commandments: 01)Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God 10)Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.Matt22:34-40
Where can I find this?
;-)
exras-testing or extras-devel ?
Surely it's not in the Ovi Store?
I saw this working on the iPhone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf-_jUP1AUs
No way! I'm not getting a phone to run emacs. OTOH, give me a phone that runs vi and I'll buy it.
Can it be fooled with a photo though? this is the whole problem with using face recognition alone for security.
It really needs to do more than just look at the front of your face.
Two cameras would be better, 3D image. Although even that could be fooled with a 3D model of someone's face. If gaining access to a famous person's bank account you could steal a waxwork dummy head and use that, okay a bit far fetched but if the stakes were high?
Let's not forget the scene in Demolition Man where Simon Phoenix needs a retina scan to get out of the jail, so he uses an eye of a prison guard stuck on the end of a pencil.
Biometrics should be used in conjunction with existing methods, they are not a replacement for passwords or PIN codes.
Course, Nokia is a phone company and that's how they market it.
The N900 is a Linux box, which fits in your pocket, and which can talk to GSM, UMTS, WiFi, Bluetooth, FM transmitter and receiver, infrared transmitter, GPS.. Has an accelerometer, touchscreen, 5MP camera, audio (obviously), and TV out.
Lets put it this way. The N900 is a general purpose mobile computing module with battery backup that can do everything, talk to everything, uses open standards and is easy to use.
You can write bog standard shell/python/java/c/ASM/whatever software for it and distribute them as Debian packages.
Anything you can think of to do with a computer, you can do with the blessing of Nokia and you can do it mobile with full knowledge of location and movement. That is the difference between open and closed.
No offense or anything, but it's a no brainer.
Deleted
If you look close at the video during the '360 rotation' segment you'll see the tracking dot for the guy's chin on top of the video camera lens and after that on top of his finger. Does it actually track that part of the face or does it merely deduce the presence of a chin in that region from the position of the eyes?
--frank[at]unternet.org
If you filled in the extensive questionnaire Nokia sent N900 owners, you were asked to rate the N900 on a scale from "computer with phone functions" to "phone with computer functions". Nokia understands the issue well. I don't think the N900 is anything at all to do with the iPhone/Android world. It is simply a completely different class of machine, and Nokia's low key approach suggests they regard it as a research vehicle. In exchange for supporting their research, you get a piece of equipment targeted at software developers. Yes, it's slower than an iPhone or recent Android devices. It's heavier. It's clunkier. But it's lighter, smaller and more convenient than anything else which I can use to do the same job.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Its a comment about the two parent posts, was the only post of its kind when posted and added additional information not present in the thread at the time.
Sounds like the moderator was an Apple fanboi.
=)
At least the original post was finally modded into oblivion.
... to know how I am feeling.
The U.S., the only country I know where you can't buy all phones separately without a subscription from any phone stores.
I do in fact live in the United States. I went to NokiaUSA.com, searched for N900, clicked "Buy online", and got "Oops sorry, the page you're looking for isn't available." I walked into a T-Mobile store, asked about Nokia N900, and the salesperson had never heard of it. Is it discontinued?
...N900 has other functions that some other phones do not have, like face recognition and flash.
I'm so tired of the butthurt over the n900. Every forum on the device has a bunch of spoiled brats whining that they don't feel cool.
Every other post on every n900 forum known to man says something along the lines of "I think I'll go buy (recently released device)" or "god this (insert mobile OS) seems light years ahead...". It's pretty obvious they're deliberate marketing trolls, or obnoxious children...or foreigners.
You want an iphone? Go fucking buy it. Go now. I have no idea what could be stopping you from buying one, since half the people in the US have one. Poor people have them, rich people have them. Young people, old people. Whatever. How can they make this awesome leap forward in using technology....and you haven't?
Care to explain why you don't have an iphone? Nevermind. I don't care. Just don't spew your "WAAAHH I WISH I HAD AN IPHONE" all over the internet. That's all I really want. Just a place to discuss a device without someone changing the god damned subject.