Coke Zero Facebook app will find your doppleganger… someday

Well, that was disappointing.

The techno-spooky interface of Coke Zero’s new website, billing itself as a “worldwide social experiment,” starts with words on the screen: If Coke Zero has Coke’s taste… is it possible someone out there has your face? Okay, I’m not really seeing the tie in, but I play along because who doesn’t get sucked in by any new “picture of you” analyzing app? Do I look like celebrities? Do I look evil? Am I hot, or not?

Using the same pic I use here instead of activating my webcam- which lies at such an unflattering angle it throws me into a self-esteem downward spiral that lasts for days- I carefully line x’s over my eyes to set the twin-search-o-later in motion. And… nothing. No one else is playing! Well, some people are but so far, the face database is only 22% full. So in order to work, the remaining 78% of people who need to participate still have to sign up.

Now I want to know who I look like, damnit! Everybody go sign up so I can find out. Coke says that if you change your mind about being in the face database, they’ll remove your information within 48 hours. The app currently has 43 reviews on Facebook– one user states the database has only grown 3% in the past three days, and some other users posted as far back as a month ago that the app wasn’ t yet returning results. So there’s also a chance that by the time it tells you you look like someone, you’ll be too old to resemble them anymore, anyway. Bummer.

ETA: The app also has a Wikipedia entry, which is on the chopping block for notability, cite issues and clearly being written by Coke.

Technology

Facial Profiler leverages one of the face-detection industry’s most advanced multi-modal biometric platforms. Previously designed to locate specific individuals from within a large pool of candidates, the matching engine was modified for Coke Zero’s app. A modification was necessary because Facial Profiler doesn’t seek to find the identity of the person performing the search, but instead seeks to match that person to Facebook users who resemble them. This modified technology delivers match results in real time, based on the order in which the search requests are received.

Social Media Aspects

More than a Facebook app and search tool, Facial Profiler underscores the evolution of social media. The app is new pathway in social networking that enables people to connect outside of their everyday routines of work, school, friends or hobbies.

[Via Mashable]