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The federal government is developing a body mass index (BMI) detector intended to be available to every American “anywhere and anytime,” according to a grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The detector is expected to rely on the analysis of facial and body imagery.

The project has been awarded $200,113 thus far to create the system under the notion that too many obese individuals are unaware of their BMI.

“Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of the ratio between an individual’s weight and height, which is an important parameter to characterize human bodies into four categories, i.e., underweight, normal, overweight, and obese,” the grant states. “A high BMI value is associated with a higher risk for conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers.”

“The study of this project leads to development of an intelligent and computational system that can be used by everybody at anywhere and anytime,” the grant adds. “The developed system enables people to [be] aware their BMI and understand the strongly correlated high risks of various diseases to combat overweight and obesity.”

“The developed technology can also improve personal health care and quality of life, and public health surveillance,” it added.

Guodong Guo, an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at West Virginia University, is leading the project. Guo previously created a system that predicted BMIs from mug shots.

Guo said that his facial recognition BMI predictor could be used for online dating, so an individual can know the “state of health of people you might date.”

The accuracy of BMI has been the subject of long debate, with some researchers arguing that BMI has little value because it cannot distinguish between fat and muscle. BMI screenings in schools have also been criticized as invasive. Mandatory screenings in Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, and Illinois have resulted in children being sent home with “fat letters.”

The NSF project will develop a “low-cost, portable, reliable, and convenient BMI assessment system” off of Guo’s prior research that could use both two and three- dimensional images.

“The key research question is what kinds of features or patterns can be extracted from human face and body images to characterize the visual appearance related to BMI measure,” the grant said. “In facial images, the study focuses on 2D facial feature representation and its robustness in order to build the mapping relation from face to BMI. In body images, the focuses are on 3D body shape analysis to connect to BMI measure.”

“This research provides a theoretic foundation for developing a visual analysis system that can be deployed to provide convenient estimate of the BMI and related health conditions anywhere and anytime,” the grant added.

The project, which only recently began on Sept. 1, received a grant for $200,113. Funding is estimated to continue until 2016.

http://freebeacon.com/issues/feds-developing-technology-to-detect-obesity-from-your-picture/


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So... what else will this technology be able to detect from your picture linked with your 0bamacare database?

Public health surveillance?
Welcome to 1984

The government is paying for your healthcare now after all! By doing so you give them a direct line to all of your most personal information, including your bank accounts as  well as health data. Too bad they have to take your money first to have an excuse and revenue to do this.

That only happens in developed countries

I'm pretty sure I can detect obesity from your picture. Why is this such an amazing feat?

I don't get it; we can already calculate BMI, so anyone who wants to know, can know.  It seems like they're trying to create a database, and didn't want to ask people to submit a picture of themselves directly.

American Politician's funding "pork barrel" project's.  :P 

The government already has a database of pictures of people (drivers licenses, passport photos). A person's weight is self reported and is likely not accurate.

The more data they get the better. Fingerprints are not enough. Photo ID is not enough. DNA is not enough.

It's an amazing feat because unlike you, the government has ways to make money off it

Exactly. The want to collect more without your permission. Databases of personal information are worth millions.

Reminds me of my first domain purchase. The government wanted my personal info stored on their servers in exchange for a domain. The WHOIS police apparently forces you to put up your personal information where anybody can view it, then charges you for anonymizing it.

If I can detect obesity from a picture, I'm pretty sure anyone in the govt can also. So again, why is this such a feat?

Presumably because it won't be a person looking at a picture, but an algorithm that can be part of an app on your smartphone or whatever. Developing an algorithm that can accurately determine someone's BMI to within say +/- 5 or 10 % by only analyzing a photograph of their face sounds non-trivial.

Ah - I missed that. So it's like machine facial recognition?

I assume so. Probably try to correlate facial features to BMI in some way.

That being said, I'm unsure of the usefulness of technology... as anyone curious enough to bother downloading an app to check their weight or BMI can just as easily go stand on a scale. I suppose it could be useful for online dating as mentioned in the OP... if it can accurately tell you that those people that post photos only of their face really are obese.

One day you will recieve a letter along the lines of

Dear Sir/Madam
We noticed from our analytic scans that you are over our prescribed weight limit for your coverage since we the government care about your health and well being we will give you funds to go exercise, if you do not comply or wish to do so then we will remove you from health coverage or you will be asked to pay a higher premium based on your BMI index risk of launching a claim.

I don't like the idea of this, I think there are far better ways  to protect the publics health.  If the plan is to only use this as a tool to make an individual aware of their own personal health then I like it.  If the information is being stored and used to prohibit people in any way then I don't support it and it's likely going to be flawed on some way that will have a negative impact on many people in some from or fashion.

