Being an avid picture-taker, I have thousands of pictures of my kids in my camera roll. It is blatantly obvious who the photographer is since I am probably in about ten of these photos. But there’s a crazy exciting new app that we checked out at CES this year called the Kooboodle MeFinder that is perfect for parents, and not just selfie collectors.
In fact, it that may get more photos into my roll that actually have me in them too–not to mention the great photos the grandparents and aunts and uncles have taken that (ahem) were never sent to me.
Kooboodle MeFinder automatically find photos of you on your friends’ and family members’ phones. Seriously. Using facial recognition technology as well as time- and location-based features, MeFinder tracks photos of you in the social circle photo collections that you’ve created, then allows you to upload them too.
But don’t worry, it’s not scary or public, and everything is permission-based.
The facial recognition technology is the backbone of this wild app. You’re prompted to take selfies, and you then invite people from Facebook or your phone contacts to accept an invite. Then the app uses its mystical algorithms to identify photos of you in their camera rolls if they’ve opted to share their photos. (You can select individual photos; it doesn’t mine your whole roll, thank goodness.)
Obviously, for the app to work, you need to invite people you actually do social things with and not that girl from high school who you haven’t seen in eight years. So think your closest family, your new moms group, the other parents from gymnastics. You could end up with some of your favorite photos, including ones with you actually in them.
If you are already a member of the Kooboodle photo sharing service, then it’s a nice add-on to let you swap, store and share them online if you choose.
What I like is Kooboodle’s claim that no photos are shared publicly and that the only people trading photos are the only ones who have access to it, guaranteeing secure transfer. But while I am intrigued by this app, it definitely raises my privacy red flag, because of the technology used on other people’s phones to find pictures of me. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m still a little freaked out by intuitive facial recognition, even though services like iPhoto have used this for a while.
That said, it is a fascinating technology that I’m sure many people will take advantage of. Especially if they’re the designated photographers like me, and for once, want to have a few great photos of the kids with you actually in them.
The Kooboodle MeFinder app is still in invite-only mode and can be requested through a link on its website.
