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The creators of SpamAssassin, a popular spam prevention program
available on the *NIX platform, have developed a new product designed
to get rid of knocks on the door from unwanted visitors - HomeAssassin.
 Theo
Johnson, lead programmer for HomeAssassin, explained how the system
works. "All you need is the HomeAssassin software, a webcam,
a computer and one of our specially trained Ninja Assassins."
The webcam takes a picture of the person at the door and uses rule
based image recognition software to determine if the visitor is welcome.
HomeAssassin recognizes common clothing patterns (police, salesmen,
Jehovah's Witnesses) and facial expressions (angry neighbors, psychotic
killers) and dispatches the Ninja Assassins as needed.
Beta testers of the product were pleased with the results with only
a few complaints. "Sure, I had a couple of false positives,
sorry about your kids Mrs. Holcomb, but overall it works very well," said
Darcy Raub of Youngstown, Ohio.
Ted Harkin of Missouri loves the HomeAssassin system, "I don't
have to do anything. I just wake up in the morning look quickly through
my trash bin to make sure nothing got assassinated by mistake. Then,
I just dump the remains on the compost heap."
A competing product DoorBayes uses Bayesian style filtering. DoorBayes
uses similar facial and clothing recognition software, but it requires
a period of training to "learn" who is welcome and who
is not. Matthew Sautner, CEO of DoorBayes LLC described the training
process. "For example, slam the door in your mother-in-law's
face once and the next time she visits the DoorBayes will do it for
you," he said.
Johnson said the SpamAssassin group plans on developing a DatingMyDaughterAssassin
product for early next year.
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