CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Face recognition is the task of identifying an already detected object as a known or

unknown face. Often the problem of face recognition is confused with the problem of
face detection. Face Recognition on the other hand is to decide if the "face" is someone
known, or unknown, using a database of faces for this purpose in order to validate this
input face.

1.1 Background

Face recognition is typically used in security systems. Besides that, it is also used in
human computer interaction. In order to develop this project eigenfaces method is used
for training and testing faces. It has received significant attention up to the point that
some face recognition conferences have emerged. A general statement of the problem
can be formulated as follows, given still or video images of a scene, one or more persons
in the scene can be identified using a stored database of faces. The solution of the
problem involves face detection, feature extraction from the face regions and
recognition. To develop this project, we used the eigenfaces method. Eigenfaces are a
set of eigenvectors used in the computer vision problem of human face recognition. A
set of eigenfaces can be generated by performing a mathematical process called
principal component analysis (PCA) on a large set of images depicting different human
faces. The key procedure in PCA is based on Karhumen-Loeve transformation. If the
image elements are considered to be random variables, the image may be seen as a
sample of a stochastic process. The focus of the research is to find the accuracy of
eigenfaces method in face recognition.
We have focused our research toward developing a sort of unsupervised pattern
recognition scheme that does not depend on excessive geometry and computations like
deformable templates. Eigenfaces approach seemed to be an adequate method to be
used in face recognition due to its simplicity, speed and learning capability. The
scheme is based on an information theory approach that decomposes face images into
a small set of characteristic feature images called eigenfaces, which may be thought of
as the principal components of the initial training set of face images.
1.1.1 Problem Description
(1) In security system, many types of password are used to access the private and
confidential data. Such password can be as insert characters (key in pin) and touch smart
card using RFID technology. Passwords and PINs are hard to remember and can be
stolen or guessed; cards, tokens, keys and the like can be misplaced, forgotten,
purloined or duplicated; magnetic cards can become corrupted and unreadable. By
developed face recognition it more secure because facial image had been used as the
ID. It also helps to avoid any duplicated identification.
(2) Other problem is to identifying certain criminals especially in identification
technique used by the police. Face recognition helps to recognize the facial image in
more efficient and accurate in order to match with the identity stored in the database.
1.1.2 Different Approaches of Face Recognition
There are two predominant approaches to the face recognition problem:
 Geometric (feature based) and
 photometric (view based).
As researcher interest in face recognition continued, many different algorithms were
developed, three of which have been well studied in face recognition literature.
Recognition algorithms can be divided into two main approaches:
1. Geometric: Is based on geometrical relationship between facial landmarks, or in
other words the spatial configuration of facial features. That means that the main
geometrical features of the face such as the eyes, nose and mouth are first located and
then faces are classified on the basis of various geometrical distances and angles
between features.
2. Photometric stereo: Used to recover the shape of an object from a number of images
taken under different lighting conditions. The shape of the recovered object is defined
by a gradient map, which is made up of an array of surface normals (Zhao and
Chellappa, 2006)

 VARIOUS METHODS FOR FACE RECOGNITION

1. Face Recognition Based on Independent Component Analysis:

A number of current face recognition algorithms use face representations found by
unsupervised statistical methods. Typically, these methods find a set of basis images
and represent faces as a linear combination of those images. Principal
component analysis (PCA) is a popular example of such methods. The basis images
found by PCA depend only on pair wise relationships between pixels in the image
database. In a task such as face recognition, in which important information may be
contained in the high-order relationships among pixels, it seems reasonable to expect
that better basis images may be found by methods sensitive these high-order
statistics. Independent component analysis (ICA), a generalization of PCA, is one such
method. We used a version of ICA derived from the principle of optimal information
transfer through sigmoidal neurons. ICA was performed on face images in the FERET
database under two different architectures, one which treated the images as random
variables and the pixels as outcomes, and a second which treated the pixels as random
variables and the images as outcomes. The first architecture found spatially local basis
images for the faces. The second architecture produced a factorial face code. Both ICA
representations were superior to representations based on PCA for recognizing faces
across days and changes in expression. A classifier that combined the two ICA
representations gave the best performance.

Principal Component Analysis (or Karhunen-Loeve expansion) is a suitable strategy

for face recognition because it identifies variability between human faces, which may
not be immediately obvious. Principal Component Analysis (hereafter PCA) does not
attempt to categorise faces using familiar geometrical differences, such as nose length
or eyebrow width. Instead, a set of human faces is analysed using PCA to determine
which 'variables' account for the variance of faces. In face recognition, these variables
are called Eigen faces because when plotted they display an eerie resemblance to
human faces. Although PCA is used extensively in statistical analysis, the pattern
recognition community started to use PCA for classification only relatively recently.
As described by Johnson and Wichern (1992), 'principal component analysis is
concerned with explaining the variance- covariance structure through a few linear
combinations of the original variables.' Perhaps PCA's greatest strengths are in its
ability for data reduction and interpretation. For example a 100x100 pixel area
containing a face can be very accurately represented by just 40 Eigen values. Each
Eigen value describes the magnitude of each eigen face in each image. Furthermore,
all interpretation (i.e. recognition) operations can now be done using just the 40 Eigen
values to represent a face instead of the manipulating the 10000 values contained in a
100x100 image. Not only is this computationally less demanding but the fact that the
recognition information of several thousand.

