[Blindmath] Facial recognition -- food for thought

Thu Mar 29 00:23:15 UTC 2012

And if it weren't for this project, School would be much harder. I can't 
even count the number of times I've fought with JAWS at school to get the 
Braille display to work, or JAWS simply didn't work or crashed after being 
installed incorrectly.

Sounds like two blind guys who didn't wait around to have that problem 
solved for them.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Baldwin" <baldwin at dickbaldwin.com>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 4:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Facial recognition -- food for thought

> Steve,
>
> You wrote "My point here is not to scold as we have been sort of scolded,"
>
> My earlier post was not intended to scold you or anyone else in the blind
> community.
>
> I pointed out when I made the (apparently offending) statement that it
> might not make sense to some readers due to those readers not having seen
> all of the previous posts due to distribution issues with earlier posts.
>
> My post was in response to a post made earlier by a SIGHTED individual, I
> repeat a SIGHTED individual, who in effect said that we shouldn't expend
> efforts doing things that the big companies might do better if we are
> patient and willing to wait long enough.
>
> My point is that if I had the need, (and perhaps there is no need), I
> wouldn't be patient and wait for something that the big companies might do
> for me at some time in the future. Instead, if possible, I would do it for
> myself.
>
> Dick Baldwin
>
> On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 4:36 PM, Richard Baldwin 
> <baldwin at dickbaldwin.com>wrote:
>
>> 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/
>>> > _______________________________________________
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>>> > 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/
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> 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
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