The Reason This "Racist Soap Dispenser" Doesn't Work on Black Skin

[TexasTowelie]

At a Marriott hotel in Atlanta, the soap dispensers have a little bit of a race problem.

An African-American guest of the Dragon Con sci-fi and fantasy convention visited a bathroom in the event's host hotel and discovered the soap dispenser, from a British company called Technical Concepts, wouldn't sense his hands. When his friend, a white man named Larry, tried after him, out came the soap.

This ordeal was captured on film. And while there's plenty of giggling in the video, it's because of sheer absurdity of a technology that is meant to sense motion, not skin tone, yet is inoperable based on pigment.

"I wasn't offended, but it was so intriguing, like 'Why is it not recognizing me?'" T.J. Fitzpatrick, the narrator of the video, told Mic. "I tried all the soap dispensers in that restroom, there were maybe 10, and none of them worked. Any time I went into that restroom, I had to have my friend get the soap for me."

Read more: http://mic.com/articles/124899/the-reason-this-racist-soap-dispenser-doesn-t-work-on-black-skin

[font color=330099]Wow, I never heard about this problem before today.[/font]

[yeoman6987]

1. A new one. Marriott hopefully will do something

I am sure it wasn't planned but now that it has become aware. The fix is needed.

[haele]

2. It has to do with the light beam scatter the sensor is set to.

I used to maintain operations consoles that had LED variable action button matrix panels where the operator was supposed to break an x-axis and a y-axis beam to initiate a date change. Depending on the manufacturer, the whiter you were, the more erroneous button states would occur just from the way your skin reflected the light back.
I used to have to wrap my index fingers in electricians tape just to work on those panels.
I suspect this is a setting issue on the dispenser. Hopefully, it can be adjusted and isn't a design flaw because the designer didn't think that there were other skin tones than pale or lightly tanned.

Haele

[JustAnotherGen]

3. It's the little things . . .