Facial recognition company Face.com has just released a new mobile application that takes advantage of its technology to identify the faces of your friends in photos. Called “KLIK,” the app is a real-time, facial recognition mobile camera app for iPhone that automatically identifies your friends by name before or after you take their their photo.
To use the app, you have to configure it with your Facebook account, as that’s how it learns who you friends are. You don’t, however, have to immediately share the pictures you take using KLIK on Facebook – that part is optional.
In most cases, KLIK can identify the person in the frame before you snap the photo, and the name will then appear directly over their face in the camera’s viewfinder. (The name does not appear on the saved photo, of course). If, however, KLIK can’t figure out who someone is, tap “Tag Me” on the unrecognized faces in the saved photos to ID them. As you identify unknown faces and save the photos, the app learns and its ability to recognize those same folks in future images improves.
Although the app could have easily been built just as a “proof of concept” of Face.com’s facial recognition technology, it’s clear that that startup has put some time and effort into the app’s design and feature set. The app isn’t just impressive in terms of its technology – it’s pretty, too.
In addition to the facial recognition bit, KLIK supports some Instagram-like photo filters for making your photos seem more artistic. It also offers feeds of nearby photos and friends photos, tagging photos from the camera roll, and social sharing to Facebook, Twitter, email, and publicly on KLIK itself.
Oh, and did I mention it’s pretty? KLIK requires iOS 4.3+ and a Facebook account to work. The app is available for free here on iTunes.
