ESPN consults Sparty facial recognition expert on Stalions at CMU game
So it's a little better than a coin flip...but the Sparty expert is asserting it's the same person with high confidence. SMH
Anil Jain, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State and a nationally recognized facial recognition expert, believes it's "highly likely" that the images of the man wearing sunglasses and a hat on the Central Michigan sideline and a photo of Stalions on the Michigan sideline are the same person.
At ESPN's request, Jain and Steven Grosz, a Ph.D. student, used state-of-the-art commercial face recognition system to compare the two photographs. The system compared the images based on several facial characteristics -- Jain said they are trade secrets -- to provide a similarity score in the range of zero to one. The higher the similarity score, the more likely it is the two faces being compared are the same person.
Jain said the system produced a similarity score of 0.6 when comparing the two photographs. To validate that score, Jain and Grosz compared Stalions' photo to a database of more than 4,500 photos of white males.
"The reason why it's 0.6 is because there's a disguise," Jain told ESPN. "If I take an identical photo, it would be one. Even changes in the pose, illumination, expression, sunglasses, the match will never be perfect. Based on this analysis, the two images are of the same person with high confidence."
November 4th, 2023 at 4:13 PM ^
Time to fire that sneaky man!
November 4th, 2023 at 4:41 PM ^
cool, hook em’ ?
November 4th, 2023 at 3:45 PM ^
So 0.6 falls into the “highly likely” category? Sparty math.
November 4th, 2023 at 3:50 PM ^
Well 60% is like an A for them...
November 4th, 2023 at 3:54 PM ^
60% with dignity
November 4th, 2023 at 4:03 PM ^
60% of the time it's definitely him.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:16 PM ^
60% CS, 40% Harbaugh, according to the MSU player health and safety specialists.
November 4th, 2023 at 4:04 PM ^
Highly likely because:
1) The assumption is that it’s him in spite of hard evidence that no one has.
2) Because of bias assumes that there is a disguise which is somehow inhibiting this technology (which has received tons of criticism over accuracy concerns).
Keep throwing the same shit at the wall. I can’t believe how many folk hate Harbaugh/Michigan.
November 4th, 2023 at 4:15 PM ^
But, if it’s truly him - then what? I guess you would have to hold him to account and he could lose his position…
Aren’t you on the edge of your seat????
November 4th, 2023 at 5:34 PM ^
And so what if it is him. He would have been there at CMU’s request to help them decipher signals in game. That is legal. It’s not like he was scouting Michigan State for Michigan. That’s not what he’s about. I don’t see an issue if he was working for CMU at the time as a side job.
November 4th, 2023 at 4:24 PM ^
There were a couple things that cracked me up.
1) The "disguise" (hat, facial hair, sunglasses) really tripped them up, which makes the technology pretty worthless, and also presupposes it's a disguise and not just, you know, another person.
2) They said if the pictures were identical then their super high-tech equipment would be able to confirm the identical pictures are identical.
November 4th, 2023 at 4:53 PM ^
I have not logged in to my account in forever, but have been laughing so hard about the second part that I had to look up the ol' password and jump in here. They are so proud of technology that can confirm identical photos are, indeed, the same. Just imagine when this technology might eventually be nuanced enough to apply to "spot the difference" puzzles in Highlights Magazine. Powerful stuff.
November 4th, 2023 at 4:57 PM ^
Without those things, everybody would be able to identify him. These explanations are garbage...
November 4th, 2023 at 9:21 PM ^
What isn't funny to me at all is the thought that there may well be innocent people in prison because guys like this gave expert testimony at their trial.
I hope I'm wrong and that's not a service he provides.
November 5th, 2023 at 1:06 AM ^
Facial recognition should not be used as primary evidence. Instead, it should be used to generate investigative leads which then help establish an identify.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:46 PM ^
I’m not sure you can say they’re just throwing shit against the wall. The guy looks like Stallions, nobody else has come forward to be identified, he’s wearing sunglasses at a night game, and the glasses appear to have a blue light. It’s not exactly baseless accusations. I’m not saying it’s definitely Stallions, but there are reasons why people think it’s him.
November 4th, 2023 at 6:32 PM ^
It's no wonder they're confident its Stalions with a .6 coefficient. 60% of the time, it works every time.
November 4th, 2023 at 3:46 PM ^
And so if it is? Seems like questions should be aimed more at CMU than us. But will they pursue that?
November 4th, 2023 at 3:52 PM ^
Let's be real, if it wasn't Stalions, CMU would have already identified who it was. It's become clear that Stalions broke the rules, even if you interpret the bylaws to not cover sending unaffiliated people to record games. The relevant question is simply whether the coaches knew, and if so, which coaches.
November 4th, 2023 at 3:54 PM ^
Unless CMU has no idea who it is, Stallions or otherwise.
November 4th, 2023 at 4:13 PM ^
Ok sure, there is technically a possibility it was some random mystery person who snuck onto the CMU sideline without anyone at CMU knowing. That seems far-fetched, but I will revise my statement to that if the guy dressed up as a CMU staffer was indeed a CMU staffer, CMU would have identified him already.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:04 PM ^
what's far fetched is how someone managed to get a pass to the sideline with all those restrictions and even had the same cmu swag as the staff.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:22 PM ^
This is because, if it is CS, he was there doing work for CMU on behalf of CMU.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:17 PM ^
One of CS lackeys?
