Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

Google adds face recognition to Picasa

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Google has updated its free online digital photo organization tool, called Picasa Web Albums, to include facial recognition technology, according to a Social Tech article. The purpose of the tool’s new capability, called name tags, is to enable a user to tag faces in photos with names.

After a photo has been tagged the facial recognition software will search through other photos for faces it recognizes as the same or similar enough to the original tagged face so that photos may be searched by a persons name.


The name tags technology was acquired by Google in 2006 when they bought face recognition technology developer Neven Vision specifically for the software. Picasa itself was also an acquisition when Google bought Idealab in 2004.

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The International Biometric and Identification Association released a paper that proposes best practices for use of facial recognition in consumer applications.

While the new consumer and commercial applications of face detection and face recognition technologies – such as social media and digital signage – can be positive and beneficial to consumers, they must be deployed with utmost sensitivity to the privacy of the consumer and general public, according to IBIA and Joseph Atick. Atick is one of the original inventors of face recognition technology and is vice chairman at the IBIA.

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A new app for mobile phones running on the Android operating system has been developed by AppTech that purports to be capable of recognizing a person’s age via the built-in camera on the phones.

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Exclusive to Sprint since its launch in 2011, Google Wallet is now being offered on Samsung Galaxy Nexus phones from AT&T and Verizon, according to BriefMobile.

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Web security provider Zvelo has uncovered a way crack the Google Wallet PIN security feature.

Using an app called “Wallet Cracker,” Zvelo was able to expose the PIN of a Google Wallet account without entering a single invalid attempt – five invalid attempts and the wallet locks out.

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Viv.ie, a start-up located in Ireland working on face recognition technology, announced it is finishing a new type of facial recognition technology that does away with a number of the security pitfalls current facial recognition technology is commonly guilty of, according to a Sydney Morning Herald article.

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In a new patent application by Apple, the company appears to be looking to incorporate user face recognition via front-facing cameras on its devices, according to an Apple Insider article.

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