This week's video news... (discuss in class on March 13)

Firstly, I am quite worried of my writing.^^ I am not really a good writer, but I will do my best as much as I can~

It was very interesting news that new developed digital camera can recognize people's identity by noticing people's bone structure , the location of nose and winkles and so on. Japan is an amazing country to invent and develop the electronic products, that's why people all over the world prefers Japanese products I think.

Opinion :
According to this news, the digital camera can help police to identify criminals. I would like to add this point, if the digital camera uses for national security it can reduce the criminal rate and prevent some crimes. Because if shopowners install those cameras, they can recognize some criminals identification by obseving customers. However, I think these cameras should not use for individual purposes, because the users can easily realize other people's identification. It can be used in the wrong purpose. So I worry about people can be exposed their information which they do not want. So I think it is amazing invention and it will be very helpful for security ,but if it use for misappropriate purposes, it will trigger side effects.

Prediction :
The news tells us those digital camera can only recognize Asians. So few years or even few months later those cameras can recognize other races as well. (it would be very trivial prediction^^) After that, I think globalization will accomplish easily. Becase everyone can take a picture of them and they can distinguish some information about the takers. ^^ In addition, our government will establish them in the liability to crime region , then Korean criminal rate could be reduced(especially in Hwasung area). However, there will be also new typed crimes using that developped technique.^^

Opinion
The technology we used to dream when we were young has really come true.
Cameras with this sepcial function can be used in many areas, such as shops, goverment agency and banks, for detecting criminals or indentifying a person.
Whether Our lives will be better or worse with this camera depends on how we will control and use it.
Somewhat I feel scary about the cutting-edge science technology.

Prediction
It will more convenient for police to detect and identify criminals.
However without proper control it would cause some problems related with personal privacy.
Because this camera needs huge amount of personal data to work properly, people's data could be taken illigally or secertly to gather the information.

I have a lot of privacy concerns about this, especially because i already had many privacy concerns about being watched by cameras. This can be used for a variety of purposes that I wouldn't like, such as targeted marketing or profiling of citizens, if employed by the government. I do think the scientific advancements shown in this kind of technology are extraordinary, and when put to the right use could be beneficial, but I believe there should be limits to the legal ways they could be used for the watching of unconsenting individuals. For example, one may think that the use of these cameras that can accurately tell the age of someone would be very helpful in the area of criminal justice, and to some extent it can be. When used to help aid in finding suspects that match the same general age, it would be great. However, if used for definitive evidence for the prosecution of a suspect, there could be dire consequences. For example, if the camera predicted that the age of an assailant was 23 to 25 years old. Perhaps that evidence could be used to help incriminate a person of that age whom is on trial. If admitted as hard evidence, rather than just probable evidence......there may be some problems due to the lack of knowledge of it's reliability in real-world situations

It's so amazing. I think it will be popular for a while , since people want to know if it really can regonize one's age and gender. However its popularity couldn't last long, because people usually don't want others to know their age. In addition, people will get tired of it soon. People always want someting more surprising.
But it's helpful to catch criminal or suspect. It can analyze the structure of one's bone. So It's easier for the police to catch criminal.
I can feel science getting developed more and more. I was surprised to hear the news. I wonder what the scientists will make next.

Hi, classmates and Jason.
I have been pressed with time and work.. So I dropped in this site now.

** About the camera....
Many public offices and police will want to get the sensational camera.

As other classmates remarked on it, it will help to investigate criminals and suspects.

But it also tell many good citizens's personal information. For example, a pretty movie

star or singer doesn't want to reveal her real age to the public. In spite of her

complaint, people will come to recognize her age very easily with this camera. It is a

disaster for her life. So machines don't lead just to happy lives, but control and

interrupt our society and relationship.....

