face recognition resolution!

[ThePony]

right, I was researching my dissertation on 'the evolution of machines and the future of man' many moons ago when I came across a piece of info. I think it was a researcher talking in a history of HAL:2001 book or some MIT book, can't remember... but basically it involved this... some researchers (how vague!) were making this face recognition machine, and were in the early stages of creating it, when they noticded that while keepin the resolution of the face very low, the computer could still recognise faces in every case... so my question is... does anyone know what resolution that was?? it was something very low like 12x8 or something ridiculous, I know this probably isn't very interesting, but I would like to know for a wee video project that I'm working on... cheers for this Niall McCormack

[OldJake]

I think you must be confusing the capabilities of machines with those of the real super-computers: ourselves! Since the attack on the World Trade Center, there has been renewed interest in face recognition, particularly as a means to attract funding and investment. The capabilities are poor. My brother has designed systems to detect defects coming off a production line, and it's a tough job even with exciting objects such as house-bricks.

[ThePony]

indeed, I realise that this is a restricted case, in that it was only based around people in the labs, probably under good light conditions and no doubt with a straight on view of the face too. But this highlights the case that babies in early ages of development when eyesight is still poor can differentiate between people. This example was not a real world case it was used as a learning system for basic face recognition, not as a real world solution. I believe it was one of the first face recogition tests actually tried cheers anyhow Niall