A mobile software firm by the name of The Astonishing Tribe is developing an application called Recognizr that makes use of facial recognition and cloud servers to identify people.

The application is still in the development stage, but once completed, users would download the app and install it on their mobile device. Then, if you meet someone on the street and want to know more about them, you’d only have to take a picture. The application would search it’s photo database and if a perfect match is found, personal information about the individual is returned. The type of information returned includes social networking sites that this person is a member of and in some cases, even personal phone numbers.

There are going to be personal privacy issues raised with this type of an application, but before people panic and begin removing their pictures from social sites such as Twitter and Facebook, it should be pointed out that this is an opt-in service. You will need to subscribe to their service as well as upload a personal picture and short biography that can be used by Recognizr. The application is expected to work with both the Apple iPhone and Android devices.

Via: Discover Magazine