As rapid advances has been occured in the digital carmea tech,it seems that people are trying to do more magic with this small device rather than taking a picture. It's brilliant idea and it sounds good if it could be used for a good purpose like identyfying criminal suspects as mentioned in the clip. However, otherwise would be a little bit upset for many people. Can machine tell who am I and how old I am without my consent? No joke, we alerady are living in a society where a "big brother" watches eveything and then trying to make it worse?


Use of this carmea should be strictly restricted for public and security purpose and shouldn't be the on the E-bay. News clip said that error of margin is 10 year or less,but consdiering Japanese brands' eager to pursue the pefection that margin would be zero in recent future. And I am afraid of what they will do next to help big brother.

I was not only surprised to witness advaces in technology, but stuff that might have existed in movies or our imagination coming into life. This was so amazing. I watched a news the other day that amphibious cars were fully develped and tested on the surface. That word came to me as a shock that everything we imagined or just vaguely predicted in the past will be open right in front of our eyes. I am so anxious to see what will be the next. Maybe the flying car or something. I think this state of the art tech will be used to make our life better than ever. Cosmetic industry , take instane, will be the biggest beneficiary from this advance in technology. People are more and more paying attention to their appearances. Thus, when they have this device at home, it will tell them what kind of skin problems they have or whak kind of lotion they should apply on their skin depending on the condition of their skin. In addition, it will be used to narrow down the suspects from the crime scenes. When a crime takes place, the authority has a clue like pictures from the survelliance camera which produce the blurry pictures. This not clear shot sometime hold the process of the case. However, when this screen identifies the suspect from the camera right on the spot, it will reduce the time or efforts put in the search. If this is made possible, we do not have to be apprenhensive every time we see the crime happening.

bobosbong wrote:I think the new gadget is a very creative model getting one step closer to AI .
However, I don't think it will be popular on the market even though it will be launched. How many people or organizations are intereted in one's age and get benefits from capturing the ages of the people concerned. That is, it won't get the attention from the general public but only from a few organizations that need cutting edge technology as the report have mentioned.
Moreover, the vedio said that it could actually have a marginal error-minus or plus 10(?), even making less reliable on the camera. 10 years is too much of an inaccurate estimate; It's a happy thing that I have a possibility to look like a teenage girl, but in the worst case...I'd better not imagine.. I still have a long way to go and venture.

In a nutshell, the new camear identifying age and gender is sure a novel creation; however, it might be forgotten sooner or later due to less demand and inaccuracy.

This was a prediction based on my opinion. Have a good weekend everyone. See you next Thursday. TGIT(Thanks God It's Thursday!)

I think you make some good points here. I'm sure all of us would like to be 'mistaken' as being 10 years younger, but certainly not 10 years older... I think it would depend on the day of the week for me. Getting up at 5.30 Monday morning, I think the camera would read me as being 10 years older, but Friday afternoon, playing with my little son, I could well look 10 years younger!

Thanks for your response - you were the first, so great job!

Best wishes,

~ Jason


***

Bae Sung-han wrote:Opinion : There are a lot of strange persons in Japan. They made today introduction about the digital carmea which can find the age and gender.
In my normal life, I don't get it why he made it. But somehow it probably helps the government to find and capture suspects or missing people. Maybe the idea that the developer decided to invent the camera was from the scientific fiction and he paid attention to the idea. So strange! How did he make such a bizarre decision? Anyway it's funny though to me.

Prediction : I already mentioned about the government which might be interested in it. It is difficult to say that the camera will be hit in the public, but in the specail way to use, I think the business will be successful in a couple of years because the crime rate has been rocketing. Like in London, there are thousands of cameras around London for surveillance so that the government might need that for prevention of crime or for finding suspects involving a crime and so on.

Hi Sung-han,

It is an interesting development, isn't it? And like you, I wasn't entirely sure exactly why it was developed. I think you have a good point when you say a camera like this could eventually become very useful for identifying criminals and preventing crime. But with a +/-10 year degree of variation just for age at present, I think it will need a lot more development before it can actually match faces to a specific databank of criminals. They could possibly make a lot of mistakes...

