Astonishing Tribe's Augmented ID App Recognizes People Around You

BY Cliff KuangFri Jul 10, 2009 at 9:22 AM

A miracle for real-world networking, which uses attaches virtual ID's to people using facial recognition software and the camera on your phone.

Conferences and networking events are baffling affairs: You look around and you wonder, who the hell are all these people? You can never been too sure who to target; What if the guy you've been schmoozing ends up being some fool who there "just for the booze and the single ladies, man"?

The Astonishing Tribe, a Swedish developer team, hopes to solve that problem, with a new app they're developing called Augmented ID. Using facial recognition software and your phone's camera, it overlays the image of whomever you're looking at with profile information that they've made public--from Twitter feeds to Last.fm playlists to a simple business card:

Facial recognition is one of the most obvious augmented reality apps, and it's only a matter of time until some developers nail it--hopefully this one becomes a reality. (TAT already designed the T-Mobile G1 user interface; one of their previous design concepts was this awesome 3-D eye-tracking UI.)

Apple has been keen to the possibilities that facial recognition presents: Information Week just just discovered that Apple has filed for a patent on built-in facial recognition, which could grace computers and iPhones. What's just as interesting was a filing for object-recognition technology. The idea is that by using some combination of the compass, GPS, camera, and even RFID, your phone could automatically provide you with more information about objects around you. Thus its fairly easy to imagine, for example, a shopping app that provides you with all competing products and reviews when you're eyeing a new gadget.

[Engadget via PSFK]