Fig 7.3.1 (Principal Component Analysis transform from 'image space' to 'face
space'.)

Using Principal Component Analysis, the segmented frontal view face image is
transformed from what is sometimes called 'image space' to 'face space'. All faces in
the face database are transformed into face space. Then face recognition is achieved by
transforming any given test image into face space and comparing it with the training
set vectors. The closest matching training set vector should belong to the same
individual as the test image. Principal Component Analysis is of special interest because
the transformation to face space is based on the variation of human faces (in the training
set). The values of the 'face space' vector correspond to the amount certain 'variations'
are present in the test image

2. Eigen-spaces:
Any grey scale face image I (x, y) consisting of a NxN array of intensity values may
also be consider as a vector of N2. For example, a typical 100x100 image used in this
thesis will have to be transformed into a 10000-dimension vector!

Fig 7.3.2.1 (A 7x7 face image transformed into a 49-dimension vector)

This vector can also be regarded as a point in 10000-dimension space. Therefore, all
the images of subjects' whose faces are to be recognized can be regarded as points in
10000 dimensions space. Face recognition using these images is doomed to failure
because all human face images are quite similar to one another so all associated vectors
are very close to each other in the 10000dimension space.

The transformation of a face from image space (I) to face space (f) involves just a
simple matrix multiplication. If the average face image is A and U contains the
(previously calculated) Eigen faces, f = U * (I - A). This is done to all the face images
in the face database (database with known faces) and to the image (face of the
subject) which must be recognized. The possible results when projecting a face into
face space are given in the following figure. .
There are four possibilities:
1. Projected image is a face and is transformed near a face in the face database.
2. Projected image is a face and is not transformed near a face in the face database.
3. Projected image is not a face and is transformed near a face in the face database.

4. Projected image is not a face and is not transformed near a face in the face database
while it is possible to find the closest known face to the transformed image face by
calculating the Euclidean distance to the other vectors, how does one know whether
the image that is being transformed actually contains a face? Since PCA is a many-to-
one transform, several vectors in the image space (images) will map to a point in face
space (the problem is that even non-face images may transform near a known face
image's faces space vector). Turk and Pentland (1991a), described a simple way of
checking whether an image is actually of a face. This is by transforming an image into
face space and then transforming it back (reconstructing) into image space. Using the
previous notation,
I' = UT *U * (I – A)

With these calculations it is possible to verify that an image is of a face and recognise
that face. O'Toole et al. (1993) did some interesting work on the importance of Eigen
faces with large and small eigenvalues. They showed that the Eigen vectors with larger
eigenvalues convey information relative to the basic shape and structure of the faces.
This kind of information is most useful in categorising faces according to sex, race etc.
Eigen vectors with smaller eigenvalues tend to capture information that is specific to
single or small subsets of learned faces and are useful for distinguishing a particular
face from any other face. Turk and Pentland (1991a) showed that about 40 Eigen faces
were sufficient for a very good description of human faces since the reconstructed
image have only about 2% RMS. pixel-by-pixel errors.

Eigen space-based face recognition corresponds to one of the most successful

methodologies for the computational recognition of faces in digital images. Starting
with the Eigen face-Algorithm, different Eigen space-based approaches for the
recognition of faces have been pro-posed. They differ mostly in the kind of projection
method used (standard, differential, or kernel Eigen space), in the projection algorithm
employed, in the use of simple or differential
images before/after projection, and in the similarity matching criterion
or classification method employed. The aim of this paper is to present an independent
comparative study among some of the main Eigen space-based approaches. We
believe that carrying out independent studies is relevant, since comparisons are
normally performed using the implementations of the research groups that have
proposed each method, which does not consider completely equal working
conditions for the algorithms. Very often, a contest between the abilities of the
research groups rather than a comparison between methods is performed. This study
considers theoretical aspects as well as simulations performed using the Yale Face
Database. A database with few classes and several images per class, and FERET, a
database with many classes and few images per class.

3. Elastic bunch Graph Matching

Elastic Bunch Graph Matching is one of the well-known methods proposed for face
recognition. In this work, we propose several extensions to Elastic Bunch Graph
Matching and its recent variant Landmark Model Matching. We used data from the
FERET database for experimentations and to compare
the proposed methods. We apply Particle Swarm Optimization to improve the face
graph matching procedure in Elastic Bunch Graph Matching method and demonstrate
its usefulness. Landmark Model Matching depends solely on Gabor wavelets for
feature extraction to locate the landmarks (facial feature points). We show that
improvements can be made by combining Grey-level profiles with Gabor wavelet
features for feature extraction. Furthermore, we achieve improved recognition rates
by hybridizing Gabor wavelet with Eigen face features found by Principal Component
Analysis, which would provide information contained in the overall appearance of
a face. We use Particle Swarm Optimization to fine tune the hybridization
weights.[3]Results of both fully automatic and partially automatic versions of all
methods are presented. The best-performing method improves the recognition rate up
to 22.6speeds up then processing time by 8 times over the Elastic Bunch Graph
Matching for the fully automatic case.

