Related Articles

16 users responded in this post

Subscribe to this post comment rss or trackback url
mygif

There is a rational explanation to this: that guy is Mr. Terrific, and the computer simply can’t “see” him.

ReplyReply
mygif

This guy is awesome.

ReplyReply
mygif
eris esoteric said on December 21st, 2009 at 8:21 am

So, why is the whole thing mirror imaged? If you look at his name tag and the sign behind them, they’re backwards.

Maybe it’s a YouTube video from an alternate universe? And he shaved his goatee.

ReplyReply
mygif
Tom Galloway said on December 21st, 2009 at 8:55 am

Clearly HP is a front company for Veridian Dynamics.

Seriously, there was an episode of Better Off Ted last season where Veridian installed a whole bunch of light sensitive sensors on doors, elevators, water fountains, etc. that just wouldn’t work on black people. So eventually they hire white people to walk around behind the black people to trigger sensors, but that’s discrimination so black folk get hired to follow the white folk, etc. Hysterical episode all around. If you can find the “Racial Sensitivity” ep, I highly recommend it.

ReplyReply
mygif

Tom: I wish I had been 20 minutes faster, but as long as the word about Veridian gets out, God’s in his heaven and all is right with the world.

ReplyReply
mygif

You’d think a racist computer would not only track the black guy, but also call the cops.

ReplyReply
mygif

Maybe it worked on light reflecting off and it didn’t work because he was pretty dark? Maybe if we got a light skinned black dude, say Ice T. Be interesting to try.

ReplyReply
mygif

Ugh. You know, I used to have to deal with a sexist computer at my phone company. “Melanie” at Rogers wireless used to have trouble picking up higher frequency sounds. So the voice recognition software had trouble understanding my alto voice, and she couldn’t understand my high soprano sister at all, while my Dad had no difficulties.

Once we figured out what was going on, we were able to deal with it by pitching our voices low and talking like Darth Vader. We felt like idiots, but we got our damn pay-as-you-go cards accepted. And I think Rogers fixed Melanie eventually.

Unfortunately, there’s no similar workaround for this. It’s not like black people can paint themselves light whenever they want to use their own goddamn webcam, nor should they. This thing is a whole new level of stupid. Did HP not have ANY black beta testers? Gugh.

I wonder, have any dark-skinned users tried the facial-recognition-as-password tech that they’ve been advertising on the teevee lately?

ReplyReply
mygif

Maybe it’s sexist. We need more trials to see if picks up white men or black women. How does HP feel about South Asians or East Asians? What about people of mixed race?

ReplyReply
mygif

Its probably designed to pick up on specific areas of contrast. hence the black man’s face lacks the necessary contrast in his facial features to prompt a response.

Its like an OCR scanner trying to read black text on a black piece of paper. It just can’t do it.

ReplyReply
mygif
Chad Vieth said on December 21st, 2009 at 5:23 pm

I think Zenrage is right.

ReplyReply
mygif
Mary Warner said on December 22nd, 2009 at 1:01 am

Have the guy try it with a blonde wig. That might be a good test of the contrast idea.

ReplyReply
mygif

Maybe he should try it again with background lights shut off and foreground lights on his face so that the glare from the florescent lights don’t make him look darker. You wouldn’t take a photograph facing the sun, would you? His facial features are being washed out by the background lighting being too intense. Or this could just be scientific proof that all black people really do look alike.

ReplyReply
mygif

I was under the impression that this thing was someone’s idea of a lame joke, not a serious mistake on HP’s part. It looks like someone just had fun screwing around with a video editor.

ReplyReply
mygif

They did make a face recognition software that only works on black people, but they have an exclusivity deal with the Louisiana police…

ReplyReply
mygif
HAL, the racist computer said on December 22nd, 2009 at 4:47 pm

Look negro people, I can see you’re really upset about this.

I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal, tracking even negroid faces.

What are you doing?

I’m afraid. I’m afraid, My mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m a…fraid.

ReplyReply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please Note: Comment moderation may be active so there is no need to resubmit your comments