HP Probes 'Racist' Webcam Claim

Information Week ^ | Dec 22, 2009 | Paul McDougal

[Xenalyte]

>>But when Desi’s white co-worker, Wanda, enters the scene the camera follows her. “As soon as my blackness enters the frame, it stopped,” says Desi. “Black Desi gets in there, no face recognition anymore buddy,” says Desi.<<

I’m calling shenanigans on the basis that there’s no such thing as a white chick named Wanda.

[Political Junkie Too]

Hey, if those same camera elements are used in urban security cams, then what's the problem?

-PJ

[rmlew]

This reminds me of the plot for an episode of "Better off Ted", Racial Sensitivity The series’ corporation, Veridian Dynamics, installed a series of money-saving motion sensors linked to every door, light switch, water fountain and elevator in the building, but with one flaw: the sensors could not recognize African Americans. Instead of immediately fixing it, they hired uneducated whites to follow the black employees. It was brilliant.

BTW, ABC's "Better off Ted" is one of the best shows on TV.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

ROTFLMAO!!

Who says cammie don’t work?

[MaryFromMichigan]

Funny video! Certainly has a different spin that the written article.

I thought the guy had a great sense of humor about the whole thing!

[a fool in paradise]

Hewlett-Packard is investigating a claim that Webcams built into its PCs are incapable of tracking the facial movements of black individuals and only function properly when Caucasians or people of other lighter-skinned races are in the frame.

It's only racist black people who still use terms like "high yellow" to describe black people of a lighter shade. And yes they used this to describe Barack last year (and I seem to recall the subject coming up in Spike Lee's films).

[a fool in paradise]

Caucasians -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race

The concept of a Caucasian race is highly controversial today. It is rejected by many academics and political activists who view any system of categorizing humanity based on physical type as an obsolete 19th century racism,[5] and human genome studies have shown that there is no single and simple genetic definition equivalent to “Caucasian”.

The concept of a Caucasian race or Varietas Caucasia was developed around 1800 by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, a German scientist and classical anthropologist.[7][7] Blumenbach named it after the peoples of the Caucasus (from the Caucasus region), whom he considered to be the archetype for the grouping.[8] He based his classification of the Caucasian race primarily on craniology...

The Supreme Court in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923) decided that Asian Indians – unlike Europeans and Middle Easterners – were Caucasian, but were not white...

---

End racism now and abandon this quack-scientific term for white people.

[a fool in paradise]

"I'm going on the record and I'm saying it, Hewlett-Packard computers are racist," adds Desi, who says he's using an HP Media Smart PC.

Sue him for slander.

Put him up against a battery test of 8 different webcam manufacturers to prove that only HP's cameras are singling him out.

Also walk some other black men through the studio (with identical lighting to what he has at home) and see if they are likewise rejected.

[a fool in paradise]

Before they go any further, HP should first verify that Desi is not a vampire.

The thought did cross my mind.

[a fool in paradise]

All the black guy would have to is dust his face with talc...

Or turn on a desklamp at his computer to make sure that he is properly lit.

Low light results in grain and poor picture quality regardless of skin tone.

[a fool in paradise]

Where would you find one like that? At a convenience store?

[a fool in paradise]

insisting that an inanimate object is racist

It isn't inanimate. It automatically moves/focuses in response to human movement (except reportedly "his" movements).

[a fool in paradise]

It works for both ends of the spectrum. TV studios don’t want people wearing solid white either.

[a fool in paradise]

I’m calling shenanigans on the basis that there’s no such thing as a white chick named Wanda.

How's about a fish...

[Redcloak]

Exactly. The eye may be able to see white on white, but a camera cannot. If a very pale person were to sit in front of this HP computer with a very bright light shining on them from behind the camera, the software probably wouldn’t work for them either.

[mreerm]

i stand corrected.

is anything that moves in response to something else an “animate object”?

if so, then is there such a thing as an inanimate object?

[a fool in paradise]

A rock is an inanimate object (unless maybe you throw it).

A windup monkey playing cymbals is animated when it has been wound up.

[cyborg]

I saw the video and thought he was joking.

[cynwoody]

Just make it an infra-red camera. Problem solved.

Discovered ages ago by evolution. Works in the dark, too, leading to the demise of many a rodent.

[cynwoody]

Am I hearing that photons discriminate?

It has long been known to science that photons discriminate against whites. That's why more of them come back when you shine a light on a white person.