Maybe that was the problem - HP supplied all of FEMA's computers.

It's a good thing he's not also Jewish. The camera might have also been an anti-semite...

Haha, terrible! This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Not the first time I've heard of similar issues. Some time back at Nokia they were developing a system that would detect when the phone was pressed against the user's ear and switch the loudspeaker mode on and off based on that information, but their implementation turned out not to work with dark-skinned people... I'm not sure if they managed to get it working later, but AFAIK at that time that flaw made them scratch the feature altogether.

Do you think this could be a bigger problem? Like HP doesn't have any Black Engineers working anywhere NEAR this project. "oh well it works with all of us here in the office"

I loved this. It felt a bit like a spin off curb your enthusiasm show with leon as the feature.

I had to link this youtube comment:

"Maybe it's just afraid of seeming racist by following black people around. It might just be a little bit too pc"

Feature said to only work three fifths of the time on African Americans.

(sorry)

All they have to do is install a police officer chip and it'll follow anybody black (and possibility tase them).

"Where all the White Women at?".

HP knows.

Here's an update (HP has released a statement)...

HP Software Doesn't Care About Black People (NBC Bay Area)

Microsoft's project natal got into shit a while back because their system had the same issue (or issues if you know what i mean)

Actually, it has nothing to do with his race -- but the camera has a problem with his taste in music.

They wanted to have the software also track black people, but it was patented and is licensed exclusively to law enforcement. Similarly the Arab face tracking software was exclusively licensed to Homeland Security.

on a serious note, yes it's all about contrast. the first step in most image processing algorithms is to convert to b&w or grayscale, and use contrast deltas to determine points of interest. They could switch to using wavelets to track global versus local motion vectors, but it's much more CPU intensive and would have a greater lag between human movement and camera "following".

Tags for this video have been changed from 'pc, computer, camera, black, face, white' to 'pc, computer, camera, black, blackness, face, white' - edited by calvados

It shows who they emphasize when they test their products, even for a worldwide launch. And no, they probably don't have any black engineers anywhere near that project.

Anyone else notice that the video is a mirror image? I wonder how/why that happened. From the reflections I'd guess they were recording the computer monitor with a standalone camera, but that wouldn't explain the mirror image.

Clearly its sexist, its algorithms have been modeled on the male brain which instantly and subconsciously tracks all female passers by...

Its not racist. It is just indifferent.

Did any of you see the Better of Ted episode that was all about this. It was pretty funny--like a longer, funnier, version of this video with prettier actors. The company ends up hiring white people to follow the black people around and trigger the technology.

Works On My Machine

Dark shapes against a bright background... I can see why the software would have trouble with the contrast/features of dark skin.

I wonder if it works any better when there is more light on his face.

Yeah, this same problem occurred at E3.

On a side note, do you think he's tapping that. I know I would.