Hasta La Gadget!

Two new patent applications published by the USPTO today describe a couple of pieces of tech that both help make mobile devices smarter, albeit in very different ways. The first is a facial recognition system that can identify people and things using vector-based “faceprints” picked up from photos, and the second is a call waiting system that can provide inbound callers with a lot more than just a repeated tone to let them know they’re still on hold.

The image recognition patent bears a lot of resemblance to Apple’s existing facial recognition systems built-in to iPhoto, which allows it to identify and tag pictures where friends and family appear after first learning what their face looks like. But the “Auto-recognition for noteworthy objects” patent isn’t about spotting your brother or wife; it’s intended to tag celebrities, landmarks and famous objects, in order to better serve up contextual links and information about those people and places.

To do this, it can either use locally stored photos, or tap into pictures kept in the cloud to search for faceprints that look like the one it gets from an original source image. Most of the patent describes these as representing actual people, but it also allows for the recognition of “iconic images.” Once a match is made, the system can group images of the same individual together. It can also add metadata to images to help improve hit rates, and even track people aging over the years. The exact reasons Apple would want to do this is unknown, but the patent does describe a system returning information and links about the subjects it identifies, including Facebook pages, Twitter profiles and iTunes Store links to related movies and music.

This could be a building block for a visual search engine, perhaps intended as a complement or addition to Siri. If Apple is intent on building a more robust and complete virtual personal assistant over time, after all, it’ll need eyes as well as ears to really get the job done.

The second patent seems like something we could see implemented quite soon, and actually builds on Apple’s introduction of new features for dealing with inbound calls, including responding via a pre-written text message, introduced in iOS 6. This time, the system would add a number of similar options to calls that come in while you’re already on the phone, providing a way to put callers on hold and give them an auto-response explaining your current situation. It would essentially be like having your own virtual office line on your device, complete with the ability to see how long you’ve had someone on hold and an option to send to voicemail should a hold go on too long.

Users would be able to set up custom responses to send out for their inbound callers to hear, from which they could select depending on their situation. Or they could ask a caller to speak a message, which the iPhone would translate using a text-to-speech engine in order to delivery a text message for the person receiving the call. Users could then text a return response, or select from one of their pre-recorded custom messages. A user could even enter an estimated hold time to let their caller know how long they might be waiting.

An automated response feature could also use sensor cues from an iPhone’s accelerometer or GPS, as well as Calendar and Contact data to predetermine what message should be played in response to an incoming call. It could determine if you’re driving, for instance, or recognize that someone is calling in who you were supposed to have a conference call with, and deliver a response tailored to each situation.

Both patents, as with a lot of recent Apple filings, are about making the smartphone smarter: a device that can recognize and process data on its own, and then offer up better, more immediately useful action options for a user is better than a device that is content to wait for user input on all decisions, at least according to Apple’s recent trajectory with software and services. As always, it’s worth noting that patent applications are seldom roadmaps of what will ship, but looking at them as a whole should prove a good indicator of where Apple is focusing for R&D.

The FTC has offered recommendations on best practices for companies that are using facial recognition technologies. The recommendations are offered in a new staff report titled “Facing Facts: Best-kept practices for, and Uses of Facial Recognition Technologies.” The report is intended to help companies that use facial recognition to protect consumers’ privacy as they use the technology to create products and services.

According to the FTC, facial recognition tech has been adopted for variety of uses including online social networks to mobile apps and digital signs. The technology is able to do things such as determine an individual’s age range and gender to deliver targeted ads. The technology is also able to assess a viewers emotions to see if they are engaged in a video or a game.

Law enforcement also uses facial recognition technology to match faces and identify anonymous individuals in photographs or videos. The FTC recommends that companies that are using facial recognition technology design services with consumer privacy in mind. The FTC also recommends that companies develop security precautions for the information collected and develop methods for determining what information should be kept and what information should be disposed of.

The report also recommends that companies consider the sensitivity of information when developing products and services that use facial recognition. The report says, for example, that digital signs that use facial recognition technology should not be used in places where children congregate. The report also calls on companies using facial recognition technology to make it clear when the technology is being used and data about users is being collected.

Two specific scenarios are called out by the FTC that state when companies should get a consumer’s affirmative consent before collecting or using data from facial images. Those situations include:

First, they should obtain consent before using consumers’ images or any biometric data in a different way than they represented when they collected the data. Second, companies should not use facial recognition to identify anonymous images of a consumer to someone who could not otherwise identify him or her, without obtaining the consumer’s affirmative consent first.

FTC offers best practices recommendations for facial recognition technologies is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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From existing tech like Face Unlock and Google Goggles to patent filings and Project Glass, it’s clear that Google sees augmented reality and image recognition playing a big part in our computing future. It makes sense, then, that Big G subsidiary Motorola has bought Viewdle — a Silicon Valley company that builds face, object, and gesture recognition technology for mobile devices. We don’t know how much MMI paid for Viewdle, but we do know, thanks to a statement obtained by the good folks at TechCrunch, that the two firms “have been collaborating for some time.” So, hopefully Android will reap the benefits (and fix those Face Unlock flaws) in the not-so-distant future.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Googlerola buys Viewdle, ups Android’s augmented reality and face recognition game originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 21:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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They’re watching you — or at least will be in a couple of years. That’s when the FBI is gearing up for a nationwide launch of a $1 billion project designed to identify people of interest, according to the New Scientist. Dubbed the Next Generation Identification (NGI) program, the high-tech endeavor uses biometric data such as DNA analysis, iris scans and voice identification to track down folks with a criminal history. The FBI also plans to take NGI on the road literally by using public cameras to pick faces from the crowd and cross check them with its national repository of images. Let’s just say this facial technology isn’t going to be used for lighthearted Japanese vocaloid hijinks or unlocking your electronic device. The use and scope of NGI, which kicked off a pilot program in February, will likely be questioned not just by black helicopter watchers but privacy advocates as well. Facial recognition has certainly been a touchy issue in privacy circles — something Facebook learned firsthand in Germany. Meanwhile, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is already raising concerns about innocent civilians being mixed up or included in the database. Naturally, the FBI claims that the NGI program is in compliance with the U.S. Privacy Act. On the positive side, at least they didn’t name it the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System.

Filed under: Misc

FBI to roll out $1 billion public facial recognition system in 2014, will be on to your evildoing everywhere originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 Sep 2012 08:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A ripple went through Face.com’s developer community three weeks ago when the company was acquired by Facebook. After all, what earthly reason would the social network have for continuing third-party developer support of the product? None, as it turns out — API support for the firm’s mug recognition software will be dropped in early August, and its iPhone app, Klik, is now gone from the App Store. Despite recent assurances to the contrary (pictured above) Face.com pulled the plug in order to devote its resources to Zuckerberg and Co., according to an email it sent to developers. Naturally, the sudden reversal has inflamed that group, with prominent members tweeting language like “boycotting” and “months of work wasted.” There’s a sliver of hope, however, for forlorn developers — at least one member of the community says he’s been granted an API extension through October. In the meantime, developers will likely be venting — and won’t even be able to track that rollercoaster of emotions anymore.

Face.com kills developer APIs and Klik app three weeks after Facebook acquisition originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jul 2012 03:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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