It’s called NameTag, and in Robocop-like fashion, the app can scan a person’s face and compare it to a records database consisting of millions of people.
If NameTag successfully finds that person, it spits back tons of information about them, including their full name, their relationship status, what school they went to, their current occupation, their interests, and more. It’ll even tell you if that person has a criminal record.
Google tells BGR that it has a ban on facial recognition apps. In other words, they haven’t found a way to make advertising dollars on that part of the creepiness yet.
Charming. A perfect app for Glass’ target audience.
That’s easy, just let me associate an ad with my face. When the ad pops up I get a small amount of the ad price like 5%, while Google gets the other 95%.
If I want, I can put a free ad for my own site or product so when people see me they get a link to my site.
I’ll take my consulting check now Google.
Or, the ban could be, just maybe, because facial recognition is so toxic a subject that Google is trying to avoid the controversy entirely. It’s been banned since the Glass Development Kit went live, as I recall.
Beyond that, Glass’ camera isn’t exactly powerful, so I’d bet you would get a fair few false matches even if it were somehow deployed on Glass units. Nothing to see here.
Honestly, this should be more newsworthy for how much of our personal information is out on the internet– particularly from companies selling our information. And not just Google! Credit card companies barely even acknowledge that they squeeze every penny from us by also selling our personal information to their business partners, and also variety of websites that collect that stuff during registration.
I resent that. I like Glass a lot from a purely technically aspect (and the potential fulfillment of a childhood dream to become a cyborg). I like things like real-time text translation and GPS navigation overlay. The HUD-like aspect in general, really.
I’ve put up with Glass’ label of “nerdy” or whatever, because yeah, it is nerdy. I get that. But I don’t like how all of a sudden I’m a creeper for wanting a pair.
This is very useful so it’s definitely coming.
People will get over it. What’s so creepy about getting relevant public data about who/what you are seeing?
We already have that but with more friction.
Ugh, distracted writing. Pardon the typos in this and my other comment!
Resent it all you like. This is how Glass will be pitched to its biggest non-vertical target market. And this is how it will be used by the people who least deserve to benefit from something like NameTag.
Your use of Glass will no doubt be pure, noble, and respectful of others’ privacy. For awhile, anyway.
That royalty will come in handy after your next job interview, which abruptly ends when your interviewer sees your expensive pre-existing medical condition.
I may have to start wearing a hat and sunglasses in public. Take that, Google!
We’ve got national healthcare now, no need for pre-existing conditions to be a problem anymore.
Friction exists for a reason.
I assume then that you have all of your private info printed on every shirt that you wear.
Until big conservative lobbyists succeed in rescinding it.
And thanks to Glass we’ll know how they voted when we look at them!
sigh
It’s going to be pitched with an app that can’t exist, by their own rules, within the store needed to download it? Their own promotional materials seem to indicate that they’ll be pushing this on eager early-adopters with plenty of burnable cash who want to fiddle or use it to capture/process a lot of audio/visual information and don’t mind looking silly doing it. A lot of the same things a smartphone does, but displayed in a new manner.
You and I have had cordial and pleasant discussions and arguments in the past, so I’m a little disappointed by the holier-than-thou attitude you seem to have by virtue of you not wanting a particular product and your perceived inevitable moral decay of myself and others who do want that product.
It’s not only about the fact that I don’t want the product. It’s about the inevitable uses this product will be put to by people I won’t want to be seen by.
Google’s app limitations will expand once they fully appreciate how much tasty user-behavior data it’ll provide them, which was the purpose of the thing all along. This device will eventually be about the ease with which one can observe and analyze without being seen doing so.
Eventually it’ll miniaturize and become functionally invisible. Those who choose not to use one will be at a tactical disadvantage in way too many conversations.
“Holier-than-thou”? I was generalizing. No matter what our good intentions are, every new tool brings with it the temptation to abuse the privilege it gives us.
As if the same app couldn’t exist on iOS.
Ad use comment is just silly. There isn’t an ad story for Glass. Android, built by Google, doesn’t even have ads, app frameworks do.
Not Google, an app developer.
The whole thing is full of overstated metaphors and grim predictions of things that might or might not happen, so I don’t even want to argue this. Let’s have this conversation a year or two from now.
The only point here, holier-than-thou or generalizing, is that you’re casting me and everyone else who has an innocent interest in Glass as a villain looking to invade your privacy. Even ignoring the fact that I don’t find strangers to be remotely interesting, you’re demonizing an entire audience while (intentionally or not) raising yourself about their level because of your fear or disinterest or whatever.
There are bound to be bad eggs who use Glass. Just as there are bad eggs who use their phones or computers to skim Facebook passwords off of unsecured WiFi, or hack databases and steal credit card info. Lots of people use their tech in the ways they’re intended to be used, including Glass Explorers. You’re saying the latter doesn’t and won’t, and like I said originally, I resent that.
By all means, let us observe the hijinks that take place as this product grows in popularity.
In short, knowing what this device will eventually be capable of — and how relatively easy it will be to misuse — I can’t trust anyone I see wearing one of them, regardless of their intentions.
I appreciate your good will. But I believe you’ll be in a minority.
You sound like the naysayers to voice recorders and cell phones. Eventually you will become comfortable or at least adjust your approach to those with them on as the industry will not stop.
Heck the Galaxy Watch [whatever it is called] has a camera. Considerably easier to record a convo or video of someone conspicuously but people aren’t up-in-arms.
Ah well…’tis the season to hate Google.
Yes, to make those that remove it incredibly rich.
This is all about public data.
What’s my name, Billy?
You mean it’s not def4? I thought you were all about everything being out in the open?
That’s the point. You get to choose what you publish but not how easy it is for everyone else to find what you published.