Smart Face Masks, avoiding online Facial Recognition and Noise cancelling for online calls

July 9

This week we will have a look at a Smart Mask from Japan that will translate what you say into 8 languages. We also discover how to avoid the facial recognition systems being used online, we test drive a new AI writer that will allow you to converse with famous people, both living and dead and we have found a way to get rid of all the dog barking from your Zoom calls.

Smart Face Mask

Whilst we can not travel to foreign and exotic countries at the moment due to Covid we may come across situations in our day to day interactions where we need to translate what we are saying into another language.

Japanese startup Donut Robotics have developed a face mask that connects to the internet via a linked smartphone. The mask will then translate your speech into one of 8 languages and deliver the translated message to the smartphone of the listener.

Currently the mask can only translate sounds and characters however they are working on adding image recognition systems to the device. Now you can safely social distance in up to 8 languages.

Avoiding Facial Recognition online

We have previously spoken about wearing t-shirts and other methods that allow you to avoid facial recognition systems in real life. It is much harder to avoid the multitude of facial recognition systems being used by Facebook, Google and others to identify us online.

A team at the School of Computing at National University of Singapore has developed a technique that will allow you to protect your photos from these online identification systems. The system makes subtle changes that are almost imperceptible to humans but render selected features undetectable by known algorithms.

The team achieved this by developing a Human Sensitivity map that quantifies how humans interact to visual distortion in different parts of an image across a wide variety of scenes. Human sensitivity is influenced by factors such as illumination, texture, object sentiment and semantics. Using this map the team was able to apply visual distortion with minimal disruption to the image from a human’s point of view.

The team is now planning on developing a similar system for video.

AI Writer

We have seen a few examples of AI written songs, plays and simple compositions. Andrew Mayne has developed an AI using the OpenAI API that allows you to have a text based conversation with a famous person, both real and fictitious.

The AI will use publicly available information about that person and the AI will try and respond in the famous person’s voice. You can ask simple or complex questions (up to 300 characters). You can ask the same question multiple times and the AI will likely respond differently each time. Here is an example from Edgar Allan Poe the famous US poet born in 1809.

The response from the AI:

If want to ask Harry Potter what he thinks about Voldemort or ask Richard Feynman to explain quantum computing (Feynman’s AI answer is here) you can sign up here. The system will be released shortly.

Understanding your Genome

Analysis of the human genome and its’ impact on our health has progressed in leaps and bounds in recent years. The Human Genome Project, completed in 2003 gave us the ability to read the genetic blueprint for a a human being.

Nowadays genetic testing for genealogy and other reasons is common place. For example Ancestry.com provide DNA testing for discovering your family history, National Geographic is part of a project trying to reveal the patterns of human migration. There are a range of other companies providing testing but be sure to research the company before allowing them access to your genetic information. Read their privacy policy closely!

The future is likely to see Genetic Testing used more and more for health and medical purposes. 23strands is an Australian startup that is working on providing health professionals the ability to deliver genome informed clinical benefits to their patients. The goal is for a long term health pathway based upon your specific genome.

Knowing your genetic risk allows you to adjust your lifestyle to prevent the onset of chronic disease. It allows better understanding of conditions and their symptoms and potential personalized treatments and medications.

Noise Cancelling for Online Calls

We are all spending more time working from home. The inevitable noise from the dog, kids, neighbors and elsewhere, constantly interrupts calls. For now this is a tolerable distraction but extraneous noise will soon once again become a burden.

Krisp AI has developed a noise cancelling capability that can be used with any communication app. Not only does it remove the background noise from you to other call participants, it also removes the background noise from the call participants to you. Your listeners will no longer hear your dog barking and you won’t hear their neighbors arguing.

Krisp developed an AI that analyzed 20,000 sounds and 50,000 speakers in order to create an app that can pick out noise from actual worthwhile sound. The app screens noise coming and going. This allows it to screen out the barking of your dog and the barking of any dogs on your call-mates end. Krisp claims to work on any device with over 800 communication apps. There are free and paid versions.

Paying it Forward

If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and feature the startup in this newsletter. Also if any startups need introductions please get in touch and I will help where I can.

If you have any questions or comments please email me via my website craigcarlyon.com or comment below. 

I would also appreciate it if you could forward this newsletter to anyone that you think might be interested.