Google making app that would identify people's faces. Google's Hartmut Neven, pictured here, says the company is working on a facial-recognition app. Google is working on a smartphone app that would identify faces in photos Due to privacy concerns, people will have to opt in to Google's database to be identified Identifying faces using pages publicly available on the internet is technically feasible Santa Monica, California (CNN) -- Google is working on a mobile application that would allow users to snap pictures of people's faces in order to access their personal information, a director for the project said this week. In order to be identified by the software, people would have to check a box agreeing to give Google permission to access their pictures and profile information, said Hartmut Neven, the Google engineering director for image-recognition development.
Google's Profiles product includes a user's name, phone number and e-mail address. The technology wouldn't necessarily be rolled out in a separate app, a Google spokesman said.
Google acquires Like.com. Why Google Decided to Create Its Own Facial-Recognition Privacy Problem | BNET. Google Not Planning To Release Mobile Face Recognition: Update. Contrary to what I reported earlier based on a seemingly very credible CNN report, Google is not planning to release a version of its mobile app Goggles with face recognition technology. Google has had the capability for several years but so far refrained from putting it out in the world other than on Picasa.
I spoke to Google at some length and a spokesperson said that the CNN piece was based on totally inaccurate conjuncture. That speculation was in turn based on an interview with a Google engineer Hartmut Neven taken out of context. The Google spokesperson said that Google wouldn’t put out facial recognition in a mobile app unless there were very strict privacy controls in place.
The CNN article appeared to address that very subject with discussion of an “opt-in” system. Google made the following statement: “As we’ve said for over a year, we won’t add face recognition to Goggles unless we can figure out a strong privacy model for it. Related Entries. Google acquires Like.com. Apr 11, 2014 - 05:15 PM EDT — AAPL: 519.61 (-3.87, -0.74%) | NASDAQ: 3999.734 (-54.372, -1.34%) “Google has acquired visual search company Like.com in a deal that not only strengthens the company’s search and e-commerce capabilities, but also expands its image recognition resources and its social networking opportunities,” Thomas Claburn reports for InformationWeek. Advertisement: The iPad. With a 9.7″ touch screen & amazing new apps, it does things no tablet PC, netbook, or e-reader could. Starts at $499. Shop Now. “No price was disclosed, but TechCrunch reports that Google will pay over $100 million,” Claburn reports. “Like.com, which began life as Riya.com, a company then focused on facial recognition, leverages computer vision and machine learning technology to allow users to search for goods by visual similarity.”
Full article here. MacDailyNews Take: Next up: Evil.com. Facial Recognition Software Acquired by Google. Google has announced an acquisition of the facial recognition software born out of Carnegie Mellon University called Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition, or PittPatt. PittPatt’s site states that they are looking forward to working within the Google team and that its existing computer vision technology partners made the acquisition a natural match. However, Google may now find itself in a similar situation to that of Facebook in recent months. After failing to add an ‘opt in’ to its facial recognition software added suggested tagging in photos uploaded to the social networking site, there was a loud response from privacy campaigners and from users upset that the privacy settings used to keep tagged photos private was being put aside by the new technology.
With the launch of the new Google+ and the lessons learned by Facebook, Google must tread lightly. Privacy settings and integrated facial recognition software are not so logical a partnership as Facebook or Google might like to believe.