CV Dazzle Camouflages Users From Computer Vision Technology

Courtesy CV Dazzle

This is awesome. CV Dazzle is a form of “expressive interference” that camouflages people from the prying eyes of computer vision technology. It’s a special way of combining makeup and hair styling—or other modifications—with designs that have been known to thwart facial detection devices.

So far, CV Dazzle can be used wherever automated face recognition systems are used online, like Picasa, Flickr and Facebook. The creators want to provide even more ways to protect our privacy as computer vision becomes increasingly sophisticated. Perhaps that's why we'll start seeing hair and makeup like those above on the street.

Check out the CV-Facebook test video below.

Computer Vision Detects Fraudulent Behavior at the Supermarket

Computer vision may soon be coming to your supermarket.

StopLift Checkout Vision Systems has developed a computer vision system that can interpret the behavior of the customer and cashier by analyzing and understanding body motions at the checkout. 

The ScanItAll system analyzes video to ensure each item was properly scanned by the customer or cashier.  

It can identify many fraudulent behaviors, such as covering up a bar code, sweethearting transactions, basket-based losses and return frauds. 

If suspicious activity is detected, store managers receive a report within 24 hours.

Prism Skylabs Showcases Integration With Google+, YouTube and Picasa at SXSW

Prism Skylabs announced today a software integration with Google+, YouTube and Picasa to further change how businesses use video to engage consumers more effectively and to drive smarter business. The integration is being showcased at the Google Village at the SXSW Interactive Festival, taking place March 9-13 in Austin, Texas.

Consumers increasingly expect the same ease and access they have offline in the online world, and businesses are trying to convert online browsing into offline purchasing. With the integration to a number of Google's products, Prism Skylabs now allows users to easily share real-time views of their business to their Google+ page and YouTube channel, as well as images on Picasa, creating new channels for businesses to effectively engage with their audiences and for consumers to get a more immersive online experience than ever before.

Additionally, Prism Skylabs now allows users to monitor Google+ check-ins at their businesses, in addition to the various other social media platforms the company already supports. This increases valuable insight into how consumers interact with a brand across different channels and helps businesses move toward a more composite view of what's happening with their customers at any given time -- whether it's online or offline in a brick and mortar setting.

Prism Skylabs is showcasing its integration with Google+, YouTube and Picasa for the first time at the Google Village at the SXSW Interactive Festival. The company's cloud-based technology is integrated into video networks at three different locations in the Google Village: Bar 96, Lustre Pearl and Icenhauer's. SXSW attendees are able to check out Prism's real-time views by checking out the monitor at Bar 96 that is highlighting activity across all three venues.

"The excitement around SXSW is being fueled by innovations in local, mobile and social media technologies -- and Prism Skylabs is at the intersection of all of that," said Steve Russell, founder and CEO, Prism Skylabs. "Our integration with Google shows our commitment to bringing an entirely new medium of experiencing, sharing and understanding of what's going on, where and when, to the benefit of both businesses and consumers -- and the Google Village at SXSW is the perfect venue to show it off for the first time."

Do you Google your blind date? Maybe you should...

Last week, NBC Bay Area covered a new wave of online fraud that's reaching you through your online dating profile. Vicky Nguyen reported that scammers are hijacking innocent people's photos, setting up online profiles and using them to take advantage of daters. How do you ensure your face, or those of family, friends and dates, isn't hijacked?

Our own Steve Russell (and founder of Prism Skylabs), an expert in computer vision and search, joined Vicky to show viewers how to serach and scan public images in order to detect fraudulent online profiles, if they exist. See video below for more details. Now, go ahead and stalk yourself on Google!

View more videos at: http://nbcbayarea.com.

Augmented Reality App Gives You a Peek Beneath Models’ Clothing

Moosejaw X-Ray App from Gary Wohlfeill on Vimeo.

File this under bizarre yet ingenious ways to titillate consumers: Clothing retailer Moosejaw is encouraging shoppers to download an X-ray augmented reality app that will allow them to see what’s underneath their models’ winter clothes.

Using your smartphone’s or tablet’s camera, the augmented reality app syncs with Moosejaw’s winter clothing catalog to give you some spicy views of both the male and female models. All you have to do is download the app, get your hands on the catalog (or visit the online version) and position your device over the pages.

Sure, the idea is clever and sort of cute. But only a limited number of brands will probably be able to "get away with" this type of marketing, so it's unlikely to catch on in a big way. But maybe one day we'll see a augmented reality version of Playboy. Techie dudes can only dream.