Facial recognition officially out of control.

[Worldtraveller]

Stop the planet, I want to fucking get off this ride.

“Why do the stupid M&M machines have facial recognition?”

[Image: Oops, you weren’t supposed to see this. https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25302466/Screenshot_2024_02_24_at_9.16.10_AM.png?quality=90&strip=all] A student at the University of Waterloo in Canada asked that in a post showing a...

www.theverge.com

“Why do the stupid M&M machines have facial recognition?”
A student at the University of Waterloo in Canada asked that in a post showing a vending machine error message that revealed a facial recognition app had failed.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

What's out of control here?

Given what I've read about this case the machine is simply going an age/gender guess of the person buying the item. Their identity is never recorded. I see it rather like the facial recognition in my phone--finds and highlights faces for focus purposes. It doesn't attempt to identify who it is looking at and keeps no record unless I push the button.

 

[Tigers!]

Stop the planet, I want to fucking get off this ride.

“Why do the stupid M&M machines have facial recognition?”

[Image: Oops, you weren’t supposed to see this. https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25302466/Screenshot_2024_02_24_at_9.16.10_AM.png?quality=90&strip=all] A student at the University of Waterloo in Canada asked that in a post showing a...

www.theverge.com

“Why do the stupid M&M machines have facial recognition?”
A student at the University of Waterloo in Canada asked that in a post showing a vending machine error message that revealed a facial recognition app had failed.

It does make you wonder how the coin operated machines of 40-50 years ago ever worked.

 

[bilby]

Stop the planet, I want to fucking get off this ride.

“Why do the stupid M&M machines have facial recognition?”

[Image: Oops, you weren’t supposed to see this. https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25302466/Screenshot_2024_02_24_at_9.16.10_AM.png?quality=90&strip=all] A student at the University of Waterloo in Canada asked that in a post showing a...

www.theverge.com

“Why do the stupid M&M machines have facial recognition?”
A student at the University of Waterloo in Canada asked that in a post showing a vending machine error message that revealed a facial recognition app had failed.

It does make you wonder how the coin operated machines of 40-50 years ago ever worked.

It makes me wonder why they replaced systems that obviously did work, with Microsoft Windows based systems, that very obviously do not.

Everywhere you look today, you will find systems that should be incredibly robust and difficult to break, that instead of working are busy displaying Windows error dialog boxes - often to no valuable purpose whatsoever.

For the last fortnight, the display screen in the canteen at work has been defaced by a dialog saying that a windows component had some issue, and may or may not have recovered. Underneath the box, you can see that the data being displayed is correct, and if the box wasn't obscuring it, it could serve its intended purpose. But the box demands that someone hit the "OK" button to dismiss it - and there is no input device attached, because the screen is purely intended as a read-only display; It's a very large and expensive monitor, with a cheap thin-client box hidden behind it, to which no keyboard or mouse is connected.

It is supposed to just work. And it should. But it's MS, so it doesn't.

 

[Tigers!]

Stop the planet, I want to fucking get off this ride.

“Why do the stupid M&M machines have facial recognition?”

[Image: Oops, you weren’t supposed to see this. https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25302466/Screenshot_2024_02_24_at_9.16.10_AM.png?quality=90&strip=all] A student at the University of Waterloo in Canada asked that in a post showing a...

www.theverge.com

“Why do the stupid M&M machines have facial recognition?”
A student at the University of Waterloo in Canada asked that in a post showing a vending machine error message that revealed a facial recognition app had failed.

It does make you wonder how the coin operated machines of 40-50 years ago ever worked.

It makes me wonder why they replaced systems that obviously did work, with Microsoft Windows based systems, that very obviously do not.

Everywhere you look today, you will find systems that should be incredibly robust and difficult to break, that instead of working are busy displaying Windows error dialog boxes - often to no valuable purpose whatsoever.

For the last fortnight, the display screen in the canteen at work has been defaced by a dialog saying that a windows component had some issue, and may or may not have recovered. Underneath the box, you can see that the data being displayed is correct, and if the box wasn't obscuring it, it could serve its intended purpose. But the box demands that someone hit the "OK" button to dismiss it - and there is no input device attached, because the screen is purely intended as a read-only display; It's a very large and expensive monitor, with a cheap thin-client box hidden behind it, to which no keyboard or mouse is connected.

It is supposed to just work. And it should. But it's MS, so it doesn't.