Maybe those people could get off their asses and get some exercise. I'm tired of society pretending obese people are not obese. Ever try being sandwiched between two obese people on a plane? Or paying the same for a ticket as someone 4 times your weight?

So your answer is for the governments to step in and control everyone's diets and then punish anybody who doesn't meet their criteria for a healthy person?  Where do you think it will end once we head down that road and is your freedom really worth the extra room on a plane ride?  Don't you think it is a little unfair to force this type of thing on people for such a silly reason?

To be honest I agree with all your points :)

Anyway, I dunno about government, but insurance companies should definitely be charging obese people higher premiums, airlines should charge passengers for tickets by the pound (both body weight and luggage), etc. Government probably should just stay out of the way of companies doing such things, and maybe work on outreach/labeling/education explaining the negative health effects of obesity, similar to what they do with smoking. All that has little to do with this thread though, as any entity that would want to treat you differently based on your weight already has adequate ways to find out what you weigh...

Kind of reminds you from that scene in 'Idiocracy' where the police are there to "make sure" that prostitutes "put out" by watching you performing the act

I can't wait for people taking pictures of me while walking down the street, then sharing them with my BMI index on facebook... What an amazing tool  ::) :P ::)

Or the doctors could just weight them :P

Well done, that is hilarious. I love the comparisons to Idiocracy and todays society.  It really puts things into perspective, that film is a great parody of todays society.   ;D

The government already has those stored from your id and your driving license.
And from facebook ;).

How about we view this from another point of view.
Last time I saw one of the those overweight guys being brought to the hospital there was an army of doctors and firemen , they brought a crane to get him out of the window , and then they had to call in a special ambulance since he couldn't be fitted in.

Then they took him into hospital gave him the best treatment , numerous operations and for nothing.

So , why should we all pay for this circus when the guy could have been prevented to go whale size one or two years before?

Why? 0bamacare gives them access to all of our medical records. I know .gov doesn't give a shit about saving money, but calculating this off medical records is a hell of a lot easier and more accurate than this camera mumbo jumbo.

So , why should we all pay for this circus?



Why should we? Cops. E.R. Ambulance staff. Can't we simply eliminate people who like to drink too much?  (and yes those are pictures of drunk women. Can't stand looking at drunk guys ;)

Simple solution. Make them pay for all the cost , police , ambulance etc if the help received was for something caused by their own actions.

So you get drunk the police needs to pick you up from the street and you need medical care to stand on two legs , pay for it.

How about those stupid surfers who need help in the middle of a hurricane? Should we not help or help, then telling them to pay for the bill they cost?

Should we tax stupidity? Who decide what is or not stupid? "A society of people who think the same?" (http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/268219/speedreads-study-conservatives-and-liberals-smell-different)

Not stupidity. You can be stupid by putting ice cream on your head or watching tokyo mew mew but that wound't cost tax payers money.

And yes , people who put their own life in jeopardy and require the intervention of the authorities should e charged for the cost of saving them.

A statistics in my country is that for every 10 calls the ambulance is answering one will have to wait 30 minutes because we lack the number of medical teams and cars. If after you get drunk in the street you're going to be presented with a 2000 euros bills I doubt some of them will do it again.

But if you bill people for being drunk aren't you punishing and criminalizing victims of alcohol addiction?  ;)

 

And by sending rapist to jail we punish the poor guys who can't get laid in the normal way? Right?

You can go drunk , have your fun , get drunk again , I won't care but when out of your own stupidity you cost taxpayers extra money , they pay up.

the status quo is what feeds society. How are we going to keep our jail from being empty? Who is going to buy our prescriptions?Alcohol taxes help feed the children.....

Again I'm not against drinking or getting drunk but against overdoing it and bringing harm to others by doing that.
As for the tax money , if they don't buy alcohol they will buy chocolate or pretzels , so the tax money will still be there..

One example , the hospital in one of our medium towns has spend 300 000 euros last years in treating drunks alone.
And this is Romania , where the average wage is 500E.

... thus becoming obese. But at least society will get the taxes from those sales too...

Have them eat some bellpeppers then , that might cure obesity...

http://38.media.tumblr.com/535d6aaad91b3571c5a0b3053f1e6796/tumblr_mu1rbjzc1s1s5tlmxo1_1280.png

She is on the case...
http://eagnews.org/looks-more-like-a-piece-of-paper-than-a-sub-roll-new-york-schools-drop-michelle-os-lunch-program/

Public health surveillance is why you and I know that Entrovirus 68 is spreading in the US and that an outbreak of ebola is threatening Africa. It involves keeping track of the spread of infectious diseases. It is one of the most important measures we have for containing outbreaks. It is not what George Orwell had in mind, it is an established medical term.

It's a euphemism for making sure the government knows what you're eating, even when you don't (Google: Monsanto Protection Act)