The presence detection technology can be used to automatically turn on a device when it senses a user’s presence. The face recognition technology then can be used to unlock a device in lieu of entering a password. Devices can also be configured to recognize faces from a group of users such as among family or at the workplace.

Apple’s solution for facial recognition relies on a simple weighted difference map, rather than the traditional and more computationally heavy correlation matching technology. In this way, it uses less system resources and could reduce the impact of lighting and skin variation. It can also tap directly into the GPU of an iOS device or MacBook, reducing the load on software and relying more on the hardware.

[via PatentlyApple]

Germany is very strict on privacy rights and deems the Like button as a violation of the country’s privacy laws. Thilo Weichert, an official from the northern German state of Schelswig-Holstein data protection center, says that the Like button has the ability to track a person’s movement across the web. Weichert adds that this also violates the data protection laws of the European Union.

Facebook has rejected the claims, stating that any data stored, such as web activity in relation to a unique IP address, is deleted after the industry standard 90-day period. Nonetheless, websites operated in Schleswig-Holstein have until September 30 to remove their Facebook Like buttons. A fine for failing to comply can be upwards of $72,000.

[via VentureBeat]

The anonymous team behind the project told Forbes that early trials of the app – which used technology already in service flagging up celebrity faces on Twitter and identifying long-lost friends on Facebook – indicated that positive matches were low on the confidence level, and that the system was prone to mistaking identities. In Forbe’s own testing, using an early version of the software, mismatches suggested that known criminals were in fact completely different people from the user’s Facebook friends list.

“Without serious time and money we would never be able to come up with a decent facial recognition system” the project lead admitted, insisting on anonymity after the group of coders received hate mail over the concept. A more low-tech option is currently in operation, with UK police forces uploading images of looters and rioters to Flickr and asking anybody who recognizes them to get in touch.

Technology and social order have had a difficult relationship over the past week in the UK, with many of those responsible for the disorder apparently using BlackBerry Messenger as a secure channel in which to organize the looting and avoid police response. RIM promised to assist security forces in their investigations, and promptly saw its blog hacked by tech-savvy privacy advocates threatening to release confidential employee information if the BlackBerry manufacturer released location and other details of users. Since then, a potential ban on social media for criminals has been mooted, though – given the ease of setting up new accounts on different services – no indication of how that would be technically implemented has been revealed.

Facebook’s implementation of face recognition technology has already been under investigation by a conglomerate of data protection experts and officials from various EU nations. But today, Johannes Caspar, a data protection expert from the city of Hamburg has called on the social network to stop the feature for German users and to delete the individual biometric data that’s been collected.

Caspar warned that the German authorities would take action if Facebook does not comply. His main concerns are that the data collected could be abused if fallen into the wrong hands. Specifically, he feared that such a system could be used in an undemocratic government to spy on the opposition.

“If the data were to get into the wrong hands, then someone with a picture taken on a mobile phone could use biometrics to compare the pictures and make an identification,” said Caspar. “The right to anonymity is in danger.”

It will be interesting to see how this develops, since here in the states, facial recognition add-ons for iPhones have just been approved for police departments nationwide to be deployed in September.

[via Guardian]

This technology came to Apple after they purchased the Swedish company, Polar Rose, which specialized in face detection algorithms. Judging from a Polar Rose Recognizr app vide demo, the technology doesn’t merely detect facial features, but has the potential to identify individuals, making it very much a facial recognition technology as well. This certainly won’t sit well with a lot of privacy advocates.

But nonetheless, the new face detection technology will likely usher in many creative new apps, because Apple will be offering it as a public developer API. According to 9to5 Mac, Apple isn’t planning to launch any specific iOS 5 app of its own to rely on face detection, but instead, wants to make the technology available to its developers for integrating into a variety of apps.

[via 9to5Mac]

The MORIS device, developed by Bl2 Technologies, has a retinal scanner and can take a photo of a person from as far as five feet away. It then automatically checks the prison databases and may eventually include state and country-wide police databases, including those from the FBI and DMV.

This news has obviously raised concerns on privacy, government surveillance issues, and the potential for abuse if the technology got into the wrong hands. People still fear that their personal information could be easily accessed without them knowing simply by an officer snapping a quick photo.

About 1000 MORIS devices will be deployed to 40 police organizations by September, each costing $3000. They will also be made available to Android devices soon.

[via WSJ]

Almost immediately after we posted the story originally sourced from CNN, we received a message from Google stating that the CNN report was purely speculative and soon thereafter received a rebuttal from CNN. It was quite entertaining, we must say, but it does bring up a lot of questions and concerns both on privacy as well as media reporting.

