Hewlett-Packard Co is looking into the facial-tracking software used in its personal computers, after a customer calling himself “Black Desi” said the programme was racist because it was unable to follow his movements.
“I think my blackness is interfering with the computer’s ability to follow me,” Desi said in a You Tube video. In the clip, the software fails to follow the movement of his face -- something it’s designed to do -- while easily tracking the face of his co-worker, referred to as “White Wanda.”
Hewlett-Packard, the largest maker of PCs, said in a blog posting that it was examining the program, which is used for video chats. The software was designed to find faces by measuring the contrast between the eyes and upper cheek and nose, Hewlett-Packard said. The camera may have difficulty seeing the contrast in low-light conditions, according to the company.
"HP has been informed of a potential issue with the facial-tracking software included on some of its systems, which appears to occur when insufficient foreground lighting is available," Mark Budgell, a spokesman for Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard, said in an e-mail. "We take this seriously and are looking into it with our partners."
The video, posted on December 10 under the title "HP Computers Are Racist," has been viewed more than 86,000 times, according to You Tube. An e-mail to the You Tube channel used to post the clip wasn’t immediately returned.
"Hewlett-Packard computers are racist. I said it,” Desi says, laughing with Wanda in the video, which is about 2 minutes long. “And the worst part is, I bought one for Christmas."
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12/24/2009
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