Thanks for your thoughts, and for posting in response to the topic so early.

Best wishes,

~ Jason

kim young-ah wrote:I think this new digital camera is very cool. How surprising this camera identifies one's age and gender!!!!
But if a person is a transgender or he/she had a plastic surgery - particularly he/she had the wrinkles (around eyes/nose) removed or had his/her face bones cut, how can the new digital camera do that?
Anyway, this article reminds me of the movie "Minority Report".
In that movie, every place has a sensor that identifies the civilans (who pass by) who they are by their names and ID numbers. The sensor identifies a person by one's iris scan.
Like this, the new digital camera can also help many people, organizations or industries with more developed other than age and gender.
If more developed, the new camera can help police officers find the criminal suspect(s) and it can also make our ID cards unneccessary because the new digital camera identifies the details of ours like age, gender, and so on. But I worry about the privacy.
And the new digital camera will be made use of the industries like shops or stores. First, the camera takes every information of new stocks at a store or shop even though it doesn't take its age and gender. Gradually, whenever the stocks are taken out, the camera check the rest of stocks automatically. Therefore, the arrangement of stocks would be easy.
Someday all of these things might work.

Thank you. Have a nice day.

Hi Young-ah,

Yes - it reminds me of "Minority Report" as well! The parts in that film where video ads would change and start speaking to different people using their first names even while they were walking around the streets or in a department store... I found that quite chilling! I sincerely hope this new technology doesn't end up heading in that direction. Like you, I have real concerns about privacy issues.

Thanks for posting your thoughts and for being an "early bird"!

Take care,

~ Jason

Lee Pilsu wrote:Opinion: I think store owners who deal with thousands of customers will probably like the invention because if they can analyze the data of a great number of cutomers' age and gender easily and quickly thanks to the device,
they will be able to produce new marketing strategies based on the information.
However, I'm highly doubtful whether people, from the customers' perspective,
will favor the idea that their age and gender are exposed to and accessed by somebody that they don't know personally. Especially,age, which is of course a private information, can be very sensitive to many people. The fundamental problem with this technology is that it's secretive and unilateral because the camera is placed or hidden somewhere to do its fuction by the store owner, while the customers don't recognize that their faces are pictured by the camera and therefore their age and gender are revealed, while doing their shopping.
This can be utmost unpleasant experience for any customers in a shop.

Predictions: As I mentioned above, I don't think the technology can be used for the interests of a certain individual's profit-making, in this case, store owner's. Because it's not only next to impossible to get permission from every customer that walks into the store, but also it's against people's sentiment to keep their private information. In short, the technology will not be usable in real society.

Hi Pilsu,

I think you make very good points here. I agree that people probably won't like to be secretly photographed in this way and for these purposes. It's never a good idea to strip people of their privacy, no matter how 'useful' it may be for individual business operators.

Thanks for posting!

~ Jason

eunjin39 wrote: I think the new technology is really brilliant and interesting because predicting a person's exact age is not easy for most people; however, a mere program can do it by analyzing many data. I'm so surprised to see how much our computer technology developed today. I feel scared of standing in front of the camera because I don't want to reveal my age sometimes . I believe this technology will benefit police with finding theives and will also be developed to guess westerner's age. However, I guess this program will have difficulty guessing the age of people who had plastic surgery.

Hi Eunjin,

You're right - the technology involved here is really amazing. A few other people have mentioned the problem with identifying people who have plastic surgery as well. Interesting! Is plastic surgery so common these days?

Thanks a lot for posting your thoughts.

Take care,

~ Jason


***

Opinion - This kind of news is always very interesting to me, but at the same time, it gives me many worries about their side effects. I strongly agree that the point this new developed digital camera can contribute to reducing crimes, capturing criminal suspects or boosting sales. But it is possible if ony they could be used for the right purpose. As we know, there are many people out there who uses these sorts of inventions to have their individual profits without any consideration of others. The worst thing is that there will be also new typed crimes using that developed technique. In addition, I believe that getting someone's personal information without his or her permission is a kind of crime related to the privacy. This camera can play a big role of invading other's privacy.