November 4th, 2023 at 6:09 PM ^
If CS has lackeys that are dead ringers for him, even 60% dead ringers, that's maybe an X-files plot come to life.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:33 PM ^
Well, it is a fair question as to why anyone would actually want to attend a CMU game. In and of itself, this is odd behavior.
November 4th, 2023 at 4:03 PM ^
How did he get there? Who said yes to this? I think that deserves some attention. Of course it could just be they fucked up and some random guy dressed in their team stuff sneaked in, and that's embarrassing. But there are other options.
November 4th, 2023 at 4:11 PM ^
He probably has a friend at CMU, got a sideline pass through them, and bluffed/snuck his way into the restricted part of the sideline. Would love for it to not be him, but the guy was a brazen lunatic. You have to squint really hard at this point to think Stalions didn't break the rules; the critical detail is whether the coaches knew.
November 4th, 2023 at 4:29 PM ^
I'm not questioning whether he broke the rules; I'm wondering if CMU was in on it in any meaningful way.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:24 PM ^
This is the Occam's Razor explanation both for how he got there and for why CMU is not forthcoming with information about it.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:52 PM ^
Their response, or lack thereof, was curious.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:11 PM ^
I don’t think that’s true at all. If you are CMU, you are going to be 100% positive that it’s either your own guy, or that it’s not. And, I don’t think you are going to say it’s stalions at all if you conclude that it’s not one of your own guys. The opportunity to look incompetent and stupid by saying yea or nay too early on it is too great to risk it.
It may be CS, given other info known about him, but I’m not going to go trusting another school, especially not one that has an axe to grind against UM, and their “investigation” into this.
November 5th, 2023 at 6:37 AM ^
Cmon, CMU can't identify its own staff, within 1 second, please.
It's CS, and CMU is facing some blowback , and knows it.
It's almost as puzzling as UM's staff thinking Conner was some savant, enough so to have him constantly standing with the head coach, and coordinators, and dialog going on.
Let's just say that, grown men with coaching resumes, allowed this. Not suspicious.
No one knew.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:36 PM ^
I’ve got to admit that after carefully examining all the photos I could find, it certainly looks like Stalions to me, no high tech facial recognition software needed.
Assuming that is was in fact Stalions, there is zero chance he got on the sideline without CMU knowing he was there. He had a VB pass around his neck, which apparently stands for “visitor bench”. From what I’ve been reading, those passes are monitored pretty closely and have to be okayed by CMU’s staff.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:37 PM ^
How is standing on the CMU sideline as CMU’s guest a violation. If he wasn’t scouting, then what’s the problem? He can’t go watch a football game now on his day off?
November 4th, 2023 at 6:32 PM ^
So far as I understand it, the case of that one Baylor coach shows that the NCAA construes any attendance as scouting. So coaches can only attend games that don't involve same-season future opponents.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:48 PM ^
I still have only seen a couple still photos and that one play on the sideline. And in that play and the still photo of him pumping his fist it clearly looks like this guy has sideburns and hair down the back of his head, which Stalions does not have. I'd like to see a picture from the side or the back to see that.
Either way, I think that implicates CMU more than Michigan if it is him.
November 4th, 2023 at 5:58 PM ^
Of course it was him, and I'm fine with it. We can collude with a MAC program. Two big ten coaches colluded for over a decade in Dantonio and Tressel. WITHIN THE SAME FUCKING CONFERENCE, AGAINST US. We shouldn't even discuss any of this, because it becomes apologetic and there's nothing to apologize for. He got caught. Lost his job. Accept a punishment and we continue. And in 3 years Stalions will be back on a sideline, as he should.
November 4th, 2023 at 4:31 PM ^
Is there a rule that a coach can not watch another football in person?
November 4th, 2023 at 9:26 PM ^
You can go if neither team is on your schedule (or you've already played them). Not sure what the interpretation would be regarding other teams in your conference who you might play in a championship game.
November 4th, 2023 at 3:47 PM ^
This was brought up in a thread yesterday
November 4th, 2023 at 3:47 PM ^
Of course a score of .6 is high confidence for a sparty. They’re used to being average/median.
November 4th, 2023 at 3:47 PM ^
skeet skeet
November 4th, 2023 at 3:52 PM ^
So is ESPN basically the prosecution?
November 4th, 2023 at 4:02 PM ^
Yep
And your lead witnesses are unnamed sources. Seems like a fair trial.
November 4th, 2023 at 4:15 PM ^
Could be worse.
November 4th, 2023 at 4:27 PM ^
Yeah, no kidding. This guy has already been fired, publicly shamed & humiliated, will never have employment again in a related field. So ESPN decides to go all in on their fuckery to bury him alive for little gain.
ESPN is a piece of shit.
November 4th, 2023 at 3:53 PM ^
Who cares at this point. I mean ESPN and MSU. I couldn’t give a shit