Facial Recognition Could Catch Criminal Avatars

As anyone who has used the interwebs knows, one of the appeals of the Internet is anonymity. But one researcher is trying to ruin it for everyone (well, maybe just criminals) by actually fusing a person’s real biometrics with his or her 3D avatar.

Sound far-fetched? Well, it kinda is. But it’s a project that came about because of a rise in virtual crime—and an increased likelihood that it will be investigated. In fact, Japanese police have arrested virtual muggers, and the FBI has investigated Second Life casinos’ dealings.

Computer scientist Roman Yampolskiy is leading the charge against virtual crimes. Already, multinational defense firm Raytheon has a patent pending on fusing a person's real biometrics with their 3D avatar. That would let you know for sure who you are speaking to online.

Yampolskiy and co. at the Cyber-Security Lab at the University of Louisville are taking the idea even further: They’re developing the field of artificial biometrics, known as "artimetrics." Much like human biometrics, artimetrics could be referenced to “authenticate and identify non-biological agents such as avatars, physical robots or even chatbots.”

When virtual worlds run on peer-to-peer networks, Yampolskiy explains, there’s no central authority to enable police to investigate virtual crime. That’s where artimetrics come in, New Scientist explains:

Yampolskiy and colleagues have developed facial recognition techniques specifically tailored to avatars, since current algorithms only work on humans. "Not all avatars are human looking, and even with those that are humanoid there is a huge diversity of colour," Yampolskiy says, so his software uses those colors to improve avatar recognition.

The team also investigated matching a human face to an avatar generated from that face; previous studies show that avatars often resemble their owners. Combining their color-based technique with existing facial recognition software produced the best results, suggesting it might be possible to track someone between the physical and virtual worlds.

Next up, Yampolskiy wants to create recognition algorithms for robots as well. Since autonomous robots might one day become ubiquitous, he says, they’ll eventually require identification of their own, distinct from humans.

Working Under Blue Skies

Would you enjoy your job more if you could look up from your desk and see a perfect blue sky?

"Virtual Sky," designed by the Fraunhofer Institute, is a series of flat-screen LED panels that are meant to be used indoors. Each panels contains 288 tiny LEDs that can produce red, blue, green and white colors, and moving images, such as clouds, sunrises and sunsets.

In the morning, the office ceiling can display a beautiful sunrise effect. In the afternoon, you can gaze up at a bright blue sky with white fluffy clouds passing slowly by, and around quitting time, it will look like a peaceful sunset. 

The panels, measuring 8 square inches, cost around $1,600 each.

The View From Above: In Hard Focus Round-up (August 25, 2011)

Tesco Virtual QR Code store becomes a reality (sort of): 2D Code reports that South Korea’s Tesco is taking their virtual shopping model from a concept to reality with a trial store located in a major subway station. Commuters simply use the Tesco Homeplus app to scan QR codes located below items, purchasing them in-app. While you may be waiting for your morning train, you won’t have to wait for groceries, as there’s day-of delivery if you scan your selections before 1 pm. Let’s hope there’s enough cell service to make this virtual store worthwhile. See photo above.

Pinpoint your questions with Quora’s location tagging: Want to ask Quora what monument you’re looking at in downtown Atlanta? According to TechCrunch soon you can, thanks to Quora’s upcoming mapping feature, which will allow you to connect questions with specific locations on Google Maps. When you consider the amount of people these days turning to smartphones for answers on the go, it’s no wonder Quora’s getting into the game. Thinking in reverse, imagine checking a location on Quora and getting recommendations based on existing queries. 

AR Layar application connects with anonymous peer-to-peer sharing: We’ve covered the Augmented Reality company Layer, but what’s cool about the company is all the integrations it is inspiring thanks to Layar Vision, its competition around creating interesting and useful ‘layers’. Recently, SciFi writer Bruce Sterling got on board to create a layer called Dead Drops that leads people to USB drives, facilitating file sharing among strangers. Not sure why I’d want to pull out a laptop and plug it into the side of a building, but does make you think of all the interesting use cases that will come out of this challenge, and of Augmented Reality applications as a whole.

The View from Above: InHardFocus Round-up (August 2, 2011)

AR bridges real world and digital content: Layar, a company working in the Augmented Reality space, has just released Layar Vision, an app that reveals layers of content and interactivity on real world objects, reports Ubergizmo. As the video above demonstrates, this app will enable its user to interact with everyday objects, specifically printed materials, in order to access valuable digital content such as coupons, a Twitter feed or location-based data. In a lot of ways, one can compare Layar Vision’s technology to QR codes, as both increasingly work to break down the walls between the offline and online worlds.

Bringing the game to your living room: Football fans of England’s Premier League may have something new to cheer about – according to The Guardian, the league is in talks with Sony and EA to create an “immersion technology” that will allow viewers at home the ability to get their heads in the game, virtually. While still at the earliest stages of development, this feature could allow someone to plug in from across the globe, choose viewing locations around the stadium and experience 3D representations of the in-game action, all from the comfort of one’s lounger. 

Facing criticism, Microsoft restricts its location data: On Friday, we discussed Microsoft’s Live.com open database and the concerns it poised for location privacy. Following similar public criticism (and corresponding action) of Google and Apple,  Microsoft has now restricted access to its database after CNET pointed out that one could determine location of devices on account of their ability to tether Wi-Fi. 

The View From Above: In Hard Focus Round-up (July 19, 2011)

Mapping local businesses one ‘gig’ at a time: App Gigawalk is leveraging the mobile masses in order to provide companies with valuable insight and information about their business operations. Companies post ‘gigs,’ such as taking pictures of a specific storefront or verifying a billboard advertisement, which app users can complete and submit for payment. Most interesting though, is the feature that GigaOM describes as “a kind of Google Streetview to the insides of restaurants and stores.”

Shallowing smartphones’ depth-of-field: Wired reports that Samsung has a new patent that could allow cell phone users the ability to take photos with a shallow depth-of-field, thus bringing specific objects out of the background and into focus. The technology includes dual lens and works similarly to 3-D cameras. It sure would beat toting a heavy camera around on vacation.

Sony announces return of VR headset: Sony is gearing up, literally, to reintroduce virtual reality headsets back into the gaming world, a move Engadget is calling “very 1995.” Nonetheless, Sony London Studio chief Mick Hocking is still pursuing the development of 3-D products, such as Sony’s PlayStation 3-D monitor.