Smart Cameras Blog

[From YouTube - HP computers are racist ]

A video demonstration showing how HP’s photo tracking software doesn’t work with an African American. The video is pretty funny and a nice example of how technology is far from neutral (but instead can treat particular groups of people differently). Another similar example was how a voice recognition technology, developed in Massachusetts, wouldn’t work for people with a southern accent.

Here is the part of the response from HP:

We are working with our partners to learn more. The technology we use is built on standard algorithms that measure the difference in intensity of contrast between the eyes and the upper cheek and nose. We believe that the camera might have difficulty “seeing” contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting

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