True confession from the Cyber-Yenta: I have a lot of trouble remembering faces.
If we've met at least once before, I probably remember your name, organizational affiliations, current projects, most marketable skills, and favorite topics of conversation. But unless you're wearing a name badge (and especially if you recently changed your hairstyle), you'll probably have to tell me who you are. Once you've done that, I'll have no trouble recalling everything I know about you, and suggesting who in the room you should meet and what you have in common.
I don't know whether I'm one of the estimated 2% of the general population afflicted with face blindness, or simply possessed of a capacity for yenta-related data that far outstrips my visual memory.
At any rate, I'm fascinated by face recognition software. I've been playing with MyHeritage, which offers a free web-based tool for sorting digital images for personal and genealogical use.
What I'd like to propose is a mobile version, preferably one with access to the Google Image archive. I need something like modified night-vision goggles with a wireless interface that I can wear whenever I leave home, because it's unreasonable to ask everyone else on the planet to wear a name badge.
Of course, if other people who share my difficulties start wearing face-recognition goggles, I won't be able to get a clear scan of their features in order to make optimum use of this snazzy tool.
This is beginning to seem like an object lesson in why we shouldn't embrace every conceivable technology innovation.
Never mind!
