For months, Google has steadfastly maintained that it will not allow facial-recognition apps onto Google Glass. No problem. A third-party developer, Stephen Balaban, will merely offer his own FaceRec app for sideloading onto Glass devices.
Nevertheless, there are several limitations to that approach: first, the Glass itself must be "rooted," which will slice the limited number of Glass devices down into an even smaller number. And even if this is done, the user will be forced to create his own image database, or write a custom script to tap into Facebook's image library—which violates Facebook's terms of service.
Balaban has also developed a so-called "Lambda Hat" to overcome another technical limitation with Glass and facial recognition. While operating, Glass only has the battery power to run FaceRec for a couple of hours. The "hat" is a standalone device with a longer battery life.
Nevertheless, Balaban and his startup, Lambda Labs, tells Forbes that the app will be released at the Chaos Communications Conference in Berlin, which begins on December 27. (The conference, dedicated to hacking, has included lockpicking competitions, and this year will dedicate a track to "food hacking.")
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