The original CNN report from earlier this week quoted Google engineering director Hartmut Neven as confirming the company was working on a mobile face-recognition app, capable of matching real-time footage from the camera on an Android device to the photos stored as part of users’ Google Profiles pages. Neven heads Google’s image-recognition development department, the expertise of which, it was claimed, could be rolled into either the existing Google Image Search or a new app altogether.

Reticence to set a release schedule, CNN claimed, was down to “concerns within Google about how privacy advocates might receive the product.” The technology had already been integrated with Google Googles object-recognition and Picasa’s face-recognition.

Unsurprisingly, despite CNN’s claims that Google was taking a “conservative” approach, privacy advocates and general opinion was less than positive. What was more surprising was Google’s own response, the company reaching out to SlashGear among others to quickly squash rumors of a facial-recognition app:

“We are NOT “introducing a mobile application” (as the CNN piece claims) and as we’ve said for over a year, we would NOT add face recognition to any app like Goggles unless there was a strong privacy model in place. A number of items “reported” in the story, such as a potential app connecting phone numbers, email addresses and other information with a person’s face, are purely speculative and are inventions of the reporter.” Google spokesperson

With the specter of a biannual privacy audit being completed by independent researchers looming over it, having finally settled a deal with the FCC after the Buzz launch debacle, the strength of Google’s reaction was extreme. The company is facing investigation on multiple fronts, with Microsoft demanding the EU begin an antitrust case against them and talk of OEMs and carriers complaining to the US DOJ over how the Google is reportedly handling Android fragmentation.

It was enough to bring out an equally combative retort from CNN itself, insisting that the interview had not only been on the record and approved by Google at the time, but all recorded on tape:

“Google’s claims do not fit the facts of the situation. This interview was prearranged – on the record – and staffed by a Google PR rep, who raised no objections at the time and did not deny what the engineer said. Additionally, we have an audio recording of the interview, as does Google. We stand firmly behind Mark’s reporting.” CNN spokesperson

We’ve requested a copy of the recording from CNN and will update accordingly.

So, where now? We’d be at the front of the queue for an app that could help us remember names and details of people we’d already met and had established social relationships before, and we imagine plenty of others would be interested as well. The key point is that the connections be existing: I shouldn’t be able to look at any stranger and see their details, but if I’ve met the person before, and have a verified association, then why not?

Update: Google has been in touch with a second statement:

“As we’ve said for more than a year, we will not add facial recognition to Goggles unless we have strong privacy protections in place. We’re still working on them. We have nothing to announce at this time.” Google spokesperson

CNN appears to have modified its original article – though the quotes themselves are unchanged – and from what we can tell the sticking point here is the suggestion of an app being in development. As mentioned above, Google’s facial-recognition systems are not new, and their primary goal appears not to be taking issue with CNN’s quotations but some of the assertions made based on those quotes and the level of current technology, namely that there is an app of some sort in the works. So, perhaps not a firestorm, but an accidental brush fire with both sides taking a strong – and, maybe, unnecessarily aggressive - opening stance.

If you are not wholly reassured, I don’t blame you.

Google has had this technology for some time, but has been delaying it to make sure it launches in the right way. They will not say when the product will be released, or even give a rough timeline. When it does, we will have to see if all of Google’s precautions have paid off. This could be a cool feature, or it could be a disaster.

UPDATE: We’ve been updated by Google directly saying that the original CNN report of this story was entirely falsified by the reporter responsible for it. Check out our full report [here], including quote.

[via PopSci]

The prototype is within a future build of their Operating System, and utilizes facial recognition, as well as proximity and orientation sensors to tell where, and how you’re sitting in front of your PC’s display. The system will then react to your position, dependent upon what you’re doing. For example, if you pop down to watch a movie, and you instinctively lean back in your chair, then the system will automatically put the video into full screen mode, so you can see it better.

Other features include full screen notifications, so that if you happen to walk away from your PC and you get notified of something, you’ll be able to see it from another room, perhaps. Unfortunately, the company hasn’t outlined when the prototype software will become publicly usable or available, but obviously after watching the video, we can’t wait.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/14959854[/vimeo]

[via PC World]

Video demo after the cut

The biggest hurdle Recognizr will likely face is user takeup.  Since there isn’t a publicly-accessible database of faces linked to social networking profiles and blogs, before the app can identify an individual they must first have registered with it.  When Recognizr finally does launch, then, we’re expecting to see plenty of “great, but nobody else is using it” reviews in the Android Market.

