The eyes are the window to the soul…and the face is the window to your social media stats. 9to5Mac reports that Apple’s newest operating system, the iOS 5 will support the facial recognition technology that app developers around the world are experimenting with. In September of 2010, Apple spent about 29 million dollars buying up Polar Rose, a company highly interested in the development of facial recognition technology . Apple does not, however, plan to develop any pre-installed app around the facial recognition technology for its new operating system, but will open up the technology to third party iOS 5 app developers. ?p>
What will facial recognition do?
Apple’s Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) will provide a number of options to developers looking to integrate the technology into their apps. One is CIFaceFeature that can determine where a person’s eyes and mouth are located. Another, CIDetector, can process an image and detect a face, which could presumably allow app developers to design apps that would be able to recognize a person in live action situations.
Recognizr, Facebook
There are already a few facial recognition apps out there, most notably Recognizr, an android app developed in conjunction with Swedish mobile software firm, The Astonishing Tribe. The app creates a 3D rendering of a face viewed through the lens of the smartphone’s camera and sends this facial recognition data into the cloud. The servers pair the data with a matching individual whose information, including name and designated social media profiles, is returned to the app user.
App developers aren’t the only ones interested in facial recognition technology. Facebook, for examples, has implemented software that allows the site to identify the faces of friends previously tagged in your Facebook photos, which can expedite the often tedious tagging process.
Conclusion
Theoretically, the Recognizr app would allow you to identify a complete stranger simply by capturing his/her image. Of course, the app only works on subjects who have wittingly offered up their faces and Facebooks to the app. However, it is likely only a matter of time before apps have access to the vast number of photos and videos floating around with our faces embedded. Facial recognition is an inevitable step in the ongoing paring down of the complex human being which is swiftly turning us into data files to be explored for content. The fact that Apple has opened up the technology to developers will undoubtedly result in the proliferation of its use. So if you think high tech facial profiling is a thing of the future, get your head out of the cloud! It’s here.
