We’ve all seen facial recognition technologies on TV from FBI to CSI in action. We see computer matching faces in real time that image through the database to find a match and identify the person. This technology is not new but has gradually improved from both speed and accuracy over the years.
Accuracy is still a challenge. Boston's Logan Airport also ran two separate tests of facial recognition systems at its security checkpoints using volunteers but the results were disappointing. According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the system only had a 61.4 percent accuracy rate, leading airport officials to drop the idea. A few PC companies are now incorporating them as part of laptop security.
We have always had the innate ability to recognize and distinguish between faces usually with expressions. Each human face has approximately 80 nodal points. Some of these measured by the software include 1/ Distance between the eyes 2/Width of the nose 3/Depth of the eye sockets 5/The shape of the cheekbones 6/The length of the jaw line. It is like a 3D landscape map.
When a few laptop manufactures started incorporating facial recognition technologies as security for laptops, many have played with it and quick to discover that it can easily be manipulated. All you need is to hold up a photo in front of the camera. You wonder if they’d thought of that when they designed the software?
Face identification and verification is a a good idea because it non-invasive, broad useful, and user-friendly. The problem is to distinguish persons based on face appearances of different position, size, illumination, pose and age: face detection, feature location, size and grey level of face appearance normalization. Also, feature extraction and classification should be the focuses of face recognition research. Dealing with 3D pose variation and aging is the most difficult problem to tackle. When the technology finally matures, it will be everywhere from ATM to parking lot and vending machine?
Here's a user scenario, in 2012 I walk up to an ATM machine and it recognizes my face, as added security it ask me to make a special facial expression (we all have our own and it is like our signatures), then a voice says "How much?: and I say "Four hundred bucks". In just 5 seconds, money starts coming out. If ever I am in distress, I can pre-registered a facial expression so whenever it sees it, it will contact the police. I'll ask Jeff (photo above, our head of human factor) and see what he thinks of this idea.
