Let Your Phone Do the Schmoozing for You

Perhaps smart phones are getting a little too smart. The latest truly remarkable technology to bring the ubiquitous handheld computer one step closer to Skynet is a new facial-recognition application from Swedish development team The Astonishing Tribe (TAT).

Imagine a typical business networking session, men and women with name tags hoping that chance will deal them at least one valuable encounter before the event comes to a close (or before you drink too much wine). It's all a game of chance, really, unless there were some way to scan the herd and eliminate those who — let's be honest — are just a waste of your time. That's what TAT's Augmented ID software attempts to do.

The application, still just a concept with no firm release date, is designed to run on smart phones and uses facial recognition software. It identifies people in the crosshairs of your phone's camera and shows a composite profile of information that they have made public. Pretty cool, unless you're the one being profiled and and really don't want everyone to know about your obsession with antique toilet plungers.

Here's a demonstration the company posted on YouTube:

The catch, which should minimize some embarrassing moments, is that only others who have created a profile themselves using the application can be identified by others. So it would need to somehow gain a sizable market penetration before becoming useful enough to drive adoption — kind of a chicken-or-egg conundrum. But if it ever becomes as popular as Facebook, it just might work.

Imagine a room full of business networkers walking around with their phones in the air, not as much actual interaction, and plenty of folks being snubbed at the advice of their gadgets. As with any new technology, particularly one intended to augment social interaction, there are limits.

Photo courtesy of Ricmoo at Wikimedia Commons.