[Blindmath] Facial recognition -- food for thought

Wed Mar 28 23:17:01 UTC 2012

I understood it to mean that some of us don't really find a problem in not 
seeing faces, so why is it a problem which needs solving?

I guess its a personal thing as to whether its a problem, personally I have 
other wants higher on the list. For those where it is a priority or they 
feel it is then nothing stops them from doing such a project, after all 
isn't part of open source the ability for one if they have an itch they can 
scratch it? If people wanting to do such a project want funding, then good 
on them if they can show the evidence for a need for it to whoever is 
responsible for the funding. In these times I guess funding won't be handed 
out unless a real need can be shown to exist.

Michael Whapples

-----Original Message----- 
From: Richard Baldwin
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 10:36 PM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Facial recognition -- food for thought

I don't understand the question.
Dick Baldwin

On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 2:00 PM, Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC) <
REBECCA.PICKRELL at tasc.com> wrote:

> Dick,
> You percieve this as a problem. Why?
> I don't. The technology is interesting, but it doesn't mean not seeing
> someone's face is a problem.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Richard Baldwin
> Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 9:04 AM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics;
> seeingwithsound at freelists.org
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Facial recognition -- food for thought
>
> Apologies to those who haven't seen all of the response postings due to
> cross listing of the original post and to whom this post probably won't
> make sense.
>
> If I were blind and could purchase all of the necessary hardware, 
> including
> gigabytes of USB storage for a few hundred dollars, I wouldn't be sitting
> around waiting for Microsoft, Google, Apple, or some other large company 
> to
> solve my problems. I would be working to solve those problems myself.
>
> If Bill Gates and Michael Dell had that attitude, there wouldn't be a
> Microsoft. IBM would "own" the computer market on a worldwide basis.
>
> Dick Baldwin
>
> On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 7:03 AM, Carolyn MacLeod <
> Carolyn_MacLeod at ca.ibm.com
> > wrote:
>
> > Not sure if this is useful, and you probably already know, but
> Microsoft's
> > Windows Live Photo Gallery and Picasa and iPhoto (and some others) have 
> > a
> > feature called face-tagging.
> > They work surprisingly well, although they need someone to identify
> photos
> > and confirm guesses, and they do make some ridiculous mistakes 
> > sometimes.
> > If you have Windows 7 or Vista, you may already have Windows Live Photo
> > Gallery installed - to find out, open the Start menu and type "Windows
> > Live Photo Gallery" in the Search field, then Enter.
> > If not, here's a link with a download button:
> >
> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/photo-gallery
> > Carolyn
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > From:
> > Richard Baldwin <baldwin at dickbaldwin.com>
> > To:
> > BlindMath Mailing List <blindmath at nfbnet.org>,
> > seeingwithsound at freelists.org
> > Date:
> > 03/27/2012 11:05 PM
> > Subject:
> > [Blindmath] Facial recognition -- food for thought
> > Sent by:
> > blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org
> >
> >
> >
> > Most of the math courses that I completed in public school and college
> > mainly involved completely deterministic concepts such as finding 
> > unknown
> > in sets of algebraic equations, proving theorems in geometry, proving
> > identities in trigonometry, solving triangle problems using 
> > trigonometry,
> > differentiating functions, integrating functions, playing around with
> > solids of revolution, etc. They were all good exercises for the brain 
> > but
> > were not very close to real-world problems.
> >
> > When I made it into engineering college, the problems and their 
> > solutions
> > were closer to the real world but only barely so.
> >
> > When I completed my first engineering degree and went to work in the 
> > real
> > world, I learned very quickly that problems in the real world are far
> from
> > deterministics. In other words, there are very few problems in the real
> > world that have deterministic solutions. Problems in the real world
> > usually
> > involve a mix of mathematics, statistics, physics, engineering, computer
> > science, and other technologies, and there is rarely a single correct
> > solution for any problem.
> >
> > Furthermore, the solution to most problems requires the design and
> > implementation of complex mathematical algorithms, and those algorithms
> > are
> > most commonly implemented using a computer of some sort. (In my opinion,
> > every student that receives a technical degree should be required to
> learn
> > to program well in at least one programming language.)
> >
> > By now you must be wondering where this is all heading.
> >
> > I saw on TV today that shopping malls and large department stores are
> > installing electronic billboards that use facial recognition to display
> > advertisements that are likely to be of interest to those persons who 
> > can
> > see the billboard.
> >
> > I have no idea what the facial recognition algorithm is for categorizing
> > the viewers in a way that allows for a selection of appropriate
> > advertisements. However, this tells me that the algorithm doesn't 
> > require
> > a
> > supercomputer to implement. The algorithms must be implemented using
> > modestly priced computer hardware. Otherwise, they would be too 
> > expensive
> > to include in such billboards.
> >
> > This makes me wonder if it might be possible to use a small portable
> > computer to develop a system that will do facial recognition on people
> > whose faces appear in the field of view of a miniature video camera
> > embedded in eyeglass frames and to speak information about those people
> to
> > the wearer of the glasses.
> >
> > Science fiction? Maybe so and maybe not.
> >
> > Dr. Peter Meijer has demonstrated that it is possible to couple a video
> > camera built into eyeglass frames with a small portable computer and an
> > appropriate software program (The vOICe) and to create soundscapes that
> > some blind users find very beneficial (see
> http://www.seeingwithsound.com/
> > )
> > as they move through the world.
> >
> > Not being blind, I can't imagine what it would be like to interact with
> > other people that you can't see. However, it seems to me that it would 
> > be
> > beneficial for a blind person to know something about another persons
> > before a conversation begins. Depending on capability, this could range
> > all
> > the way from rudimentary information such as the probable sex and likely
> > age of the person, to detailed information such as the identification of
> > prior acquaintances by name.
> >
> > Perhaps it is time for a group of blind mathematicians, physicists,
> > engineers, statisticians, and computer scientists to band together to
> > produce such a system and to publish it as an open source
> > hardware/software
> > system.
> >
> > Food for thought,
> > Dick Baldwin
> >
> > --
> > Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
> > Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
> > http://www.DickBaldwin.com
> >
> > Professor of Computer Information Technology
> > Austin Community College
> > (512) 223-4758
> > mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
> > http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blindmath mailing list
> > Blindmath at nfbnet.org
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> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
>
> --
> Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
> Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
> http://www.DickBaldwin.com
>
> Professor of Computer Information Technology
> Austin Community College
> (512) 223-4758
> mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
> http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/
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-- 
Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
http://www.DickBaldwin.com

Professor of Computer Information Technology
Austin Community College
(512) 223-4758
mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/
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