HP Investigating Face-Tracking Bug Reports

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The discussion centers around concerns regarding Hewlett-Packard's motion-tracking webcams and their ability to recognize faces, particularly in relation to individuals with darker skin tones. A viral YouTube video highlights potential issues with the webcams' contrast recognition capabilities in various lighting conditions, prompting HP to investigate the matter. The conversation touches on the broader implications of computer vision technology, noting that many detection algorithms struggle in low-contrast situations, which can lead to significant recognition failures. Participants also reference a comedic episode from "Better Off Ted" that mirrors these real-world issues, suggesting a disconnect between technology and its real-world application. Additionally, there are observations about the camera's image reversal feature, comparing it to similar functionality in Mac webcams, and personal anecdotes about experiences with image distortion in different contexts.
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Can't believe I haven't seen a thread on this yet.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/22/hp.webcams/

Can Hewlett-Packard's motion-tracking webcams see black people? It's a question posed on a now-viral YouTube video and the company says it's looking into it.

...

HP acknowledged in a statement e-mailed to CNN that the cameras may have issues with contrast recognition in certain lighting situations. The webcams, built into HP's new computers, are supposed to keep people's faces and bodies in proportion and centered on the screen as they move.

The YouTube video is here, and it's pretty darned funny.

 
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Math Is Hard said:
Can't believe I haven't seen a thread on this yet.

It should probably be in the comp sci forum. It's a great lesson on testing and robustness and all that other real world stuff that sometimes gets lost in comp sci programs.

For any non-computer scientists:
Basically, it's a standard problem in computer vision-a lot of detection algorithms rely on contrast to find features, so low contrast situations (bad lighting, similar colors, etc.) can really mess with what an algorithm finds. There are ways to correct for this, but it looks like hp just threw out a pretty basic facial-recognition solution that doesn't.
 
I have an HP and I think they threw out a many a solution that doesn't.
 
Wasn't there a "What about Ted" episode about this?
 
You mean "Better off Ted"? Yeah, there was an episode where the company installed sensors that wouldn't detect black people (so lights would turn off when they were working, drinking fountains wouldn't work for them, etc) so the company hired white people to follow around the black people...
 
ha ha
Life imitates Art!
 
Did you notice that their nametags are backward in the image? Either the camera also reverses images, or they're doing something odd like aiming the camera at a mirror (there's also a reflected glare of some other lighting in the image). It may be true that there's a contrast problem with getting a good focus, but it seems they're doing something else in that video to trick the camera.
 
Moonbear said:
Did you notice that their nametags are backward in the image? Either the camera also reverses images, or they're doing something odd like aiming the camera at a mirror (there's also a reflected glare of some other lighting in the image). It may be true that there's a contrast problem with getting a good focus, but it seems they're doing something else in that video to trick the camera.

Someone else probably knows why this is, but the cameras built into Macs automatically reverse the image as well.
 
zoobyshoe said:
Someone else probably knows why this is, but the cameras built into Macs automatically reverse the image as well.

I've never noticed that on mine. I use it often to Skype with my boyfriend, and have the PIP display on so I know I'm still in view.
 
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Moonbear said:
I've never noticed that on mine. I use it often to Skype with my boyfriend, and have the PIP display on so I know I'm still in view.
My experience was that I was drawing a portrait of a guy, which took about three weeks, and he had me hold the drawing up to his Mac several different times during the process to take work-in-progress shots of it. I saw right away that all these shots were reversed, right and left. I asked him why and he said "I dunno, the camera just does it that way." It could be it was only still shots, or, it was only certain models of Macs that had this peculiar quirk.
 

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