Dear LPG, 

My aunt has a really embarrassing habit.  She never gets embarrassed but her passion for people who she thinks she knows leaves me often wanting to pretend that we are not together.  We go shopping together every week and all too often, we will be walking down the street and she will suddenly point someone out who is walking the other way and tell me that she recognises his or her face.  She might then tell me a sentence or two about which of her jobs she was doing when she and that person worked together or which club, school or college they both frequented at the same time.

Then, before drawing another breath, she will go up to that person and, nine times out of ten, call out a name which means nothing to them because she has mistakenly approached a complete stranger.  

I am now quite used to seeing that vacant look on the face of my aunt’s latest victim and somehow I am always the one who ends up apologising before the stranger continues with whatever they were doing.  

But we all do it every now and then.

Sometimes, just a facial expression or the way someone blinks can remind you of a person you knew at some point during your life, and it is surprising just how many friends and colleagues each of us know.  For me, it is often the case that I don’t even remember which chapter of my life that face comes from unless I see it in context.

The difference is that, when it happens to me, I will try a smile or say, ‘I’m sorry but there is something very familiar about your face.’ and see where that leads. 

There is even a technical name for the worst cases of face blindness.  The internet informs that Prosopagnosia is something that is being researched quite a bit these days, although, in my aunt’s case it is how you deal with mistaken identity that is more problematic than the fact that she keeps getting it wrong.

Computers can now recognise faces reliably and I came across quite a bit of internet information that explains a bit about how, although they still have problems to iron out, identical twins for instance.  After some of what I have read I have a bit of a problem with all the electronic processes, but I have no doubt that facial recognition will be used in both good ways and bad in the future.  

I am not sure that I am quite ready to trust my phone’s unlocking systems to letting it scan my face quite yet and, after reading what LS had to say about his mask and his mobile phone  (►►►), whether you wade right in there like my aunt, or take the cautious approach when you think you recognise a face, it is worth checking because even if you are wrong you can make lots of friends that way.

All this got me looking at what the internet has to say and being recognised by a computer is quite an emotive matter from what I have learned.  

One more note, if you happened to be one of those people who gets mistaken for someone else, roll with it. It is a really good way of making new friends… 

MC, Brockley 

 MC offers us a little insight into what is being said about electronic facial recognition…

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… and has found a few quizzes designed to test one’s powers…

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