Churchix
| Churchix Logo Churchix Logo | |
| Screenshot of Churchix Face Scanner Screenshot of Churchix Face Scanner | |
| Developer(s) | Moshe Greenshpan, Face-Six LLC |
|---|---|
| Engine | |
| Type | Facial recognition software, Desktop Application |
| Website | http://churchix.com/ |
Search Churchix on Amazon.
Churchix is a facial recognition software which allows automatic tracking of events or any gathering of people.[1] Churchix was especially designed for churches, and is reported to be in use in over seventy churches across the world having its presence felt in countries like Iike America, Portugal, India, Spain and Indonesia.[2] Churchix is also offered to measure Time and Attendance (T&A) in classrooms and workplaces.[3] Churchix is a division of Face-Six LLC a global facial recognition software vendor.[4]
How it works
Churchix is a desktop application which uses a connected webcam for face recognition.[5][6] Through the software one can keep track of any members attending the user's event.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
Origin and Development
Face-Six.com
The idea of Face-Six.com was inspired by Shazam, a music, movies and television shows identification app. Moshe Greenshpan, the company’s CEO said that “the idea to create something similar seemed to be obvious, because you’re always watching a movie and asking yourself, ‘Where do I know that actor from?’ That’s how the idea was born, and we took it further."[14] The initial funding for the initiative was arranged by Greenshpan himself, without raising any capital from investors. Instead, he focused his attention on developing the technology and finding customers, mostly institutional clients, in order to maintain the funding.[15][16][17]
In the beginning, Greenshpan started out with a small workforce, recruiting a CTO, a chief scientist, three engineers and a Senior Vice President of sales, who worked from home. Later, they started operating out of RishonStartUp, which is a start-ups compound located in the suburbs of Tel Aviv.[14] Within a year of the commencement of the company’s operations, they had managed to deploy software pilots to a host of clients, which included large establishments like an Israeli security organization, security forces of a Caribbean country, one of the largest casinos in Asia, and a criminal identification lab for the Indian government.[18][19] Initially, the company faced issues with selling the product as it was too expensive. The costs were high due to the complexity of the hardware-software solution, which in turn made the sales cycle too long – somewhere between a year or two. At this point, the idea of developing low-cost applications for the facial recognition market was born. Thereafter, a few clients decided to fund the development of such products fully, which resolved the company’s issues with starting up and capturing the market.[15]
Churchix.com
After the initial success of Face-Six, an international church approached the company asking for a similar service. This prompted the company to develop and launch Churchix.com in February 2015, a service specifically designed for churches.[20][14] Churchix.com thus became the first among a series of products to be released by the company, meant specifically for churches who wished to follow-up with membership attendance at its events. Although originally developed for a chain of international churches, it is now being used in a number of other churches in the United States and Indonesia.[21] Greenshpan says that because of its capabilities, Churchix is also suitable for use by administrators of communities, for event photographers, and for sports photographers, who are interested in identifying guests and athletes.[22]
Criticism
The main criticism of Churchix comes from privacy advocates, who feel that the technology strikes at the heart of the right to privacy.[23] Although it is admitted, that the law on the legality of facial recognition technology currently pertains to commercial uses only. The use of such technology by a church is still grey area.[24]
Emma Carr, director of Big Brother Watch said, “This is a clear example of completely over-the-top use of technology. Churches have managed to note who is in their congregation for hundreds of years without resorting to highly intrusive means… At a time when our privacy is constantly being intruded upon, with the average person in the UK being caught on CCTV hundreds of times a day, let’s hope that our places of worship remain environments where we can still expect a high level of privacy.”[25][26] Greenshpan however argues that churches already track their members manually, therefore the use of Churchix is only helping in the digitisation of the process. He has also said that he believes that Churches should reveal to their members that they are being tracked, but this hasn't been done in most churches.[27][28]
See also
References
- ↑ Sherif, Mostafa Hashem (2016). Protocols for Secure Electronic Commerce (3rd ed.). Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-4822-0377-6. Search this book on
- ↑ Dean, James (2015-06-18). "Churches use facial recognition to track their flock". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ Kevin, Mitnick (2017). The Art of Invisibility: The World's Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big Data. New York: Little, Brown and Company. p. 35. ISBN 978-0316380508. Search this book on
- ↑ Russon, Mary-Ann (2015-06-26). "30 churches around the world using facial recognition to track congregants that skip services". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ "Church Events with Facial Recognition Software - ChurchMag". ChurchMag. 2015-04-16. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ "Church Events with Facial Recognition Software - ChurchMag". ChurchMag. 2015-04-16. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ Solon, Olivia (2015-06-17). "Churches are starting to use FACIAL RECOGNITION to keep tabs on attendance". mirror. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ "Churches use facial recognition software to track congregants". RT International. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ "Church Events with Facial Recognition Software - ChurchMag". ChurchMag. 2015-04-16. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ Bailey, Sarah Pulliam (2015-07-24). "Skipping church? Facial recognition software could be tracking you". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ "Could Israeli start-up have prevented Charleston church massacre?". Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ Franco, Alexandra. "I Can Do All Things Through Technology, Which Enables Me: Churches, Facial Recognition and Spiritual Dynamics". On the Edges of Science and Law.
- ↑ "How today's facial recognition software works". Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 "Israeli company Face-Six promises to ID faces in photos with machine learning | VentureBeat | Entrepreneur | by Sigal Bar-Kovetz, Geektime". venturebeat.com. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Israeli company Face-Six promises to ID faces in photos with machine learning | VentureBeat | Entrepreneur | by Sigal Bar-Kovetz, Geektime". venturebeat.com. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ "Churches Are Using Facial Recognition to Track Members, This Startup Says". Motherboard. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ "Could Israeli start-up have prevented Charleston church massacre?". Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ Bailey, Sarah Pulliam (2015-07-24). "Skipping church? Facial recognition software could be tracking you". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
- ↑ Premier (2015-06-18BST14:47:00+0100). "Facial recognition used to track church attendance - Premier Christian Radio". Premier Christian Radio. Retrieved 2017-09-12. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - ↑ "Churches are using facial recognition software to spy on members". massprivatei.blogspot.in. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
- ↑ "PressTV-Churches secretly tracking congregants". Retrieved 2017-09-12.
- ↑ "Church Events with Facial Recognition Software - ChurchMag". ChurchMag. 2015-04-16. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
- ↑ "How facial recognition could strike at our right to privacy". Mail Online. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
- ↑ "How facial recognition could strike at our right to privacy". Mail Online. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
- ↑ Solon, Olivia (2015-06-17). "Churches are starting to use FACIAL RECOGNITION to keep tabs on attendance". mirror. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
- ↑ "Face-tracking tech knows when you skip church services". Engadget. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
- ↑ Goldhill, Olivia (2015-06-23). "Facial recognition technology: Is Orwell's fiction our reality?". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
- ↑ Bedoya, Alvaro M. (2015-06-30). "Why I Walked Out of Facial Recognition Negotiations". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
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