Prediction - Based on my opinion, this new digital camera will give us funny and impressive experience at first, but it will not last long. In a short time, many people worry about being expoed to the puplic, and want the government to make strict rules and regulations to use or buy this gadget. In the end, this device will be used only for the national security.

I wonder how the future will be. And I am expecting with high technology.
Like in some movies, we can even ride a flying car if the technology gets more developed... And it's likely to be funny. I think the high technology will be helpful for us.

Liz wrote:opinion : I think every new technology has two sides. If people use that for only good purposes like capturing criminal suspects or boosting sales, it will be fantastic. However, there may be some people out there who would use it for their crime or something.
prediction : Although there is some possibility of misusing this high-technology, it is very useful indeed. Especially, it will be very helpful for finding out target customer. So in the future, it will be able to recognize not only Asian but also other races. Furthermore, if this technology get so popular, it will be upgraded to recognizing height, weight or some other physical factors.

Just like what you said, Unjin, as soon as i clicked on this news clip, the first thing that comes to my mind is what on earth this new camera is used for. We have heard too many times about Japanese idiosyncrasies and, of course, their ingeunities as well. But, a camera that can tell people's age? Come on.. Let's get real. Nowadays the CCTV(Closed Circuit Television) has been used widely and its usefulness has been proven. I would like to add some opinion to your thinking. It's time to give some considerations to privacy issues.

Joo Un-jin wrote:opinion: I was impressed with the new camera which shows Japan's development in technology. They are good at making things, especially the electronics I think. Their high technology and new idea attract people all over the world.

Sometimes they are useful. As reported in the news, they make it easy to identify the suspect. When we take a photo of someone, they tell us his/her age. They give us a kind of personal information. It can be useful when we want to know about him/her. And they also prevent us from telling a lie about our age.

But the question I have now is whether it is really necessary or not. Most of the people can tell someone's age just by looking at the photo. We say things like "Maybe he is at his 40's." They reported that the camera had plus, minus 10 year margin. What is the difference? I think to be more helpful in our lives, they have to be more accurate.




prediction : The technology with the cameras will be more developing. Someday they can tell a person's age almost correctly. Then they will become more helpful in our lives. Nobody never tells a lie about his/her age- in a bar, ticket office and so on. Moreover they will be able to tell a age of all races. Usually Easterners have difficulty in guessing Westerners' ages and vice versa. But you will not have to be worried about it.

If they get popularity, other companies will make the cameras which have the similar function. There can be some argument about its originality.

Quoting Napster's instance, you must be well aware of this field. I think you are right. This invention may attract some temporary attention but, will not make a great sucess in the market unless they provide more user-friendly materials or functions attached. Like you said, what on earth is the use of telling someone's age or sex in the first hand? I think highly of your good point and incisive suggestion. Let's keep up the good work.

Kim Eun-jung wrote:Opinion and Prediction:

Japan developed a new digital camera that can tell any person's age and gender. Definitely, it is an advanced technology. But new products based on high technology aren't necessarily successful in the market. When first released, they can seize the attention of the customers temporarily, but they can't survive if they just show off the new technology. They should have practical value and meet the customer's needs. For example, Napster could be successful not because the advanced p2p technology itself but because the free music contents users can get. The technology that can tell age and gender is a real invention, but what can we do with that technology? Only early adopters of technology might respond to the product and boost the sales temporarily, but as time goes by, customers' interest will gradually disappear.

Japan is a high technology power. If they can't succeed in marketing this product, they will invent and release another product based on this technology.

