I just want to point out I predicted this one like a year ago in an interview I did about what cocktail parties would be like in 2020.
I can’t find the link now, but this technology was heavily involved – looks like we could get there sooner, at least among early adopters.
Augmented reality identification is what this might best be called.
Recognizr [is an application built] to work on a phone that has a five-megapixel camera and runs the Android operating system.
A user points the phone’s camera at someone nearby. Software then detects the subject’s face and creates a unique signature by combining measurements of facial features and building a 3-D model.
This signature is sent to a server, which then sends back that person’s name along with links to her profile on several social networking sites, including Twitter or Facebook.
Utilization for this is endless – say goodbye to business cards, for one.
The question, of course, is privacy. Obviously right now it’s all opt-in, and you probably can turn off your profile at any time.
Imagine going to a meeting or conference and being able to do a quick rundown of someone before you introduce yourself. Good reason to have your Personal Brand in gear.
Longer-term, you can see how this is absolutely frightening…but also completely and totally useful in certain situations.
Like most things, it has the potential for great good and terrific amounts of evil – remains to be seen exactly what comes of it.
By the way, Google already has an early version of this for locations and products called Google Goggles. I’ve used it – super amazing and super useful, and it’s not even totally smooth to use yet.
