Hubweek hit a home run this year with the HUB on City Hall Plaza! Seemingly overnight, Boston’s Government Center plaza was completely transformed into a glittering futuristic stage. Featuring several domes (sites of the Boston Globe, Future Forum, and Silent Disco) and with over 80 shipping containers - it was the best Hubweek ever!
Earlier in the week, v. 2.6 of the Facetopo app dropped in the iTunes app store - with a new photostrip feature that we developed for our Selfies for Science Photobooth at Hubweek! After making a Facetopo Capture with a neutral expression, Users can now tap the Photostrip button and take 3 silly selfies - one just you, one with facemapping dots placed on it, and the third with a fun filter (choose nerdy or einstein, citizen scientist!) At Hubweek we added new photostrips to our growing Wall of Faces throughout the day.
Hundreds of new visitors learned more about our ambitious global citizen science project at Faces of Boston at Hubweek. We had conversations about data science, finding doppelgangers, facial recognition, privacy, and the soon-to-be-released Apple iphone facial unlock feature. At Facetopo, we take great care to preserve User privacy. In order to create a Facetopo 3D facemap, every User creates a unique password-protected account using only an email. Only YOU can access your Facetopo data. Information doesn’t get any more personal than your face, so Facetopo keeps your face data as secure as your bank account.
Finding one’s ‘face family’ or doppelganger was a popular idea among the Hubweek crowd. We plan to introduce a Facematch feature before the end of the year. What are the chances you’ll find your doppelganger? It all depends on how many people join the community, so please spread the word about Facetopo!
We estimate around a thousand visitors to our Faces of Boston popup at Hubweek in Boston on 10/15! It was great to have so many new citizen scientists join the Facetopo community. And since portraits were the original #selfies, it was great to be joined by portrait artists Kate True, Gulnara Niaz, and Emily Gallardo to highlight the connections among science, art, and technology!
Thanks to all who came by Facetopo’s Faces of Boston at the HUB!! Thank you Hubweek! Thank you to our amazingly talented event partners: Gulnara Niaz Photography, Kate True Portraits, Emily Gallardo and a big thanks to Blackbird Doughnuts for sponsoring our giveaways!
If you weren’t able to make it to Hubweek, we do plan on holding more popup events in the future!
Android Users: 2.6 is now available in the Googleplay store as well - check it out!
