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WHAT IS DEEPFACE AND IS IT AN OMINOUS AS IT SOUNDS?
THIS WEEK FACEBOOK ANNOUNCED A MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IN FACIAL DETECTION CALLED--ARE YOU READY
FOR THIS? DEEPFACE! WHICH THEY SAY IS JUST AS ACCURATE AS THE HUMAN EYE.
FACIAL RECOGNITION SOFTWARE HASN’T REALLY HIT THE MASSES YET.
GOOGLE+ HAS A “FIND MY FACE” FEATURE THAT, IF YOU ENABLE IT IN YOUR SETTINGS, WOULD DETECT
YOUR FACE IN OTHER PEOPLE’S PHOTOS AUTOMATICALLY AND SUGGEST IT AS A TAG. YOU HAVE TO OPT IN
TO THIS FEATURE, AND IT SEEMS TO BE LITTLE USED. I’VE NEVER BEEN TAGGED IN A PHOTO
THROUGH FIND MY FACE. SIMILARLY, FACEBOOK HAS AN EXISTING FACIAL RECOGNITION FEATURES
BUT THEY DON’T WORK ALL THAT WELL.
OF COURSE, THAT HASN’T STOPPED SMALLER WEBSITES FROM USING MORE PRIMITIVE FORMS OF FACIAL
DETECTION.
EVER USED ONE OF THOSE FIND MY DOPPELGANGER WEBSITES, WHERE YOU UPLOAD A PHOTO AND IT
TELLS YOU WHAT CELEBRITIES YOU LOOK LIKE, USUALLY WITH WILDLY INACCURATE RESULTS? GLORIA
ESTEFAN...REALLY?
AND THEN OF COURSE THERE’S FACEMATE, A DATING WEBSITE THAT USES A “PROPRIETARY ALGORITHM”
TO FIND MATCHES BASED ON YOUR FACIAL MAKEUP. BASED ON MY INITIAL MATCHES, THE ALGORITHM--MAYBE
COULD USE A LITTLE WORK. I’M NOT INTO BLONDES.
ANYWAY, SO HOW HAS FACEBOOK IMPROVED THIS IMPERFECT SCIENCE?
FOR STARTERS, THEY’VE GOT THE WORLD'S LARGEST DATA SET TO WORK WITH: YOUR FACES -- FROM
EVERY POSSIBLE ANGLE AND IN EVERY POSSIBLE SETTING. FACEBOOK SAYS THEY WORKED WITH OVER
4,000 IDENTITIES THAT HAVE OVER 1,000 SAMPLES EACH.
I EMAILED THE RESEARCH STAFF ASKING HOW THEY WENT ABOUT SELECTING THOSE IDENTITIES AND
THEY DIDNT GET BACK TO ME.
BUT ACCORDING TO THE PAPER, THE “DEEP NETWORK” THEY’VE CREATED INVOLVES A NINE-LAYER DEEP
NEURAL NETWORK OF PINPOINTING SOMEONE LIKE SYLVESTER STALLONE OR CALISTA FLOCKHART’S
UNIQUE FACE TRAITS, COMPARING IT AGAINST 3D MODELS.
THE RESULTS? ABOUT 97% ACCURACY FOR IMAGES, SLIGHTLY LOWER FOR THE VIDEO EXAMPLES THEY
WORKED WITH AT 91%. BUT FOR IMAGES, THE DEEPFACE SYSTEM IS CLOSE TO A HUMAN LEVEL OF ACCURACY
- ABOUT 97.53 PERCENT.
SO HOW WILL THIS TECHNOLOGY BE DEPLOYED? WELL FOR THE WORLDS LARGEST DATABASE OF PERSONAL
PHOTOS - WE CAN ASSUME A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF USER DATA. BUT THERE ARE STILL SOME PRIVACY
HURDLES TO GET AROUND. IN EUROPE FOR EXAMPLE, THEY’RE TURNED OFF FACIAL RECOGNITION DATA
AFTER AN OUTCRY FROM COMMISSIONERS IN IRELAND AND GERMANY.