By: Hillel Fuld
HP is in a lot of trouble lately if I am judging by the amount of bad press the video below brought the company. To make a long story short, a man by the name of Desi was playing around with his new HP laptop that is supposed to include Facial Tracking capabilities. That means, when you move, the webcam tracks you and moves with you. One slight problem, it wasn’t working. Well, to Desi’s surprise, when he conducted the same test with his Caucasian friend Wanda, all of a sudden, the facial tracking worked. Everyone is pointing fingers at HP and half jokingly (I think) calling them racists. Watch the video, then get ready to laugh when watching the second video!
Supposedly, HP has contacted the people in the video, and they are dealing with it. This story got a whole lot funnier when I came across an old Apple iMac ad someone posted on Twitter. I am not going to describe the video to you, but suffice to say, in light of HP’s current predicament, this video absolutely cracked me up. So, putting aside all the different points brought up in the average Mac VS. PC debate, next time someone asks me why I use a Mac, my immediate response will be “Watya mean? Because they’re not racist!”
You MAC head! 😉
This is just par for the course. The computer industry hasn’t acknowledged blacks for years, so why should the tracking software be any different. There is probably a low percentage of blacks compared to white people using or owning computers. Likely there were no black faces used during the testing and debugging of the software. Hardly that big of a deal and will be easily corrected in a software update.
They’re going to have to completely revise this software for department stores that are tracking shoplifters. They’ll need it to recognize black or brown faces since those are the faces that security is going to assume to target as the shoplifters.
I’m still not sure that face recognition could be considered racist. Would it also fail to notice white people’s faces that had dark tans? Still, this is a rather amusing video and awkward situation for HP.
@iPhonerulez: If the camera tracked Blacks, and ignored whites, then HP would be accused of profiling.
Anyhow, that guy Desi got it all wrong. Anybody that knows anything about webcams on the internet would realize that the nerds at HP designed it to track WOMEN and ignore men. A camera that watches men is GAY.
/sarcasm
The combination of the two videos is just brilliant. : ) … I posted this on my facebook page. Happy Christmas! (and I mean Christmas!!! : ) )
Hmmm.
Anything that hints at anything even slightly negative
about blacks or women
is immediate grounds to scream ‘racist’ or ‘sexist’.
How very PC!
(Pun intended!)
(Loved the 2nd video. Still effective after all these years!)
@iphonerulez: wow… what a turd you are. i am sure you have never, *ever* been laid. correct?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
Luvin it…Desi you rule man!!!!