
Show HN: Simple Face Recognition Attendance System - natsu90
https://github.com/natsu90/whoiscomingto.party
======
martopix
I'm sorry to say this because you probably worked hard and did a good
technical job. But as AI/DL experts we always need to think about ethical
concerns related to our work, and I would not want to release code like this
online for free.

I'm very well aware that with just a bit of technical knowledge this can be
reproduced by others even without this repo. And of course all sorts of
organizations and governments can do this in a second. But this shouldn't stop
us from remembering that this kind of thing is not a toy, and I would not like
to make life easier for somebody that doesn't know much about ML, but is very
happy to be served an easy solution to whatever their morally dodgy problem
is.

~~~
true_religion
Someone who can technically deploy this, but not create it, can also easily
pay the small amount needed to get someone to recreate this project.

Not to be a downer on it, but it's a hobby project and hobby-projects should
never be a part of anyone's threat profile, or we end up with things like
chemistry kit neutering of the 1970s.

~~~
shadowgovt
Precisely. When the technology has become simple enough that it's in "hobby
project in github" territory, plugging our ears and pretending not teaching
people how to use the technology will solve the social problems is dodging the
underlying issue.

~~~
A4ET8a8uTh0
I agree. There is a chance that sufficient spread of this will help develop
appropriate counter measures as well.

But yeah, cat is out of the bag. Best we can do now is declaw it.

edit: I forgot to add that I am absolutely amazed at the pace of development
in this space.

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BillinghamJ
This does seem cool, but I would also not want to come to your party if you're
going to be running facial recognition on me...

~~~
shadowgovt
Don't worry; your attendance is irrelevant.

Your Facebook friend will come to the party and be recognized, and you'll show
up in the photos they've publicized. ;)

------
Bheliar
While this is only a personal project for fun, please keep in mind that some
countries, such as Germany, have strict laws about personal data. And even if
they do not have those, as the developer you are always responsible for your
code and the data you gather. Face recognition is a mighty and scary tool, so
maybe you can use it to teach your guests in a fun way about it?

Also, many face recognition systems are based on open source datasets that are
NOT balanced. This can lead to your non-white, non-male friends being not
recognized ect. This is both a real problem and also to a dampened mood at
your party. Have fun, but be safe and conscious about it!

~~~
shadowgovt
> as a developer you are always responsible for your code

I believe most open source licenses explicitly declare that the developers
abrogating that responsibility, including the MIT license under which this
project is released.

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rohan1024
Me and my friend had thought about this idea back when we were in college
except we were doing it for class attendance.

The professor would take a snap with his phone and then app would give
attendance in single shot. Dived into it a little and realized face detection
is easy while face recognition is not.

One more thing we were wondering about was how to bypass this attendance
system and realized that a photo of individual is enough to proxy his
attendance.

Cool project btw.

~~~
iveqy
[https://www.datainspektionen.se/nyheter/2019/sanktionsavgift...](https://www.datainspektionen.se/nyheter/2019/sanktionsavgift-
for-ansiktsigenkanning-i-skola/)

Translated from swedish: A swedish hight school did a pilot with a class with
22 pupils with facial recognition for taking attendance. The school is fined
with 20 000 USD for invading the pupils privacy. All pupils has agreed to
participate but that doesn't matter since the pupils is dependent to the
school, they cannot agree to something like this.

~~~
shadowgovt
Wow. Sweden has profoundly misapplied the concept of privacy when it is no
longer possible for a person to voluntarily yield privacy for a project they
find interesting.

~~~
scbrg
Sweden is, on the other hand, not the only country that doesn't let minors or
people in a position of dependence "voluntarily" yield anything. The problem
in those cases is that it's hard to determine how voluntary the yielding
actually is.

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YourNewOverlord
You make reference to a "weights" folder, but I'm not seeing it in the repo -
am I looking in the wrong place?

EDIT: My mistake, you said it was in the library repo and there it was. For
anyone who needs it - [https://github.com/justadudewhohacks/face-
api.js](https://github.com/justadudewhohacks/face-api.js)

------
shadowgovt
Very neat demo. I can imagine putting something like this into a sort of robot
butler for house-guests. "I'm afraid the person you're seeking isn't in right
now; shall I tell them you called?" Of course, people don't really call on
each other these days as they did in the Victorian era.

------
notlukesky
Any plans to add face authentication and liveliness?