Yes. MS and Intelligent design should be most carefully and rarely, used in the same sentence.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

What's out of control here?

Given what I've read about this case the machine is simply going an age/gender guess of the person buying the item. Their identity is never recorded. I see it rather like the facial recognition in my phone--finds and highlights faces for focus purposes. It doesn't attempt to identify who it is looking at and keeps no record unless I push the button.

There is a "yet" in there somewhere.

Obviously, with machines like this, traffic and consumer trends are important. They want a machine that sells to people without anyone else around to be in locations that maximize purchasing. But it still feels a bit creepy.

 

[Politesse]

The Chinese give it up for state security. The Iranians give it up for their god. The Americans give it up for the corporations. The Japanese give it up for phone sex. But everyone gives up eventually.

Singularity awaits.

 

[rousseau]

I've heard that there's actually been some serious pushback from within major tech companies on this, although I don't know the details. In China it's likely unavoidable.

 

[thebeave]

Sounds to me like the usual hand wringing that takes place as new technologies come to fruition. I suspect in just a few years we will look back on this and yawn.

 

[Politesse]

Sounds to me like the usual hand wringing that takes place as new technologies come to fruition. I suspect in just a few years we will look back on this and yawn.

And your toaster will carefully log that interaction.

 

[thebeave]

Sounds to me like the usual hand wringing that takes place as new technologies come to fruition. I suspect in just a few years we will look back on this and yawn.

And your toaster will carefully log that interaction.

I, for one, look forward to our new toaster overlords.

 

[bilby]

Sounds to me like the usual hand wringing that takes place as new technologies come to fruition. I suspect in just a few years we will look back on this and yawn.

And your toaster will carefully log that interaction.

View attachment IMG_1282.webp

 

[Swammerdami]

Did somebody bump this thread?

Stop the planet, I want to fucking get off this ride.

It is supposed to just work. And it should. But it's MS, so it doesn't.

Yes. MS and Intelligent design should be most carefully and rarely, used in the same sentence.

 Hear, hear

 

[unapologetic]

I did a search for 'Privacy' and 10 pages of "Leagal defination of women" came up.
This doesn't fit there.
-----
Reaction to vending machine privacy ruling

 

[bilby]

Should have searched for 'Vending machine'.

Facial recognition officially out of control

 

[ZiprHead]

Duplicate threads merged.

 

[Swammerdami]

Do any people go into computer stores and ask for a machine with the OLDEST version of MS Windows that is still available? My personal user satisfaction continually declines with each new version!

Stop the planet, I want to fucking get off this ride.

It makes me wonder why they replaced systems that obviously did work, with Microsoft Windows based systems, that very obviously do not.

Everywhere you look today, you will find systems that should be incredibly robust and difficult to break, that instead of working are busy displaying Windows error dialog boxes - often to no valuable purpose whatsoever.
. . .
It is supposed to just work. And it should. But it's MS, so it doesn't.

Yesterday in another thread I mentioned that pilots of the F-35 occasionally need to press Ctrl-Alt-Del to get their radar functioning again.

But you ask Why?, Why has the world become dependent on software with painful flaws?

It may seem irrelevant to your question, but I think the following really does hint at the answer.
Microsoft's stock market "capitalization" is now 3.88 Trillion dollars. Yes, that's Trillion with a "T."
Market cap, or Money more generally, is the be-all and end-all in our post-rational capitalist society.
(A good team of programmers could implement a complete 1990-vintage Unix system for less than a Millionth of that amount of money.)

Meta (Facebook), by contrast is worth only a paltry 1.93 Trillion. Does that mean it's only half as wonderful as Microsoft?

 

[unapologetic]

Do any people go into computer stores and ask for a machine with the OLDEST version of MS Windows that is still available?

I did when buying my latest machine in 2020.

 

[Jarhyn]

What's out of control here?

Given what I've read about this case the machine is simply going an age/gender guess of the person buying the item. Their identity is never recorded. I see it rather like the facial recognition in my phone--finds and highlights faces for focus purposes. It doesn't attempt to identify who it is looking at and keeps no record unless I push the button.

I don't want to be forced to ever need to or want to use a machine for a simple transaction that is even *capable* of performing facial recognition short of simple recording when detecting machine tampering.

 

[unapologetic]

There is a soda machine in our building that has two wi-fi attenas on top. I don't see a camera, but I worry.