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After seeing the Metro story the other week, Gothamist has been fascinated by the prospect of the BioBouncer. JAD Communication and Security created the biometric scanning device that can check people's faces against ones in an "unwanted patron" database and is supposedly testing them in NYC clubs. What does Rob the Bouncer think of this? This just sounds so Alias, except with more plausible plotlines. Just think, that drink you threw on some bitch could get you blacklisted from all the cities clubs! But what about starlets who deface the bathroom?
The description of the technology on the BioBouncer website is adorably reassuring:
Facial recognition is an emerging technology that involves the measurement of facial features, including (for example) the distances between the eyes, nose, and facial bone structures. Facial recognition is one of the few, if not the only, “biometric” that we use everyday. We use it to identify our friends, colleagues, and loved ones.Now, we just wonder what happens when you happen to look like someone else who has been blacklisted. We're sure you have a doppelganger - or said someone else had a doppelganger - or maybe even an actual identical twin.
And on a related note, there's All Look Same.
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Didn't think of the Identical Twin angle! That is a good question, I wonder how acurate these things really are??
"Just think, that drink you threw on some bitch coudl get you blacklisted from all the cities clubs!"
could
saving the world one typo correction at a time...
This reeks of a eugenics "velvet rope" policy.
I saw the BioBouncer story on WNBC a few weeks ago. The whole concept brings up privacy concerns.
I have serious SERIOUS doubts this will succeed. Let's look at what you're going up against: a night club is a generally dark location, so illumination conditions will suck. The club will require space to set up a camera that will capture faces as patrons walk in, which will probably cause all sorts of headaches in a production environment. Thirdly, this is what's called in the biz capturing a "non-cooperative" subject on camera - he isn't smiling for the camera, he's walking by and your camera is picking up his face. So far, that means your pose and lighting conditions will be sub par.
Now let's look at the technology. Facial recognition matchers will only work if you are comparing the guy to a pre-enrolled copy of his face. Where are they going to get this data from? Do you think some stressed-out club owner is going to take the time to photograph his face before he kicks him out? And what if the bouncers bloody it up before they can get a good shot? The comparison data just isn't going to be there. It's possible that over time clubs will federate and share their watchlists. And civil liberties, I'm not really concerned by...people don't really go about hiding their biometric information so much...think about it - do you hide your face all day?
oh and one more thing. Some facial recognition matchers are bad at differentiating between Asians. Not going to name any names, but in reality to computers, we do all look same.