Posted on 12/22/2009 12:25:36 PM PST by DCurts
Hewlett-Packard is investigating a claim that Webcams built into its PCs are incapable of tracking the facial movements of black individuals and only function properly when Caucasians or people of other lighter-skinned races are in the frame.
The probe was prompted by a YouTube video in which a black man named Desi demonstrates the problem. The camera, which is designed to follow individuals' head movements, fails to track Desi as he moves in and out of the picture.
But when Desi's white co-worker, Wanda, enters the scene the camera follows her. "As soon as my blackness enters the frame, it stopped," says Desi. "Black Desi gets in there, no face recognition anymore buddy," says Desi.
"I'm going on the record and I'm saying it, Hewlett-Packard computers are racist," adds Desi, who says he's using an HP Media Smart PC.
HP officials posted a blog Sunday indicating that the company is taking the claim seriously and investigating if technical issues are behind the problem.
"Everything we do is focused on ensuring that we provide a high-quality experience for all our customers, who are ethnically diverse and work around the world. That's why when issues surface, we take them seriously and work hard to understand the root causes," said HP social media strategist Tony "Frosty" Welch.
The official implied that HP's Web cams may, indeed, have difficult tracking black individuals' faces.
"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 the camera might have difficulty 'seeing' contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting," said Welch.
"We are working with our partners to learn more," said Welch.
Beyond a possible political backlash by African Americans, the glitch could also hurt HP sales in some hot emerging markets, such as India, where PC users tend to have skin tones that are darker than those of individuals of European descent.
Still, investors largely shrugged off the news, as HP shares were up 1.1%, to $52.56, in afternoon trading Tuesday.
PCs that aren’t PC. Amusing.
Technology - dat be racis’!
“Tony “Frosty” Welch”
There’s your problem right there - “Frosty” as in “snowman”, as in “white guy”.
Before they go any further, HP should first verify that Desi is not a vampire.
Just make it an infra-red camera. Problem solved.
I, personally, do not like the camera following my head movement; I might like to scratch my nose off camera.
All the black guy would have to is dust his face with talc...
It’s probably just an error in calibration (ie luminescence) or perhaps background (if it’s similar enough to his skin-tone the computer might not be able to differentiate).
I’m surprised he’s smart enough to use the computer.
ping
It makes me wonder if people have difficulty reading the faces of others from dissimilar ethnic or racial backgrounds.
I’m surprised he’s smart enough to use the computer.
Ouch - that’ll leave a mark.
Am I hearing that photons discriminate?
Of course, if the camera followed black people around the room and left white people alone, Desi would say that camera is even more racist.
Maybe if he weren’t the same color as the background he wouldn’t have that problem.?
I’m sure he would interpret that as racism. Its not, its just commentary on how stupid he is.
Maybe the computers are like Senator “Sheets” Byrd (D-KLAN), think they all look the same anyway, so why bother with trying to recognize them?
And Jesse/Al will descend on Palo Alto to demand reparations in.... 3..... 2..... 1.....
Please stop this madness.
I blame political correctness at the HP testing labs. The folks writing the test scenarios for this hardware were probably too afraid to suggest that there might be skin color specific behavior associated with this device. Don’t want to have to spend another day in sensitivity training!
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