Let’s get Biometrical

Everyone likes “disruption“, even though you don’t get to see it very often. That’s why we crave it so much. But there are many resources out there that could provide an escape for online routines and take on the Web as a major hype. Like Biometrics.

Some examples of Biometrics are Iris, Voice and Ear Recognition, Hand Geometry and, obviously, Fingerprints. These can be explored as passwords for logging into online services like Email, Homebanking or other websites with strict access rules. Some require a small interface investment but for some your regular webcam would do just fine.

Face Recognition is another form of Biometrics, but it’s the one that can have a wider variety of uses. It suits perfectly into Social Networks and sites for match-making as well. Just imagine you are looking for someone like Monica Bellucci. All you had to do would be to upload a pic of her to retrieve a pannel of thumbnails of members connected to that network in real-time who actually look like her, living in your city! Again, your domestic webcam would do the trick. The basis of these innovations have already been launched in websites like “MyHeritage“, where users can play for free with real viral applications like “Celebrity Collage”, “Celebrity Morph” and the “Look-alike Meter”.

Sure privacy issues can come to mind, but remember, people are doing it all the time on the Internet, on every single community out there! Even if only 20% of users upload images of they faces, it represents a huge market waiting for this kind of innovation to happen. Riya (formerly Ojos) is aware of this and of the value of the millions of untagged, untitled pictures on the web and in your hard drive. They’re about to come out of beta with their revolutionary new product: a face recognition application that can be taught by its community to recognize faces in whatever pictures they’re featured. Now this is gonna be really fun!!!

Face recognition could also come in handy for the cosmetics industry, which for example could instantly give online advice on their products based for different face types, or create instant simulations of make-up sessions. People could print the final result and show it off to friends, or forward it to any contact they choose! Sweeet!

Eyewear would work fine too, under the same principle.

You can also have a lot of fun with voice stress analysis, like this Ice Cream machine that can tell if you are sad and keeps on giving you Ice Cream till your mood gets better!

This could be a great opportunity for services such as Like.com, who already have the basics of this running and could benefit a lot by pointing their camera towards people and not only products.
So don’t you think it’s time we get biometrical?

image by: hagarinka / Hagar Shimshon