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Is it a D’oh or an oops? Whatever it is the folks at Hewlett-Packard (HP) must be a bit red-faced over the incident. It seems that HP’s new face tracking webcam has a bit of a racial bias. It happily tracks faces that are white, but isn’t quite as obliging with faces that are black.
A demonstration HP’s webcam has been posted on YouTube. In the video two co-workers demonstrate the webcam’s little idiosyncrasy. Sure enough, the web camera has no problem tracking “white Wanda’s” face, while refusing to track “black Desi's”. As if that’s not bad enough, Desi confesses to having just bought the same system for Christmas.
Over at the Voodo Blog an HP representative posted: “We are working with our partners to learn more. The technology we use is built on standard algorithms that measure the difference in intensity of contrast between the eyes and the upper cheek and nose. We believe that the camera might have difficulty 'seeing' contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting.”
It’s very likely that HP is right--the algorithms aren’t up to snuff. But, it also imparts a reasonable lesson: be sure your product is ready for primetime before release. It might save you from an awkward YouTube moment.
Image Credit: wzamen01/YouTube
Comments are closed on this article
shawn lee
October 28, 2010 at 12:01am
Hello i am shawn lee.Thanks for sharing this wonderful and interesting topic.
Techcrunch has a few shots of the service, which give a pretty good idea of how it’ll work: You, Anonymous Google User, will search for music. Google will return a special search page template with artist info, album listings and cover art — this is something they’ve been doing for a while now. The crucial difference is, you’ll be able to listen to songs, either as samples or in full, by way of a iLike and LaLa player widgets, directly from the results. (It could be more — Kafka says Imeem’s.i hope you are satisfied my comment TAKE CAREThanks
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joo19
April 05, 2010 at 5:10am
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joo19
April 05, 2010 at 3:43am
Top post. I look forward to reading more. Cheers
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Octaviux
December 22, 2009 at 12:05pm
Maybe my face is so white it can't find any shadows... what does that mean
aben2
December 22, 2009 at 4:32am
-Technology... will kill us one day.....
HAHA THAST FUNNY I just saw it! xD
Pball1224
December 21, 2009 at 11:53pm
First, I'd like to say I'm glad the string of comments here haven't gone down the same path as the ones on youtube. Far too many ignorant or racist people there. This actually is a really great video, they did a good job of demonstrating the issue and keeping it lighthearted. I'd love to have seen the reactions of the folks at HP that were involved in developing that camera! haha.
ThunderBolt
December 21, 2009 at 6:14pm
It won't work for you. Just don't blame HP for being anti-gay.
etsugua
December 21, 2009 at 4:48pm
LOL! Wasn't this an episode of Better Off Ted? Life imitating art...
VoodooChicken
December 22, 2009 at 8:34am
That show should have won the Emmy for that ep! I think it's still on Hulu. I <3 Veronica!!!
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VoodooChicken
December 22, 2009 at 8:35am
It gets dark every time you leave the room.
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