That's friggin' cool!

I grabbed on of my wallpapers and it was found as a screenshot on some Portugese gaming site.  http://goo.gl/P3djC

This is otherwise known as the trademark and copyright service, "Big Brother".  Next I expect Google and Facebook to announce joint development of a project to track any individual in the world anywhere they go while documenting everything they are doing.

Mixed feelings here.

I can only think of one application for this, and it requires deactivating safe search.

I believe any tool can be used for good or for bad...

You can frustrate facebook's facial recognition software by not having pics on it... 

Seems to work well.

Yes--I did that...until other people took pictures with me in them posted them to Facebook without saying anything and then people who knew me "tagged" them.

I have already slipped on this slope.

I actually think it's cool and useful but I have been around too long not to be cynical becasue I know of the people out there who will delightedly abuse it.

 Now that the last "Not Evil" company is evil it's hard to have hope.

Precisely!  Always question Google's motives/agenda... trust it like you would a rattlesnake.

I think think this every time I something Google... and thus I use nothing that is Google... block everything that is Google.

Yes, Google trawls this site and knows who I am, what I'm saying, but I don't give a rat's and will continue to speak against it.

Whether it be with tongue-in-cheek or deadly serious I'm going to speak my mind and denounce Google for what it is... EVIL.

Sadly, with this facial recognition software causing privacy issues, and rightfully so, this is just another step toward the global domination Google seeks.  It will use this technology to advance its over-all control over the www and those who use it.

I was reading just a few days ago that the large Australian retailers are seeking to install facial recognition type software in order to offer shoppers [anyone who enters the store] goods based on gender, apparent mood and current dress sense, etc.... using Google search to match them with consumables, etc.  I have serious issues with this.  One that it is linked to Google.. two, that customers have more than enough hard-sell thrust upon them as it is, without exacerbating their plight with personalised hard selling based on a friggin' photo of them... a photo, BTW, they did not consent to.

For me, that is taking the use of technology way too far... that soon you won't be able to blow your nose without some greedy mongrel retailer coming over with a range of products based on the consistency of your snot that day.  Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme, but Google and these bastards seek to part people from their cash at every opportunity... and to some extent, some people deserve it, what with smart fridges that do all their grocery shopping for them.

Shoot, I have mobility issues that often hamper my going out, but I'm not that lazy that I'd get my fridge to order everything and then have it delivered. Sure people are busier these days, but that is the pits if you're not bed-ridden/house-bound.  If not, you should get off yer friggin' arse and make the effort yourself.  Yes, I shop online occasionally, but only for overseas items [Srardock products for example] or stuff [from Sydney/Melbourne, etc} that I can't source locally.

For mine, Google preys upon people who are too lazy to get out of their own way, and believe me, Google sees you as exactly that, every time you search for products to purchase, online or otherwise.  Whatever happened to shopping around the stores until you locate the items you need/want?

Oh, and this rant isn't directed at anyone in particular, and certainly nobody here, just society in general, anywhere in the world.  In essence, we've become too soft as a species, and the greed of Google/big business is set to exploit that to the max.

I saw a movie with Sylvester Stalone and Wesley Snipes as adversaries. In this movie he was frozen in a big ice cube and thawed out to catch a crook, Wesley Snipes. In this new world there had been restaurant wars and the only one to survive was Taco Bell. Starkers mentioned Google's aspirations for world domination. Imagine a world where all the AdWare people like Google engaged in a war where Google comes out on top or...gets blown away by a competitor. Not too far fetched I think. Either that or it'll make for a good laugh.

I saw that movie as well... can't remember the name off-hand but I did enjoy watching it.

As for a competitor knocking off Google?  While that would be good on the one hand, on the other it'd be scary as hell because the competitor would likely be more evil and we'd all be worse off.

Oh, and is Apple getting on the world domination bandwagon?  I've noticed it before but never really thought about it until now.... but Apple computers, phones and iPads appear prominently in just about all the Aussie soapies and quite a few of our dramas.  Hmmm, deliberately inserted into strategic positions to influence viewers to buy Apple products.  Bastards!!!!  If this catches on and iProducts become the in thing, I could be struggling to find PC parts to build Windows rigs.  Yup, a conspiracy going on right under our noses and nobody is noticing. 

Nope, they're too consumed watching the twaddle that is Aussie TV of late.

Demolition Man.  I thought the movie was funny.  It also had Rob Schneider and Sandra Bullock in it.  The "joy-joy" movie.

It was an campy satire of PC. 

If you want a more realistic comparison--Minority Report. 

The scenes where Tom Cruise walks by retinal scanners placed at every public entrance and embedded in every advertising sign.  Custom ads display and address him by name when he walks by a business display and the police are able to track his every move through the public facial/retinal recognition cameras.

And believe it or not, James Cameron's accelerated development of hi-res 3D motion cameras and facial interpretive software have actually made all this a step closer.

Don't forget Kinect....

You mean, "Skynet".

Seriously though, the software alone approach to facial/mood/identity recognition has made large strides over the past few years--very large ones--but Cameron's nifty 3D camera--and the software that came with it put the potential for usable, real-time, "right now" use of facial recognition into play.  The ability to better "see" the 3D features of the face (and body) let the software advancements that have been developed really come to the fore.  Cameron's facial and body motion capture algorithms also help build on a library of biometric signatures and add a new layer of depth to them.

One step closer.

I told my wife back in 1995 that she'd see the day when police walked around with sunglasses with embedded 2-way cameras and a computer HUD capability--all connected wirelessly to the station.  They'll no longer have to look for suspects--their new eyes will point them out when they are in view.  The cops won't even have to recognize them--the glasses tied to a databse will do all that for them.  They'll even be able over time to determine general emotional states and eventually even indicate when people are lying.

It's all very cool and I appreciate the benign uses of it--but imagine if an Assad, Ahmadinejad or Kim Jong-il have them.  The implications regarding privacy and even innocence get eroded greatly even in a free society and in a totalitarian society it is literally "a nightmare come true".

We have short-sighted and business/crony/lobby interest  politicians running the world and the hope that adequate safeguards and protections for the individuals will come along with these new technologies is currently dismal.  Business will jump at the opportunity for "more data" that allows for more manipulation and control of their customer.

welcome--just give me all bank account so i can transfer these Nigerian funds and you're in!