Neven Vision has been absorbed into the secretive bowels of the Googleplex, and Neven’s background in biometrics used by the government and law enforcement has prompted whispers of possible implications of the acquisition.
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
— Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth”
Stop, children, what’s that sound? It’s the muted clacking of keyboards across the blogosphere, as some seek a Deeper Meaning behind Google’s purchase of Neven Vision beyond the search advertising company’s desire to organize all the world’s information.
Neven Vision’s technology centers on object and facial recognition. Google’s stated plans for the software will have it integrated with the Picasa photo management product, to provide for better search functionality that will make it easier for people to find a given image out of a large number of images.
Oh really?
The day before the news of the Neven deal hit the Official Google Blog, the Google Operating System blog speculated on Gmail avatar images being used for facial recognition:
If you upload a picture, Gmail will ask you to crop the picture, to separate the face of the person. So Gmail has a database of multiple images for a lot of persons.
This seems like a nice feature, but I think it’s more than that. It’s a very easy way to obtain a database of faces useful for face recognition. Algorithms for detecting and recognizing faces are good, but not good enough, and this is a great way for Google to improve their AI algorithms using the data obtained from its users.
Then the Neven news became public. Google Operating System followed up by noting how Neven Vision has a client for mobile phones that can search out relevant content based on an image.
So on one hand, we have Google actively asking for identification of facial photos used in Gmail. On the other, there is the Neven purchase, involving object and facial recognition technology that even the Feds like.
What could it all mean? Is this just a lead-in to the day when Google reveals itself as a front company for the CIA? So long and thanks for all the information, a federal agent will be stopping by to see you shortly?
Richard Korman at Silicon Valley Watcher website summarized one possible scenario envisioned by the paranoid among the bloggers:
The blogosphere seems ready to assume that Neven can check a photo of any person against the database of all human users and figure out who they are. From there, it’s a quick tour through users’ search history and email, MySpace friends lists, and real-world locations.
Society would have to have a lot more cameras installed before the scenario could become reality. But if there are aspirations for Google’s use of Neven beyond Picasa, they likely have dollar signs associated with them.
Considering Neven’s mobile expertise, it isn’t difficult to imagine how Google can tie this in to advertising. A camera phone user who take a photo of a person or place may see ads delivered to their mobile browser’s search results based on the image.
Or maybe this is just disinformation, and we are just trying to distract you from Google’s intentions at the behest of our masters in the Illuminati. Bwah ahahaha. (Just kidding. Fnord.)
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