Still, it’s a brilliant concept and we like the UI too; the Polar Rose FaceLib ID’ing system works incredibly quickly on Android, though we’d still need to see how well it works with different facial expressions.  A public release is apparently expected sometime in the next few months.

[via AndroidCommunity and via technabob]

I’ve summed up the main points here:

-The tablet will come with a virtual keyboard for text input (no-brainer here)

-WSj reporters revealed that “Apple intends to focus its tablet on providing content from multiple “old media” business sources, including textbooks, newspapers and television”.

-Apple’s allegedly been in talks with The NY Times, Conde Nast, and HarperCollins over possible collaborations, but only comment from the NY Times chairman? – “stay tuned”.

-Apple has also been discussing a monthly TV subscription plan with CBS and Disney, in a deal that would possibly package the best 4-6 shows per channel.

-EA has also been working closely with Apple to demo games for the tablet.

-The Journal also makes adamant the potential Google for Bing swap as the default search engine.

Thanks for making us even more excited, Apple.  The Tablet may also very well head over to Verizon, for that matter.  Gentlemen, start your engines – Apple’s press announcement in a week or so will be a day to mark – stay tuned for SlashGear’s full coverage of the January 27th event at http://live.slashgear.com/.

The system could either recognize moods by spotting particular facial characteristics or by comparing the whole face against presets; alternatively, a hybrid of the two might be applied. 

In a more complex implementation, Sony Ericsson suggest that brief video could be captured, tracking emotional states of happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, fear, disgust, neutrality, etc.  These would be compared to the musical characteristics of the tracks stored on the cellphone or PMP, similar to how Sony Ericsson’s existing SenseMe application works.

“FIG. 8 [shown above] is a diagram illustrating the concepts described herein. As illustrated, David is listening to a Bruce Springsteen song on a mobile phone that includes a DMP. David is in a very happy mood because he recently found out that he won the lottery. As David adjusts the volume of the DMP, camera 260 may capture an image of David’s face. Based on the captured image, FER component 420 may determine that the facial expression of David matches a category (e.g., a happy mood category) contained in category field 514 of FER database 500. Category field 514 may include a previously linked song associated with the happy mood category (e.g., a song by Metallica).” Sony Ericsson patent

A slightly more recent patent by the company, “Portable hands-free device with sensor”, suggests other areas in which Sony Ericsson are exploring intelligent feature management based on how the user handles their device.  It presents functions – such as switching between stereo and mono sound – as passively controlled by capacitance, inductance, pressure, temperature, light, movement, or acoustical sensors. 

[via USEB]

Video demo after the cut

The SmartFaucet heats up the water itself, using an internal heating coil, and because of that has far greater control over temperature than normal mixer taps.  It also means it can use face-recognition to recall your family’s temperature and flow presets, leaving your hands free to load up GMail

Meanwhile LEDs in the spout light up to show water temperature, ranging from cold blue to skin-scalding red.  Unsurprisingly there’s no word on price, but we’re expecting this to be possibly the most expensive faucet around.

[via Born Rich]

Video demos after the cut

Right now the facial-recognition system isn’t really working; it currently doesn’t actually recognize individual users, just any face moving into frame.  However software that can do that is already out there, and merely requires some more time and effort pulling everything together.

Of course, Twitter is just one source of information; Squidder are also suggesting that the system could call up a Facebook profile, or in fact just about anything.  It’s all getting rather Minority Report in here.

Augmented Reality T-Shirts:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/3364975[/vimeo]

Facial Recognition meets Twitter:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/3541854[/vimeo]

[via Official UK LG blog]

For instance, the screen size is going to increased from 10-inches to 10.2-inches. A few brand new features include VeriFace facial recognition technology and the addition of a new multi-touch trackpad. Not too shabby!

Plus, you can expect LenovoSocial, a set of programs for those that thoroughly enjoy social networking to be included. Color options include white, red, pink, blue or black. You can expect the updated Lenovo IdeaPad S10 to hit store shelves in March sometime for $349.

[via Engadget]

The marketing’s best friend combines face recognition digital camera, content delivery controller and software apps to manage the ad content and judge its effectiveness. By analyzing the viewer’s digital image, the Eye Flavor can effectively determine the viewers’ gender, age and how they react to the ad content.

According to Nikkie, the NEC has already put their new tool to work at a commercial facility in Tokyo. The system was set up at the front entrance to measure customer reaction to the ad content, viewers’ time frame, gender, age group and the distance in between them.