The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao
Face recognition techniques usually come with a certain amount of controversy. A new application, however, is unlikely to trigger any privacy concerns because all of the subjects are long dead.
Before photography took over, oil painting and portraiture was used to record what important people looked like. As a result for every artistically important painting there are a lot of “instant snaps” that fill museums and art gallery vaults. What would make these paintings much more valuable is knowing who all of the people in the portraits are.
The solution might be to apply face recognition software. This is the project for which three University of California, Riverside researchers have just received funding.
art { Piero della Francesca, The Legend of the True Cross (detail), 1452-1466 }
