By Jennifer Granic
In the 1997 flick Face/Off, John Travolta wears Nicolas Cage's face in order to infiltrate Cage's criminal gang. Last week, movie fantasy became medical reality when a team of French doctors successfully performed the first partial face transplant on a woman who had been mauled by a dog.
It's a timely development, because new facial-recognition technology is moving us toward surveillance that is unnoticeable, distributed, persistent, searchable and cheap. And as the technology's effectiveness improves, a new face may be the only way to preserve some semblance of privacy.
A great example of the state of the art comes from a new company called Riya, which recently launched a beta facial-recognition service for the masses.
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Thursday 22 December 2005
: Photo: Henning Boc...[more]
