Facial Recognition

[Ratsima]

Until a few years ago my wife had never done anything very physical. Now she's become an accomplished scuba diver and a decent runner.

This last weekend we drove up to Khon Kaen so she could participate in a 10K race/fun run. I'm amazed at the degree of automation that goes in to such events these days. Every running number has a RFID chip glued to the back so that checking in for the race and race timing are instant and automatic. At the end of her race we were able to scan a QR code on her running number and get directed to a web page where race results were posted and updated in real time as runners crossed the finish line. She instantly knew her time and pace and where she stood overall, in her age group and among other women runners.

There were dozens and dozens of photographers all along the race route. Yesterday evening my wife logged in to the photography page of the race where she was asked to upload any photo of herself. She picked a rather bad one with poor lighting in which she was holding our cat. Within ten seconds she was presented with an array of 284 photos in which she appeared. In most you could see her full face, but in others her head was turned one way or other or obscured by another runner. She was also presented with a smaller array of photos in which she might appear.

I'm assuming that overnight the thousands of photos taken were processed by identifying faces and tagging those that contained identifiable humans. I supposed that when she uploaded her photo it took only seconds to select all the photos in which it was known she appeared. I find this to be both fascinating and somewhat shocking.

Of course, digital versions of the photos are available for purchase.

[PeteC]

Yes, it is a bit scary, especially for this land which is usually backwards with things like that to a degree. Having said that, the system you describe has been around for marathons since before Covid as the wife has gone through the steps you describe, and purchased the photos from that source. https://photo.thai.run/ seems to be the current web site. Previously it was thairun.com which doesn't exist any longer.

[buksida]

This tech is pure George Orwell when in the hands of an authoritarian state ... and Thailand is going all out to mimic China's ruling style at the moment.

Keeping the mask and shades on may be preferable after all.

[Ratsima]

When I was running Marathons about the best you could hope for was a lucky shot at the finish.

marathon.jpg (49.13 KiB) Viewed 193 times

Guam Marathon about 1984.

[Note: I am nowhere near that skinny anymore.]

[joelle]

When I was running Marathons about the best you could hope for was a lucky shot at the finish.

marathon.jpg
Guam Marathon about 1984.

[Note: I am nowhere near that skinny anymore.]

Were you the only one running ? Or the last one to finish and all the others were waiting for you whilst enjoying a beer at the pub ?

[Ratsima]

Were you the only one running ? Or the last one to finish and all the others were waiting for you whilst enjoying a beer at the pub ?

As you can see from my leap and demeanor I didn't really try hard enough.

I'm fairly certain that this was 1983 when I came in 4th with a time of 2:45:26. That was probably my best time ever for a full Marathon (44.2K).