Template Tools
| Yes, Your Webcam is Probably Racist |
| Tuesday, 22 December 2009 22:00 |
 Hewlett-Packard webcam tracking doesn't work as well for black faces as for caucasian faces. 500,000 people have viewed HP computers are racist at YouTube, which shows HP webcam software working fine for a white woman and not at all for a black man. While this sounds implausible, years ago producing magazines I learned problems like this are common is photography and software. Unless you're Byelorussia Telekom, it's probably worth making sure the gear you distribute gets this right. People laughed at the idea a camera could be "racist", but actually everyone near professional photography know that's how most cameras and film have been designed for decades. All U.S. color film was manufactured to do well by blue skies and "flesh tones", which meant Caucausian flesh. High end scanners - the stuff before Photoshop - also were tuned for what was considered the crucial customer requirement: making white folks look good in print.. At least the early versions of Photoshop had a similar problems with most of their auto adjustments. This may not have been deliberate; dark skin is shadow, and adjusting shadow tones is harder. There's every reason to think the HP software has a similar problem with closely matched color values. |
| Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 December 2009 00:42 |