Face.com is here to help you code using our API. Just let us know you’re hacking for TC and we’ll provide you with unlimited calls. Check out our developer page to find out more info on using the Face.com API, and contact us with the email you used to sign up if you need to unlimit your account.
TechCrunch had this to say about this weekend’s Hackathon:
“Fueled by pizza, beer and RedBull, the hackathon event will begin Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning, May 21st – 22nd. Then after a lightning round of demos and judging Sunday afternoon, the winning team will present onstage at Disrupt on Wednesday, May 25th. This is a great opportunity for superstar hackers to share the spotlight alongside the top startups chosen from Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield.”
Android developers get your developing caps on! The challenge: Come up with a radical, mobile way to use Face.com’s face recognition API and developer tools in your next big app. Your idea could be worth $5,000 dollars in cold hard cash, a new phone and a new tablet.
Face.com and The Droid Guy are teaming up to bring you the Android Homecoming $5,000 Developer Challenge. Yes, that’s a 1/2 stack of high society. Think of all the ways you can blow 5 Grand! That’s like 100,000 bazooka joes or 1/40th of a ticket on Virgin Galactic. Either way, you’re set. But seriously, we hope you’ll use the winnings to expand upon your idea and bring it to market.
Check out entry details here. Each developer should submit a 250 word summary of their plan to incorporate the face.com face recognition API’s into their app. Please submit entries (and questions to) challenge@androidhomecoming.com no later than May 15th, 2011.
Looking forward to seeing what amazing, cool and innovative ways you leverage our API!
Good Morning America had a lot of fun seeing which famous couples look alike using Face.com’s facial recognition software. The story focuses on FindYourFaceMate.com and the theory that individuals look for mates that closely resemble themselves. Although, no one can figure out why pets often resemble their owners.
Using the Face.com API, FindYourFaceMate.com helps you find your “face mate” by matching similar features. GMA host George Stephanopoulos learned that he very closes resembles Jackie O while Cynthia McFadden was hardly upset to learn her match came up as George Clooney. Good luck Cynthia. “So you’re saying there’s a chance?”
Many thanks to GMA for featuring Face.com. Check out the whole interview here:
We love our new bigger and badder API, and we are stoked about all the ways it’s being used – from Automatic DJ’s to killer photo mashuptools. That’s why we were really excited to see two really cool and useful Face.com API applications get some attention in the past few weeks.
Shop with Your Face (literally)
First, EyeBuyDirect.com’s CEO Roy Hessel spent some time talking with the eTail blog to show off how they are using our API to personalize his customer base overnight. By connecting his database of scanned customer images with the Face.com API, he was able to identify what his customers would want to buy based on features of the image like skin tone and shape of the face – even the gender of the customer was identified with close to 95% accuracy. Read the full interview with Roy here and be sure to check out his site for awesome eyewear.
Date Your Face
Apparently, it’s a scientifically proven fact (or a really fun rumor, we’re not sure) that people are most attracted to people who resemble themselves. Armed with this organic algorithm, findyourfacemate.com harnessed our API to power their mate matching service, which is set to launch next month. Using the service, visitors will be able to upload a picture of themselves and match attributes of their photo (eyes, ears, nose, chin, etc) with a database of potential soul mates. New York Magazine went in-depth with the creator, Christina Bloom to find out how they’re using Face.com’s API and why, exactly, people would ever want to kiss someone that has their same lips. It’s a fun read about some really cool tech – check it out.
Many thanks to our die hard developer friends for coming and hanging out with Face.com on Tuesday night at Summit/IO. Face.com was thrilled to work with Summit which is an amazing incubator space for hackers, coders, developers and other techie types. We loved being a part of the scene (even for just one night) and salute you on creating an amazing, comfortable and well thought out work space.
At our shindig, new and innovative ways of using face detection were batted around, debated and explored all evening long. The hard core participants even made it out for some crazy fancy grub at Maverick in the Mission. I can still taste that sweet, sweet duck. Thanks to Summit/IO for hosting. We hope to be back again soon! Check out some more event pics below.
