HP probing the alleged race bias of its webcams

The video clip has registered over 7.5 lakh hits; was posted on Dec 10 'It doesn't matter if you are Black or White' crooned the King of pop, but a hit video on Youtube says colour does matter, if you are on a webcam manufactured by Hewlett Packard. The two minute, 16 seconds long video has become a rage on the video sharing website, with more than 7,50,637 views by Wednesday evening. It is titled HP computers are racist and was posted on December 10. The video is of an African-American named Desi and his white colleague Wanda. It shows Desi trying to log on to a computer by using the face detection technique. He brings his face before the webcam but fails to log in. I think my blackness is interfering with the computer's ability to follow me, Desi says in the clip. He continues to try but fails. He then calls his colleague Wanda. As soon as Wanda appears before the computer, the webcam follows her face and identifies her in a jiffy. As you can see, the camera is panning to show Wanda's face. It's following her around, but as soon as my blackness enters the frameu00a0... it stops, comments Desi. I am going on record, and I am saying it: Hewlett Packard computers are racist. And the worst part is I bought one for Christmas, he says.According to the clip, the facial tracking software used by the newest HP PCs, which allows the webcam to automatically follow users if they move around during video chat sessions, appears to be incapable of detecting people with dark skin.The video, posted on December 10 under the title HP Computers Are Racist, has been viewed by more than 7.5 lakh users. HP acknowledged the problem and says they are investigating the issue.The issue comes four months after Microsoft apologised for altering a photo on its website to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture. Some reactions to the video questioned the lighting defence, saying both faces in the clip are clearly visible and lit up by fluorescent lights. The Other Side HP has been informed of a potential issue with the facial tracking software included on some of its systems, which appears to occur when insufficient foreground lighting is available. We take these issues very seriously and we are working with our partners to investigate this issue further. An official statement by Hewlett Packard What's HP? Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly referred to as HP, is a consumer electronics corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA. HP is the largest technology company in the world and operates in nearly every country. HP specialises in developing and manufacturing computing, storage, and networking hardware, software and services. Major product lines include personal computing devices, enterprise servers, related storage devices, as well as a diverse range of printers and other imaging products. HP markets its products to households, small to medium size businesses and enterprises both directly, via online distribution, consumer-electronics and office-supply retailers, software partners and major technology vendors.u00a0