back to article Boffins spy I in your little eye

Researchers from the University of York's psychology school have found that faces reflected in your eyes can be captured in high enough resolution to be identified. To demonstrate not only that the images exist, but that they can be identified, Rob Jenkins and Christie Kerr got volunteers to perform recognition tasks. Using a …

  1. bearded bearcan

    Awesome! Start issuing 39megapixel cameras to registered sex offenders and IS immediately!!

    1. PleebSmash
      Trollface

      Give them a Lumia.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Also, don't forget to make balaclavas illegal...!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        If balaclavas are outlawed only outlaws will have balaclavas.

  2. Mark 85

    CSI?

    Isn't this something that the cop shows like CSI have been doing for years?

    I find it interesting that the boffin in charge is at a psychology school. Is this for real or just a test setup by the psychs to see how people react?

    1. Tromos

      Re: CSI?

      I seem to remember an episode where they got a car number plate from a corneal reflection on a bank ATM camera. Amazing how much information can be extracted from a single pixel!

      1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

        Re: CSI?

        Single pixel? Just keep zooming in...

        The CSI guys have found a technology which can decompress *everything* from a single pixel. Should sort out storage problems once and for all!

        1. DJV Silver badge
          1. Steven Raith

            Re: CSI?

            DJV - I was getting more of a Blade Runner vibe from that...

            1. cray74

              Re: CSI?

              "DJV - I was getting more of a Blade Runner vibe from that..."

              You're not the only one:

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiqkclCJsZs

      2. DropBear

        Re: CSI?

        After all, we all know every ATM takes continuous 60 fps footage (all of it accessible DVR-style online!)...

      3. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

        Re: CSI?

        Yeah, just yell "Enhance!" at it

      4. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: CSI?

        "Amazing how much information can be extracted from a single pixel!"

        The cameras they access are the "special" ones installed by GCHQ/NSA. The CCD sensors are fractal based and have infinite zoom. You just need the special software to access the full data. Without that, they appear as low resolution, noisy, black and white images for use on TV shows like crimewatch.

  3. Marcus Fil

    Twin Peaks

    preceded CSI by a fair few years. However, look at "Refelective Eyes" on tvtropes webpage - the whole concept is hardly new. More recently one online reviewer of the Nikon D800 was impressed to find a recongnisable reflection of himself in the eye of a bird he had photographed at a wildlife park. For the full "Blade Runner" track/enhance effect we are probably waiting on an 16 Gpixel Lytro to add the single lens 3D plus ridiculous resolution - so not long now then. Plus the workstation is more likely to be a MacBook Something rather than a box that looks like it came from Amstrad.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    GOLDFINGER....

    ...So that scene at the beginning isn't bollocks after all!

  5. CJ_in_AZ

    Reminds me of the "nude reflection in the teapot on E-bay" from several years ago...

    1. Steven Raith

      Ah, accidental reflectoporn.

      It never gets old.

    2. Chris G

      "Reminds me of the "nude reflection in the teapot on E-bay" from several years ago..."

      Where? What teapot? Show me!

      1. Graham Marsden

        @Chris G

        If you're really that desperate to look at another bloke's wedding tackle, there's easier ways of doing it...

  6. Eric O'Brien

    Details of photo studios found in reflections in old glass plate photos

    I recall reading a few years ago that researchers had recovered "behind the camera" images from reflections seen in props and still life objects in (I think) glass plate negatives taken by photographers in their studios.

    I haven't been able to locate this again. ;(

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