NEW YORK—Beverage giant Coca Cola has introduced a new application for the social networking website Facebook that uses computerized facial profiling to identify members who have similar faces.
In an effort to promote Coke Zero, a low calorie version of Coca Cola, the drink makers have broadened their horizons and stepped into the world of computer programming and biometrics. Coca Cola is hoping to use this application to entertain potential customers with their Facebook application that searches the millions of members of the site’s photos and matches them with images of friends who have similar facial features.
The facial profiler is being used as a marketing gimmick to mirror the similarity between low calorie Coke and regular Coke as being so close in flavor that they can’t be told apart, much like the face match found from Facebook application that appears identical to the user.
Some members of Facebook have made complaints stating that this is a gross misappropriation of the site and a violation of privacy. Other users discussed where else this technology could be used without consent and why Coca Cola is using it.
Facial profiling is a biometric technology that is similar to finger printing; it matches images from a usually large database with great accuracy based on computer images that are aligned by appearance. People’s facial features are analyzed digitally and matched based on recorded layouts similar to the topography layout of a map. The graphed facial features are aligned by algorithms that use landmarks from the mapped out faces and are very accurate.
Coke Zero has been marketed as a masculine sugar free soda that is different from regular diet drinks that are traditionally advertised for women. To make the drink more appropriate for men, Coke Zero is described as low calorie instead of as a diet, because the word “diet” carries a feminine connotation in the U.S.
In an effort to promote Coke Zero, a low calorie version of Coca Cola, the drink makers have broadened their horizons and stepped into the world of computer programming and biometrics. Coca Cola is hoping to use this application to entertain potential customers with their Facebook application that searches the millions of members of the site’s photos and matches them with images of friends who have similar facial features.
The facial profiler is being used as a marketing gimmick to mirror the similarity between low calorie Coke and regular Coke as being so close in flavor that they can’t be told apart, much like the face match found from Facebook application that appears identical to the user.
Some members of Facebook have made complaints stating that this is a gross misappropriation of the site and a violation of privacy. Other users discussed where else this technology could be used without consent and why Coca Cola is using it.
Facial profiling is a biometric technology that is similar to finger printing; it matches images from a usually large database with great accuracy based on computer images that are aligned by appearance. People’s facial features are analyzed digitally and matched based on recorded layouts similar to the topography layout of a map. The graphed facial features are aligned by algorithms that use landmarks from the mapped out faces and are very accurate.
Coke Zero has been marketed as a masculine sugar free soda that is different from regular diet drinks that are traditionally advertised for women. To make the drink more appropriate for men, Coke Zero is described as low calorie instead of as a diet, because the word “diet” carries a feminine connotation in the U.S.
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