TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

Ask HN: Why is facial recognition failing at recognizing persons of color?

1 pointsby throwawayadvsecalmost 2 years ago
Is it just a question of training data parity?<p>Or are the current algorithms just failing on darker faces because of some inherent issue? shadows&#x2F;lighting?edge detection?<p>It doesn&#x27;t seem that hard to make a diverse dataset, so why are most of the models on the market awful at it?

2 comments

raxxorraxoralmost 2 years ago
I think lighting is the most important factor here.<p>It certainly can be an issue with training data or a matter of feature selection. On the other hand detecting features on dark skin is simply a lot harder in most cases. I did skin analysis for diagnostic support for dermatologists and feature extraction is simply more difficult. You often need much tighter limits to separate areas.<p>This was with good cameras in an environment with stable lighting conditions. Cameras for surveillance plainly lack the dynamic range of different light levels to provide enough contrast for analysis and depending on the algorithm precision is very important.
jacknobodyalmost 2 years ago
Many dark-skinned people believe that technology is in the control of white, racist actors.<p>Who can prove otherwise?