It is interesting that you mentioned about transgender and a person who had a plastic surgery. I thought the camera might be useless in Korea, "the plastic surgery paradise" Especially it cannot tell ages of Korean entertainers ^^
In some point, as you mentioned, it is a very scary invention. The developing technology makes it easier to know one's personal information. The camera catches the information about our shape, age and gender. They can spread away easily through Internet. Some may have some information about us while we don't know the fact.

kim young-ah wrote:I think this new digital camera is very cool. How surprising this camera identifies one's age and gender!!!!
But if a person is a transgender or he/she had a plastic surgery - particularly he/she had the wrinkles (around eyes/nose) removed or had his/her face bones cut, how can the new digital camera do that?
Anyway, this article reminds me of the movie "Minority Report".
In that movie, every place has a sensor that identifies the civilans (who pass by) who they are by their names and ID numbers. The sensor identifies a person by one's iris scan.
Like this, the new digital camera can also help many people, organizations or industries with more developed other than age and gender.
If more developed, the new camera can help police officers find the criminal suspect(s) and it can also make our ID cards unneccessary because the new digital camera identifies the details of ours like age, gender, and so on. But I worry about the privacy.
And the new digital camera will be made use of the industries like shops or stores. First, the camera takes every information of new stocks at a store or shop even though it doesn't take its age and gender. Gradually, whenever the stocks are taken out, the camera check the rest of stocks automatically. Therefore, the arrangement of stocks would be easy.
Someday all of these things might work.

Thank you. Have a nice day.

kim young-ah wrote:I think this new digital camera is very cool. How surprising this camera identifies one's age and gender!!!!
But if a person is a transgender or he/she had a plastic surgery - particularly he/she had the wrinkles (around eyes/nose) removed or had his/her face bones cut, how can the new digital camera do that?
Anyway, this article reminds me of the movie "Minority Report".
In that movie, every place has a sensor that identifies the civilans (who pass by) who they are by their names and ID numbers. The sensor identifies a person by one's iris scan.
Like this, the new digital camera can also help many people, organizations or industries with more developed other than age and gender.
If more developed, the new camera can help police officers find the criminal suspect(s) and it can also make our ID cards unneccessary because the new digital camera identifies the details of ours like age, gender, and so on. But I worry about the privacy.
And the new digital camera will be made use of the industries like shops or stores. First, the camera takes every information of new stocks at a store or shop even though it doesn't take its age and gender. Gradually, whenever the stocks are taken out, the camera check the rest of stocks automatically. Therefore, the arrangement of stocks would be easy.
Someday all of these things might work.

Thank you. Have a nice day.

Nowadays, There are a lot of cameras to monitor people. We usually need these kinds of cameras because living in a dangerous world. As you know , a few weeks ago, there was an accident that someone did violence on the kid very cruelly. The police could catch the criminal easily thanks to the camera. The criminal is getting more cruel. As you said, therefore, the camera will be really helpful and be made use of the industries such as shops, apartments, or stores. I hope we can live in a safe world ^^

Opinion

I'm the opinion of that it is extremely strange machine in the world! As we know, the age is really sensitive matter. No one want to be recognized their age correctly through just digital camera! I really want to ask "WHY does he make this camera?" to the person who made this one. Of course, it can be helpful for some occasions, but i think most of people are not interested with this strange camera. For most people, camera is a tool to keep our valuable memories and beautiful scean, not guess our age! isn't it? ^^


Prediction

My prediction is that it will be very hard to sell this camera to the people. I think most of people don't want to buy this camera, but it can be useful for government or some criminal situations. In addition, peopel can enter a protest to the company wich made this camera with the age which the camera recongnized!! They can complain that they are younger than this camera said something like this.

sunnypine wrote:I have a lot of privacy concerns about this, especially because i already had many privacy concerns about being watched by cameras. This can be used for a variety of purposes that I wouldn't like, such as targeted marketing or profiling of citizens, if employed by the government. I do think the scientific advancements shown in this kind of technology are extraordinary, and when put to the right use could be beneficial, but I believe there should be limits to the legal ways they could be used for the watching of unconsenting individuals. For example, one may think that the use of these cameras that can accurately tell the age of someone would be very helpful in the area of criminal justice, and to some extent it can be. When used to help aid in finding suspects that match the same general age, it would be great. However, if used for definitive evidence for the prosecution of a suspect, there could be dire consequences. For example, if the camera predicted that the age of an assailant was 23 to 25 years old. Perhaps that evidence could be used to help incriminate a person of that age whom is on trial. If admitted as hard evidence, rather than just probable evidence......there may be some problems due to the lack of knowledge of it's reliability in real-world situations

