Facial recognition: it’s much more widespread than you might think
Governments, retailers and social networks are driving multiple-use scenarios toward ubiquitous facial recognition capability, a technology that’s moved out of the realm of fiction and Hollywood (George Orwell’s novels, or Mission Impossible, Bourne Ultimatum, Minority Report or Matrix Reloaded) into the realm of everyday acceptance.
There are the applications and tools that “suggest” the identity of a given person, ranging from who is the actor on the screen, to the much more problematic and frankly creepy ability to collect information on the stranger across the aisle from me on the subway using an app on my smartphone.
No country is having more success in adoption of facial recognition technologies than China – which isn’t too surprising given the years of authoritarian introspection into the lives of the Chinese citizen.
Do China’s residents really find the facial recognition capabilities useful? Absolutely, as there is little pushback given the different perspective on privacy which exists in China. MIT’s April/May 2017 Technology Review highlighted the myriad ways facial recognition is being used in China.
And who can forget the success enjoyed by the Chinese app, Baby Come Home, built to connect missing children with their parents? The technology, created with Microsoft, reunited a father with his child, who had been missing for four years.
Lest we think China is the only country embracing the technology successfully, there are many others, too – and more than a few whose implementation is not sitting well with people.
Fancy football (soccer)? The Champions League Finals in the UK earlier in June 2017 let a contract to have faces scanned at the stadium and central rail station – a scenario for real-time review of unknown individuals and identify them against a database of known individuals, presumably bad guys.
The US NIST, in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, conducted a multi-year project called, Face in Video Evaluation (FIVE). The purpose of the project was to determine if algorithms could “correctly identify or ignore persons appearing in video sequences”. The identified scenarios included high-volume screening within crowded venues, forensic screening (crime scene), crime video review (such as bank video of a robbery), video-conferencing, and individuals appearing in video footage (television).
Fly much? Airports around the globe have been using facial recognition for a number of years (Brazil, UAE, and US), but only recently have we seen airlines rolling out use scenarios. Both Jet Blue and Delta are experimenting with facial recognition: Jet Blue as part of the boarding process; and Delta for passengers to self-check their luggage.
