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by NaturalPhallacy 1692 days ago
It doesn't show that. It's literally numerical in that dark skin reflects less light than light skin , so the sensors report lower values for the entire face, reducing contrast for the entire face, which is what the recognition systems count on.

Brown eyebrows on brown skin = low contrast.

Brown eyebrows on pale skin = high contrast.

If our races were dark purple hair on bright green skin and bright green hair on dark purple skin, facial recognition systems would have no trouble with either. But that's not how humans render, so our contrast based systems struggle with low contrast.

It's like you're confusing a software/data problem with a photon/physics problem because you're thinking in your box.
2 comments
JCharante 1692 days ago
It's a design problem. If they tested it with POC they would have noted down "well, our primative algorithm works well for light skinned individuals but not others"

And hopefully someone wouldn't have said "hmm good enough for me, let's ship it!"

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NaturalPhallacy 1692 days ago
>algorithm

This just proves that you're assuming it's a software problem when it isn't.

This is basic GIGO. The light sensors feed poor quality data in for people with low contrast faces, so there's nothing the software can do about it.

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jahewson 1692 days ago
Here’s a link to an article from the time with an expert on the subject explaining that it’s not a contrast problem:

https://www.baltimoresun.com/bs-mtblog-2009-12-hp_racist_web...

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Thorrez 1692 days ago
Couldn't it brighten the image in some way?

My webcam has an advanced option panel that lets me edit both the brightness and the exposure time. I can turn it up so bright that you can't even make out any of my facial features, and I'm in a somewhat dark room lit by a single floor lamp.

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yawaramin 1692 days ago
Here is what I said:

> it shows that they didn't test with anyone with a darker skin tone

Are you disagreeing and saying they did test on people with darker skin tone, found the issue, and decided to ship anyway? You realize that either way, it doesn't make them look good?

Anyway, leaving all that aside, the article interviewing an actual face recognition software expert, shows that your guesses here are incorrect.

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NaturalPhallacy 1690 days ago
They aren't guesses. It's physics.
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