Google buys facial-recognition company, Pittpatt

Previously there have been rumors about Google starting a facial recognition service (which were disputed by Google) but now, it looks like those rumors are about to come true. Pittpatt, a company that specializes in “reliable facial recognition software for images and video” has officially announced on its website that it has been acquired by Google.

While it wasn’t mentioned why Google would make such an investment – what we do know is that it will bring the company one step closer to having facial recognition software for video (Google already does facial recognition with Picasa). As of now, we don’t know what Google has up its sleeves: facial recognition for Google+ perhaps? We’ll just have to wait and see, though Google had better tread this path carefully, seeing how the public was pretty when Facebook’s implemented facial recognition in photo tagging.

Google has mentioned before that it would not make use of facial recognition technology, which raises some interesting questions – why would Google acquire a company that specializes in it then? Just to make sure that other companies don’t have access to it?

George Wong
Categories: Web
Tags: facial recognition, Google, technology