Technology

Google Working on Face Recognition

Take someone's picture, access profile.

Is this Google's plan to get the jump on Facebook? The technology giant is working on a smartphone app that would allow users to call up people's personal information by taking a picture of their face. The app will make use of existing Google projects, like its image search engine, Google Goggles, and the face-recognition service in its photo program, Picasa. Despite the fact that much of the technology already exists, the company is taking its time developing and testing it, treading carefully around the privacy concerns a facial-recognition phone app raises. People "are rightfully scared of it," says Hartmut Neven, Google's engineering director for image-recognition development, saying users will have to opt in if they want to use it.