'Adult' Yogurt and Facial Recognition: A Match Made in Heaven

As the business and security sectors continue to lag a bit in adoption of facial recognition, consumer marketing is leading the way with new uses for the technology.

Case in point: Food—and “food product” —creator Kraft has started using digital facial recognition and smartphones as a way to engage its customers. The company is doing a trial run with a high-tech vending machine that invites people to scan a code with their smartphone, send an SMS message or use its facial recognition tech to get free samples of new products.

The iSample Experience test, which is being conducted at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, offers Kraft’s new line of “adult” Jell-O products, Temptations, which is where the facial rec comes in. When each person approaches the machine, his or her face is scanned with the iSample’s internal camera. The facial rec determines the person’s age and, if he or she is old enough, continues with the offer. If not, the machine apparently shuts down.

If the machine is a hit, Kraft plans on rolling it out to other locations. Don’t worry, though: the machine doesn’t save people’s images, phone numbers or names. It only gathers information based on gender and approximate age.

With so many concerns being raised over the effectiveness and intrusiveness of facial recognition tech, I think "serious" uses will be a long time coming. In the meantime, marketers are happy to use it in fun, engaging ways, while social networks like Google+ and smartphone companies tread lightly.

‘Customizable’ Camera Software to Revolutionize Photography?

The way we use cameras may be about to change—forever, according to MIT't Technology Review website.

New software is making it possible for photographers to reprogram their digital cameras and create images that have previously been impossible.

Researchers at Stanford University created the software, which runs on Nokia N900 phones and will enable a broad range of apps. With certain apps, you can already gain greater control over your N900 phone: capture both light and dark parts of a scene, create extremely sharp photos, even in low light, and automatically stitch panoramic photos together.

Although digital photography has always been constrained by a camera’s manufacturer software, “computational photography” seeks to change all that. With CP, software gives the user more control over the camera’s components. This type of work has seen some modest success with traditional digital cameras, including Stanford's "Frankencamera." But now, smart phone cameras are opening up even greater possibilities.

The images captured using computational photography can be stunning. Now, cameras can shoot a series of images at focuses, then combine them to make a single image in which objects at any distance appear sharp.

Augmented Reality Gets Creepy, Just in Time for Halloween

Ready for augmented reality to take it to a new, creepy level?

Creepy Crawlies, a new app available now for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, is taking augmented reality gaming in exactly that direction. Although the app is relatively innocent, its creepy nature begs the question: How far will AR gaming go? Consider the terrifying and realistic level modern video games achieve--and now imagine putting that into your real-world surroundings.

The Creepy Crawlies app provides an immersive environment in which the player hunts down bugs, rats, snakes and the like. It's not a game played sitting down--it requires moving not only your thumbs, but your entire body.

Using your smartphone's camera, gyroscope and compass, the game propels the player into an augmented world. Players get to witness 3-D creatures in the X, Y and Z planar axis, with respect to their parallax and perspective. The player can move the device around to see and attack creatures as if it is happening in the real world.

Download it here, just in time for Halloween.

Get Ready for an Explosion of Computer Vision Apps

Surprised by how often computer vision technology is already cropping up in your life? Just wait: Qualcomm has released the first mobile-optimized computer vision library, FastCV. Get ready to enjoy an endless supply of CV apps.

FastCV enables developers to use computer vision in their mobile apps, which will heighten a wide range of capabilities, like facial detection/recognition, text tracking/recognition, gesture recognition and augmented reality tools.

So far, FastCV supports Android development only, but additional platform support should come soon. Developers, download it here. Smartphone fans, keep it tuned to InHardFocus for more on the amazing apps that will come of this announcement.

Will iPhone 5 Feature Futuristic Voice Controls?

The interwebs are buzzing about the possibility of an iPhone 5 release today, and reports are flying about the new phone's rumored features.

We're intrigued by the possibility of advanced speech recognition capabilities, which would let you control your phone with your voice - like never before. This technology will enable users to make appointments on their calendars, send emails and text messages, and more, without typing a word.

Apple's rival, Google, has always been the front-runner when it comes to voice search and transcription. Now that more Androids are sold than iPhones, it would be a good time to step up the voice rec game.

In addition to (maybe) improving their voice controls, Apple will also unveil a better camera and a stronger processor in the new iPhone.

Following today's event, conveniently called "Let's Talk iPhone," we'll probably get the full scoop.