Google is acquiring new faces to improve its face recognition system. People are getting paid with $5 coupons
It’s no secret. Google has long been working on a new technology for unlocking smartphones through face recognition. The goal is to debut it on the Pixel 4 and launch the challenge to Apple’s FaceID. A work that just in these months is entering the most important moment. At least that’s what the site ZDNet says.
According to what stated by the U.S. news site, a person who has contacts with the staff of ZDNet was stopped on the street in New York by some Google employees (or at least so they presented themselves) to test the new system for face recognition. The Google employees provided the person with a smartphone and asked her to scan her face. In return, she received a $5 coupon to spend at Amazon or inside Starbucks.
The Google test
As reported by the ZDNet article, the beta-tester couldn’t tell if the phone he received was actually a prototype of the highly anticipated Google Pixel 4, i.e. one of the two versions of the top-of-the-line phone that the Mountain View giant is expected to launch late next fall. According to the testimony of the beta-tester, the new technology developed by Google is very similar to FaceID, but faster in configuration and facial recognition.
The reward in vouchers
The purpose of the test is to collect as much data as possible to improve the new facial recognition feature and improve artificial intelligence algorithms. Google employees have offered the beta-tester a five-dollar reward in exchange for his or her face.
Five dollars in cash? No, we’d miss it, five dollars in coupons to spend at Amazon or Starbucks. Basically, the person sold his face to the American giant for five dollars in vouchers.