Follow us on Twitter to see when our next event will be and check out our new and improved Beta API. It’s quite pungent.
Last weekend New York held it’s first Music Hack Day, and oh it was awesome.
Among others, hacker Benjamine Gleitzman mashed up the Hunch API with our Face Recognition API to automatically pick a tune based on your face. He calls it AutomaticDJ:
Calling all developers/hackers/coders/nothing better to do-ers:
Face.com CEO Gil Hirsch will be celebrating our new beta API with the folks at Summit/IO tomorrow at 7:30pm. Come for the demo and stimulating conversations, but stay for the beer.
We’ve upgraded our free, awesome, award winning REST API to super-sweet Beta status. (No, we didn’t really win any awards for our API, but clearly we should.)
The new version has a bunch of improvements including higher call limits for developers, more faces to scan for free, and the latest and greatest face recognition that we’ve yet developed. We think it’s pretty awesome, and that you’ll be able to develop some killer apps with this.
Some of the key features you’ll be able to play with include:
In Beta, developers can now scan up to *5,000* photos per hour (used to be 200)
Improved technology with new features capable of picking up more faces per photo
New ability to group similar faces together, great for supporting bulk-tagging
Easy integration with Facebook – recognize Facebook friends in photos on Facebook-connected apps
Our goal is to make the absolute best face recognition software in the consumer world, and to optimize it for use on the Web. That means it has to work efficiently and accurately, able to process hundreds of thousands of photos in a day across dozens or hundreds of different apps. Test us out. Please show how well the tech works by making the coolest app of all time. And if you have comments, thoughts, perspicacious insights or simply want to share your “feelings,” you’re invited to do so in the comments section.
Thanks!
The Face.com Team
PS
Some folks in the tech media have picked up the story. We’ll update with links as we see coverage.
Facebook Beefs Up its Security by Incorporating Face Recognition aka “Social Captcha”
According to a TechCrunch article published yesterday, Facebook is beefing up its security infrastructure. Among the many new features, they are incorporating a concept known as “Social Captcha.” Social Captcha replaces regular, boring old captcha with a picture of one of your friends. Now when you need to do a password reset, you will be required to identify the person in a photo to authenticate yourself. Basically, Facebook will ask, “Who is this? If you are actually who you say you are, then you should know.”
instant verification at the Random Bit Generator
Innovation in must-be-human verification methods is not new. Re-Captcha (now google) introduced a brilliant way to crowdsource OCR. A hackers approach can be found at the Random bit generator which asks you to answer ludicrously hard questions. And let’s not forget Microsoft’s dodgy patent for ad-based Captchas, pffft…
We at Face.com loved Facebook’s use of faces – it’s fun, easy, and effective. Face Detection technology also seems to be in play to make sure you actually see the faces. But to us this is yet another reminder at how Face Recognition comes easy for us humans. Let’s just hope the selection of friends will continue to be easy to recall for those users with 5,000 friends
If you have the inclination to build out your own Facial Captcha, check out our developers API!
Who is leveraging face recognition technology to make the world a better, safer place? The DMV of course.
A Las Vegas man employed by McCarran Int’l Airport was arrested after the DMV’s facial recognition system confirmed he was using a false identity. Local northern Nevada news reported that the individual came to the U.S. on a tourist visa in 1986 and after failing to qualify for permanent status, he obtained a false birth certificate and employment letter in California to obtain legal status under an assumed name in 1990. Upon matching in the DMV system, TSA authorities terminated his employment and Customs officials revoked his permanent resident cards. DMV Director Edgar Roberts is quoted as saying, “DMV facial recognition is proving to be an invaluable tool for law enforcement agencies across the board.”
Face Recognition technology opportunities are limitless. Check out our developer site at http://developers.face.com/ and see how you can change the world. Maybe you’ll end up in the news too. If you think your potential application of our software is cool enough, email us for special access and higher call limits.
