Facial Recognition Technology

     From unlocking your tech devices to automagically accessing your account on an ATM, facial recognition technology is becoming more and more prevalent by the day. Many tech companies are looking for ways to substitute the common written or typed character password with a more intuitive and personal form of identification. I looked at one of these methods in a previous blog post about fingerprint scanning (you can see more about this here). 

    Facial recognition as an alternative to character passwords is certainly the most common use in every-day life, but this technology is also used heavily in law enforcement. For instance, video capturing technology may be used to record the faces of those involved in criminal acts. Stills can be taken from the video, which can then be resized and interpreted as a 3D model of their physical features. Computer algorithms are used to determine many different quantitative aspects of the 3D model, such as distance between a persons eyes, the length of their nose, the shape of their facial features, and so many more. The more aspects taken into consideration means better accuracy when identifying the person in question. Once these calculations are run, the computer can compare this data with existing points in the system and ultimately decide whether an arbitrary closeness threshold is met. 

      This form of technology is not without its downfalls. Many consider it to be an invasion of privacy, as there is the possibility that the data collected could be used without the consent of the person photographed. The tech news site WeLiveSecurity reports that in a recent study, it was shown that around 75% of US consumers would not visit a store that openly used facial recognition technology for marketing purposes. This data shows that while facial recognition technology is making great leaps in innovation, the views of the general public may limit its use due to privacy concerns.

Sources

- http://www.welivesecurity.com/2015/08/24/facial-recognition-technology-work/

- http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/facial-recognition2.htm

- http://tinyurl.com/zgqocz9