Slashdot Mirror
Face Recognition (Cool or Privacy Threat?)
Hapster writes "A company called Neurodynamics based in Cambridge, England is testing face recognition technology in shopping malls and at least one British airport. Another company taunts that their technology "cannot be fooled" by disguises and hats and they're testing it on the streets. " There are 'Big Brother' aspects to this story and 'Wow, thats cool' aspects to this story. I still want a head mounted camera/monitor that can recognize people and remind me who they are: it'd be great for conferences when you see 1000 faces that you only know as email addresses...
Note: Statements below are not neccessarily my opinions-- they're just illustrations.
The Internet has allowed us to communicate more and more with other people, through forums like Slashdot.
Questions are now raised over privacy, censorship, sexually explicit or violent material, and the social impacts that the Internet has on geeks (are we all hermits?)
Guns allowed people a method to protect their homes against criminals.
Guns have also allowed criminals the ability to use deadly force while committing crimes.
Radio brought into existence an entirely new area of journalism, allowing information to be spread nearly instantaneously through the airwaves.
The same journalists also brought close-ups of grieving families in the post-Columbine hysteria, inciting a nation towards a series of knee-jerk reactions.
I can see face recognition as a cool area of study. It has some cool applications-- sitting down in front of a computer and having it "recognize" you would be cool.
But, as with guns, radio, and the Internet, there's a downside. The technology can be used for things that people don't like-- including the invasion of privacy.
Anyway, just my $0.02