Let's say that you run a high-end boutique in Los Angeles. A celebrity like comedian Carrot Top or blogger Miss Cellania walks in, looks around, then leaves without being recognized. You've just lost a good marketing opportunity.
That's why some shops are installing cameras and software that detect celebrities and alert staff to their presence:
The U.K.-based company already supplies similar software to security services to help identify terrorists and criminals. The ID technology works by analyzing footage of people's faces as they walk through a door, taking measurements to create a numerical code known as a "face template," and checking it against a database.
In the retail setting, the database of customers' faces is comprised of celebrities and valued customers, according to London's Sunday Times. If a face is a match, the program sends an alert to staff via computer, iPad or smartphone, providing details like dress size, favorite buys or shopping history.
The software works even when people are wearing sunglasses, hats and scarves. Recent tests have found that facial hair, aging, or changes in weight or hair color do not affect the accuracy of the system.
Link -via Popular Science
(Photo: Hoggarazzi Photography)
Maybe an app that would scan the face of everyone you meet using a small button cam, with a system that alerts you to various levels of perfidy.
It is a strange new world.