As you said, there have been many problems related to privacy things by well-developed cameras. It can be used not only for the good thing but also for the bad thing. I think the advance of technology is absolutely useful part of our life, but it has other side, many troubles. Therefore I think to give license for the product would be one of the good ways to prevent potential problems.

I enjoyed your writings about this device. Its data has known to have the averages about all levels of ages. frankly speaking, I would like to be tested by myself. As you know, all women are very sensitive to tracks of the Time, such as wrinkles. As getting older, we want to look younger.
I agree with your opinions that it should be used only to a special events. Because of its irresponsibility, it may take some unexpected effects on others. If only it is used to give interesting effects to people, I would approve it!

Anyways, I considered that the way of your English writings was well contextualized and connected.

Boyun Park wrote: Opinion : It is very intresting and also shocking that these little digital cameras can tell people's age and gender. I knew Japanese were great at technology but this just proves it more. However, I can't help wondering how the camera will distinguish people who might have wrinkling-removed surgery or they just happen to be very young looking? Or does this only apply to most of normal people? This technique could be useful in various areas where we need to identify someone but have to be careful since it could invade one's privacy at the same time. Probably, some people don't want their identifications to be revealed in public.



Prediction : I believe this could be a big help for policemen in finding suspects especially when they don't have much evidence other than vague digital camera picture. It will shorten their time in narrowing down the suspects. Currently, this digital camera can only be worked on Asians, but Japanese will soon have data for other races and earn a lot by exporting the cameras.

Boyun Park wrote: Opinion : It is very intresting and also shocking that these little digital cameras can tell people's age and gender. I knew Japanese were great at technology but this just proves it more. However, I can't help wondering how the camera will distinguish people who might have wrinkling-removed surgery or they just happen to be very young looking? Or does this only apply to most of normal people? This technique could be useful in various areas where we need to identify someone but have to be careful since it could invade one's privacy at the same time. Probably, some people don't want their identifications to be revealed in public.



Prediction : I believe this could be a big help for policemen in finding suspects especially when they don't have much evidence other than vague digital camera picture. It will shorten their time in narrowing down the suspects. Currently, this digital camera can only be worked on Asians, but Japanese will soon have data for other races and earn a lot by exporting the cameras.

Like you said, Japanese are so good at manipulating something regardless of the kinds and making lucrative things...Regarding they just made the cutting edge, there're high possibility of being popular over the world as they are complementing its lack of function as you said..anyway,,still that is amazing..

bobosbong wrote:I think the new gadget is a very creative model getting one step closer to AI .
However, I don't think it will be popular on the market even though it will be launched. How many people or organizations are intereted in one's age and get benefits from capturing the ages of the people concerned. That is, it won't get the attention from the general public but only from a few organizations that need cutting edge technology as the report have mentioned.
Moreover, the vedio said that it could actually have a marginal error-minus or plus 10(?), even making less reliable on the camera. 10 years is too much of an inaccurate estimate; It's a happy thing that I have a possibility to look like a teenage girl, but in the worst case...I'd better not imagine.. I still have a long way to go and venture.

In a nutshell, the new camear identifying age and gender is sure a novel creation; however, it might be forgotten sooner or later due to less demand and inaccuracy.

This was a prediction based on my opinion. Have a good weekend everyone. See you next Thursday. TGIT(Thanks God It's Thursday!)

I have the same opinion with you. I also think this new camera won't attract public attention much. The function it newly serves is not in great demand. And as you said, the error range is too wide. 10 years... It doesn't give any meaning or information.