ember 23, 2009
*A YouTube clip of a black man and white woman testing facial recognition software on an HP computer has made national headlines after it clearly shows tracking of the woman’s movements, but not of her African American co-worker.
The videographer, Desi Cryer from Texas, calls the software “racist.”
“It’s supposed to follow me as I move — I’m black — I think my blackness is interfering with the computer’s ability to follow me,” said Cryer, as he moved back and forth in front of the stationary webcam.
His white co-worker, Wanda, got into the frame, and “you immediately see what I’m talking about,” Cryer said. “Now as you can see, the camera is panning to show Wanda’s face, it’s following her around … but as soon as my blackness enters the frame, it stops.”
HP heard about the video and denies Cryer’s “racism” claim while attempting to explain what may be the issue.
“The technology we use is built on standard algorithms that measure the difference in intensity of contrast between the eyes and the upper cheek and nose,” HP wrote on its blog.
“We believe that the camera might have difficulty ‘seeing’ contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting,” the company said. “While we work on this, take a look here for more information on the impact of lighting on facial tracking software, and how to optimize your webcam experience: http://bit.ly/7HsZHD.”
The link goes to a Web page about “Using the HP TouchSmart Webcam,” which notes: “It has been reported that lighting conditions can affect the performance of the face tracking feature.
The company blogged, “Everything we do is focused on ensuring that we provide a high-quality experience for all our customers who are ethnically diverse and live and work around the world,” the company noted. “That’s why when issues surface, we take them seriously and work hard to understand the root causes.
“We thank Desi, and the people who have seen and commented on his video, for bringing this subject to our attention.”
Watch the video here:
