[jermmd]

Copied from elsewhere:

Subject: FACE RECOGNITION IN A CROWD......
 As marvelous and important as modern technology can be, to me this is just one more example of the amazing but invasive devices which have been developed and which are available and (mis)used by friend and foe.  Some are wonderful, but technology has become so intrusive at every level that one wonders if we may be nearing a flash point.
 
Do you think that this will make the perpetrators think a bit before starting riots??
Or maybe they don't think - that is the point.

This is the crowd before the riot in Vancouver.

Put your cursor anywhere in the crowd and double-click a couple of time and then use the scroll button in the centre of your mouse.
 
You can also use the tools at the left of the screen to zoom and navigate.

You can zero in on one single face. The clarity is unbelievable.

This is the photo taken by Port Moody photographer Ronnie Miranda that appeared
in Tri-City News last Friday (24-June).

This is actually scary. You can see - perfectly - the faces of every single individual
- and there were thousands!

Privacy? Just think what the police and the military have at their disposal.

http://www.gigapixel.com/image/gigapan-canucks-g7.html
 
 

[Phil A]

Really amazing!

[Photon46]

I not sure what is so interesting about this other than the fact that we can process 218 photos and stitch them into a panorama. It's not like this level of detail can be captured in one frame, it took fifteen minutes of photography to assemble this much data. In a quick moving riot situation, how is this process going to yield much court room worthy evidence? However, if average police departments ever have access to the powerful imaging technology military intelligence & the CIA use for their satellite imaging (modified for terrestrial survellance,) then we can have monitoring of the population on a scale that will make England pale in comparison.

[Elizabeth]

I give the sky the finger every day, just to annoy the satillite camera operators.. 

[WGH]

I found Waldo.

[JerryM]

I found Waldo.

 

That's the first thing I thought when I zoomed in on the picture; this is better than Where's Waldo! 

[Bob in St. Louis]

Wow. There's hot chicks in Canada. Who knew?   

But yea, I agree with Photon, theres more stitching there than I'd care to perform.

Bob

[nathanm]

Seeing that many people in one place makes me feel all Agent Smith 'n stuff.  It's like an infestation of humans.  Eww.

The tech is way cool, but it just doesn't work well on the web IMO.  I'd rather see a giant mural-sized print of such a scene and be able to walk up to it and examine details.

[Tyson]

Yeah, but who the hell is gonna sit there and sift through all that data.  The eternal problem of the modern age is not paucity of information - rather, it's too much information.

[charmerci]

I give the sky the finger every day, just to annoy the satillite camera operators.. 

  What a great idea! I'll join you.

And yes Bob, there are a lot of hot Canadian gals out there.

[Mike Nomad]

Yeah, but who the hell is gonna sit there and sift through all that data.  The eternal problem of the modern age is not paucity of information - rather, it's too much information.

Yep. That is the root of the problem. People like Bruce Schneier have been pointing it out for years: Most improvements in data collection are rendered useless by processing (the human element) bottlenecks. Consequently, the calls for increases in surveillance, etc. are largely unfounded.

[richidoo]

Some of the faces in the picture have an icon on their forehead, even those who are way in the back. Hover on the icon and a balloon pops up inviting you to see their profile on Facebook. Is this facial recognition? One guy even had hisbeard died blue, but his Facebook profile was still linked, if it identified him correctly, that is....

[Bob in St. Louis]

Some of the faces in the picture have an icon on their forehead,.......

Yea, that's a digital mark created by the Canadian government.   

[neekomax]

Some of the faces in the picture have an icon on their forehead, even those who are way in the back. Hover on the icon and a balloon pops up inviting you to see their profile on Facebook. Is this facial recognition? One guy even had hisbeard died blue, but his Facebook profile was still linked, if it identified him correctly, that is....

Top of the page:

"Canucks Fans: TURN ON GigaTag. Find yourselves and your friends in the Game 7 crowd, then tag and share on Facebook! Tell all your friends!"

Is that the big scary government tracking thing to which you refer?

[Bob in St. Louis]

Top of the page:Is that the big scary government tracking thing to which you refer?

Yip, that's the one. ALthough it's not as scary when you describe it.