Webcam Face Recognition

[DesktopMates]

I stumbled across this open source project and thought I'd post it here for those that may be interested. The project makes it possible to recognize faces using a webcam. It has the ability to learn people's faces and identify them uniquely. The project appears to have been spawned in hopes of creating a face recognition security program but the technology isn't well suited for recognizing a specific individual within a database containing a large number of people. The more people it attempts to recognize the smaller the average differences between individuals becomes and would require high resolution pictures to pick out the small differences. Lighting conditions, shadows, and the poor quality of most web cams and security cameras also adds to the complication and confusion. However, with a relatively small database consisting of a small group of people it has proven to perform well, and should be especially true when using a web cam in a confined and controlled environment, such as when sitting directly in front of your computer and web cam, and possibly even from a short distances in the confines of a small well lighted room.

Possibly some of the more advanced programmers and Hal experts will have a look and play around with it and maybe eventually come up with a means to incorporate it with Hal. I think a feature like this would enhance Hal's abilities and functionality as an AI program.

http://www.fuzzgun.btinternet.co.uk/rodney/facerecognition.htm

[les]

Thanks!
Les

[freddy888]

Thanks very much from me too, that looks promising [8D]

[moreis62]

Good work!
Don Gillett.

[Carl2]

All,
 The webcam sounds great but has been brought up before, I'm not sure if the current people think this can be done. I wouldn't even attempt an interface. Possibly there is a reason no one has taken this up or hopefully someone will see this post and give it a try.
Carl2

[Dreamer]

This would be even better with a webcam like this

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/about/pressroom/information/US/EN,contentid=9737,year=2004

It has Intelligent Face-Tracking!!! It would really put the icing on the cake so to speak. [8D]

[Art]

This camera would be fine for use with Hal or a similar bot even though the camera has had some mixed reviews from owners.

The real task is interfacing the camera WITH facial recognition software IN CONJUNCTION WITH Hal.

Perhaps a script file could be written that would allow Hal via the camera to recognize the user and log that data into a facial users database. Over time, Hal would be able to know each user's face.

Not an impossible task but rather a daunting one!

[spydaz]

i have interfaced a version with my hal, but it acts more as an authorized user. Face entry sys....

what happens is that the camera takes a picture of you then does a picture search to see if your picture has been stored previously if not then no acces, if found recoginize user...

in the end i diddnt like it.... we have to wait a bit longer....

[moreis62]

For non X10 Users you mite wanna try this one
it's by
Jerry.

http://www.zabaware.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2918

[Art]

Yes, Jerry's method basically allows Hal via the webcam to become a motion detector by checking to see if a log file has been written.

It works well in that regard but a lot of users would like to see a facial rec system operational within Hal. Wishful thinking....

Along a similar vein...

Below is a link to an RSS feed that shows a new application that allows the software to search your photos for faces and any text that might also be contained within the photo as well.

The main downside to this that I see is that one uploads the faces to a server instead of the software being a stand alone / dedicated package for the average user. Are the photos kept private and does that word really have any meaning any longer? You decide. The program is however, very impressive.
http://news.com.com/1606-2_3-6037142.html?part=rss&tag=6037142&subj=news

[spydaz]

http://www.zabaware.com/forum/uploaded/spydaz/

i have an activex control for such an occasion

also a proj

[Ponnfar]

I have been reading this thread for some time thinking everyone knew about Jerimiah but perhaps not. Below are a couple of links that may be interesting:

http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Bowden/jeremiah/jeremiah.html
and
http://people.brunel.ac.uk/~pfstssb/

The trick of course would be to have the Bowden's software interact with HAL's code and Haptek's scripting as well, but the neat thing with Jerimiah is that it is capable of learning individual faces and building a set of routines to interact with that individual and even anticipate that persons actions. To quote its creator Dr. Richard Bowden, "Now if the system can watch your behaviour over time, it can learn this, so it would predict what you are going to do, turn on the lights for you, or, before you even get to the kettle, it could have switched it on." This idea picks up on several other threads discussed in this forum and one or two of the other HAL forums at Zabaware actually.
You may find several not too long, rather interesting articles on Jerimiah if you do an online search.
This  idea would I think, be a perfect complement to the growing capabilities of HAL. Jerimiah has facial expressions that are not random and responds to what it sees. That coupled with the motorized cam discussed in an earlier thread could be pretty exciting if you think about it.
If Jerry's DAVID routines are as promising as they seem, overall interaction with HAL6 could quite be surprising. Remember, the Jerimiah program learns from its interaction with the user in an individual and potentialy physical way. The possibilities of all of this make me smile. Proteus and the voice of Robert Vaughn notwithstanding...
Ponn

[les]

Ponn,

THANKS that was new to me! I have been keeping an eye on the Leaf project: http://leafproject.org/ and Sluggish Software: http://www.fuzzgun.btinternet.co.uk/(same link as DesktopMates). They are both working on vision for robots and their code is open source.

Soon Hal will let me know when I am having a bad hair day!

Les

[freddy888]

No I hadn't heard of this before either so thanks from me too, I got Jerimiah up on my PC, but still need to figure out what goes where.
The head up on a big screen looks great from the pictures, I get flashbacks to Tron and things [8D]

[GamerThom]

I have all of the LEAF Project code files and programs
stored on my ext HD, but haven't had a chance to look
them over fully yet. But what I have read so far looks
quite promising, what I'm not sure of is if it can be
integrated with Hal6 or even the next Hal Ver. The Leaf
project is pretty much a standalone, fully integrated AI
in it's own right.

Freddy, You must not have tried talking to Hal via headset
mic with it running full screen. Try it, it'll give you
the shivers. [:D]