

How Facebook could solve "Missed Connections" right now, if they wanted to - dgurney
http://concertwindow.com/6793/the-solution-to-the-missed-connections-problem

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usaar333
"It stands to reason, therefore, that Facebook’s algorithm could scan any
photo from any of its 800 million members, and recognize you if you’re in it.
So, let’s take that one logical step further. Imagine you take a photo of
someone and upload it to Facebook’s servers. Facebook can analyze the photo
and tag that person’s face."

This could work for a mutual friend at a party. But if the face recognizer is
given a low-quality subway photo and has 7 million people to choose from (NYC
residents) of equal probability, the chance of current technology getting an
accurate match is nil.

The author may be a bit confused how Facebook's technology works. Yes, it
recognizes faces, but it also eliminates ~99.9999% of members as possibilties
by leveraging the social graph.

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FelixP
It might still work if it could narrow down the possibilities to, say, a
hundred photos or less. The user should be able to go the "last mile" and pick
out the one they're looking for.

I'd be curious to see if Facebook's facial recognition technology is this
good.

Also, lots of people out in public (especially in NYC) aren't necessarily
residents of the given area, which potentially makes this _much_ harder.

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daegloe
Instead of revealing the individual's identity, FB could send them an
automated msg pointing back to your profile with the option to connect (or at
least chat). This would leave the decision (privacy protection) in the hands
of the recipient.

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siavosh
Does anyone know if fb face recognition can actually work for all 800 million
users or does its tagging do something like nearest neighbor to your friends
which I imagine is a simpler problem.

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apu
It's not nearly good enough for this. While I don't know what they're doing,
it doesn't matter -- the state of the art in face recognition is far lower
than what this requires.

I would also assume that Facebook's recognition performance is heavily
dependent on the fact that everyone has a limited friend circle, because then
the requirement is only that you can be distinguished among the few hundred or
thousand people you've ever been photographed with, not the 100s of millions
of users you haven't.

While not directly related (nor the method they are probably using), here's a
project that describes how using others in your photographs can help
recognition: <http://lear.inrialpes.fr/pubs/2008/MV08/>

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dgurney
So, what if once you upload the "missed connection" photo, Facebook tags it
with GPS and filters possible matches against your current location? That
would narrow it down quite a bit. I assume they have enough GPS data from
other users' photos and status updates to at least place them generally within
a state or city at a given time.

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fl3tch
Worst idea ever. Worst privacy violation ever. This would would be a boon to
stalkers, perverts, creeps, serial killers, and I imagine 99% of people would
never opt into it.

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Hemospectrum
You would opt into it implicitly just by having your pictures on Facebook. Not
necessarily just by having an account, mind you; your friends might upload and
tag pictures of you.

Yes, it would be a huge privacy violation. Facebook just likely wouldn't care.

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kevs
Is this really a problem? I can't imagine taking a clear picture of a
stranger's face rather than exchanging a few words and introducing myself.

~~~
bermanoid
Yes, that would seem to be the obvious reaction. But that's just because
you're a "normal", someone that has, on occasion, interacted romantically in a
fairly standard and direct manner with members of the opposite sex.

Now, imagine that you're a forever-alone that spends most of his free time
(well, that minuscule portion of free time that's not consumed by LoL, SWTOR,
Skyrim, Minecraft, etc. [1]) on Reddit complaining about being "friend-zoned"
and fantasizing about that magical girl that looks like a fashion model but
"gets you", who likes you just for being a "nice guy" that's "smart", breaking
from her natural tendency to go for "bad-boys" because your awesomeness was so
obvious to her despite your awkward creepiness and social ineptitude. It's a
very different world, one where the idea of semi-passively stalking randoms on
the subway without any fear of direct rejection seems a lot more appealing...

[1] I say this as someone that wastes an awful lot of free time on Reddit, as
well as playing LoL, SWTOR, Skyrim, Minecraft, and many more, including some
Facebook games that I'm far too embarrassed about to cop to on HN (even if I
do work in the field and have the ostensible excuse of "market research")...

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usaar333
Site is down. and seemingly no google cache. Someone have text saved?

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dgurney
yeah, server just melted. Up now. Here's text in case it goes down again:

\- - -

You know those Craigslist missed connections posts? The ones where you’re
looking across the subway platform at someone, and you wish you could get
their number, but you can’t really shout across the tracks?

Well, I was in New York City this weekend and I had a sudden inspiration.
There’s a (hypothetical) solution to the “missed connections” problem. And
it’s sitting around in plain sight.

Here’s how it works. Many of you are probably aware that Facebook has been
steadily developing its facial recognition algorithm. It’s quite good at this
point. It can scan any of your photos and tag you automatically, if you’ve
enabled the feature. That means Facebook’s algorithm can recognize your unique
face. It stands to reason, therefore, that Facebook’s algorithm could scan any
photo from any of its 800 million members, and recognize you if you’re in it.

So, let’s take that one logical step further. Imagine you take a photo of
someone and upload it to Facebook’s servers. Facebook can analyze the photo
and tag that person’s face.

I bet you see where I’m going with this.

You’re back on the subway platform — you see someone across the way. You raise
your phone and snap a quick picture via the Facebook app. The train comes.
While you’re pulling away, the app has displayed that person’s profile. You
click “friend.”

And just like that, missed connections are a thing of the past.

Interesting, eh? Also, creepy. Obviously, if Facebook enabled this feature it
would cause a firestorm of privacy concerns. But Facebook hasn’t exactly shown
much concern for privacy in the past. And everyone does have a public profile,
anyway… and subways are public areas. Given that the tech exists right now, I
bet we’ll see this within a couple years.

The implications are rather large.

Dan

