HP computers are racist

By Fred Derf
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Webcam can't recognize black face

Published On Wed Dec 23 2009

The discovery by a couple of Texas computer sales clerks that a Hewlett Packard webcam can't recognize black faces has turned into a viral video and corporate humiliation.

Wanda Zamen and Desi Cryer made the video and posted it Dec. 10 on YouTube after realizing the HP Mediasmart webcam went on the fritz when Cryer, who is black, was in front of it.

The facial recognition software appeared to have no trouble tracking Zamen, who is white.

"I think my blackness is interfering with the computer's ability to follow me," a smiling Cryer says on the video as Zamen laughs in the background. "As soon as white Wanda appears" it works, he says. "Black Desi gets in there and there is no facial recognition anymore, buddy. Hewlett Packard computers are racist. The worst part is, I bought one for Christmas."

The two tested the camera for 30 minutes at the Toppers Camping Center in Waller, Texas. As of Wednesday, the video had been viewed more than 750,000 times, with its popularity highest in Canada, Australia and the United States. It had also been dubbed into several languages.

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In a video on the Consumer Reports website, engineer Dean Gallea performed his own test and found "it's not a built-in discrimination" but lighting conditions that were critical in having the software pick up darker-skinned faces.

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http://www.thestar.com/news/article/742341...nize-black-face

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4DT3tQqgRM.swf

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