Facial recognitionFace-mapping app for smartphone searching

Published 17 August 2011

A new app, when combined with a centralized server, combs people’s cell phones looking to find photos that have a face in them that match what someone is looking for; the app could be used to look for an abducted child, or a criminal hiding in crowds

Researchers at Rice University have developed a clever smartphone app that may never actually be used by anyone anyway. The app, when combined with a centralized server, combs people’s cell phones looking to find photos that have a face in them that match what someone is looking for. The team describes how their application would work in a paper they’ve uploaded to the preprint server arXiv.

IProgrammer reports that the app, named Theia, once installed on a user’s phone allows for searching for images transmitted by a centralized server. If a match is thought to be made, the photo is sent back to the server for additional processing.

The app responds to a need: there are times when most people wish for someone to be matched to a photo that might have been taken unintentionally. An image of a missing child’s face, for example, might be included in a photo another family has taken at a playground, or perhaps someone wanted for a crime is on the loose and takes in a ball game and manages to wind up on a fan’s smartphone as part of a bigger picture.

The problem is that many smartphone users would not agree to install an app on their phone that lets other people scan for what are normally considered to be private photos.

Even if some might agree to loading the app so that their phones could be searched in certain scenarios, such as right after a child abduction or when a manhunt is underway, it is unlikely that they will allow the app to keep running so that anyone that signs up for the service can search for someone they are looking for.

The app may, for example, be used by an abusive husband looking for his wife, or a murderer looking for a witness to silence.

— Read more in Ardalan Amiri Sani wt al., “Opportunistic Content Search of Smartphone Photos,” arXiv:1106.5568v1 (28 Jun 2011)