4. Linear Discriminant Analysis

Both PCA and ICA do not use face class information. Linear Discriminant
Analysis (LDA) finds ancient way to represent the face vector space by exploiting the
class information. It differentiates individual faces but recognizes faces of the same
individual. LDA searches for vectors in the underlying space that best discriminate
among classes. For all the samples of all classes, two measures are defined.

Face recognition systems are useful in law enforcement and justice solutions by
staying one step ahead of the world’s ever-advancing criminals. This includes
acclaimed CABS-computerized arrest and booking system and the child base
protection which is a software solution for global law enforcement agencies to help
protect and recover missing and sexually exploited children, particularly
as it relates to child pornography. It is also useful in Homeland defences which
includes everything from preventing terrorists from boarding aircraft, to protecting
critical infrastructure from attack or tampering (e.g. dams, bridges, water
reservoirs, energy plants, etc.), to the identification of known terrorists. It is also
applicable in airport and other transportation terminal security. Face recognition
software, can enhance the effectiveness of immigration and customs personnel. The
financial services industry revolves around the concept of security. Face
recognition software, can improve the security of the financial services industry,
saving the institution time and money both through a reduction of fraud case and the
administration expenses of dealing with forgotten passwords. Furthermore, biometric-
based access control units can safeguard vaults, teller areas, and safety deposit boxes
to protect against theft. The use of biometrics can also ensure that confidential
information remains confidential while deterring identity theft, particularly
as it relates to ATM terminals and card-not-present e-commerce transactions. It
allows capturing, archiving, and retrieving identifying characteristics as tattoos,
marks, or scars. It can also analyse scenes from either streaming or archived video,
looking for out-of-the-ordinary occurrences, the presence of certain vehicles, specific
faces, etc. This is beneficial and can save significant time and money to those
individuals who spend hours, days, or weeks
monitoring video streams (i.e. examining a bank’s security in a criminal
investigation).

1.1.3 Objectives
1) To comprehend eigenfaces method of recognizing faces images and tests its
accuracy.
2) To design and develop a face recognition using MATLAB
3) To set up test platform for determining the accuracy of this technique.
4) To design graphic user interface (GUI) using MATLAB to generated the
program.

1.1.4 Scopes of project

1) Focus on research about face recognition in eigenfaces method by using
MATLAB
2) Based on software programming and GUI. Simulation by using MATLAB
programming to implement face recognition system.
3) Three main steps to recognition the faces:
i) Construct face database of known face image
ii) Input is the unknown face image
iii) Output is recognizing result.
Identifying the unknown image by comparing with the image in the database.

1.2 Modules & its Description

1. An automated mechanism that scans and captures a digital or an analog image

of a living personal characteristics. (enrolment module)
2. Another entity which handles compression, processing, storage and
compression of the captured data with stored data (database)
3. The third interfaces with the application system (identification module)

Enrolment Module
Pre-processing Analysed
and data
segmentation Analysis

User Interface System

Database
 Face

Verification Module
Preprossesing Face reg &
and scoring
segmentation Analysis

Accept/Reject

User interface captures the analog or digital image of the person's face. In the enrolment
module the obtained sample is pre-processed and analysed. This analysed data is stored
in the database for the purpose of future comparison.

The database compresses the obtained sample and stores it. It should have retrieval
property also that is it compares the entire stored sample with the newly obtained
sample and retrieves the matched sample for the purpose of verification by the user and
determine whether the match declared is right or wrong.

The verification module also consists of a pre-processing system. Verification means

the system checks as to who the person says he or she is and gives a yes or no decision.
In this module the newly obtained sample is pre-processed and compared with the
sample stored in the database. The decision is taken depending on the match obtained
from the database. Correspondingly the sample is accepted or rejected.

Instead of verification module we can make use of identification module. In this the
sample is compared with all the other samples stored in the database. For each
comparison made a match score is given. The decision to accept or reject the sample
depends on this match score falling above or below a predetermined threshold.

The implementation of face recognition technology includes the following four stages:
1. data acquisition
2. input processing
3. face image classification and
4. decision making

Data acquisition:
The input can be recorded video of the speaker or a still image. A sample of 1 sec
duration consists of a 25 frame video sequence. More than one camera can be used to
produce a 3D representation of the face and to protect against the usage of
photographs to gain unauthorized access.

Input processing:
A pre-processing module locates the eye position and takes care of the surrounding
lighting condition and colour variance. First the presence of faces or face in a scene
must be detected. Once the face is detected, it must be localized and normalization
process may be required to bring the dimensions of the live facial sample in alignment
with the one on the template.

Some facial recognition approaches use the whole face while others concentrate on
facial components and/ or regions (such as lips, eyes etc.). The appearance of the face
can change considerably during speech and due to facial expressions. In particular the
mouth is subjected to fundamental change but is also very important source for
discriminating faces. So an approach to person recognition is developed based on
spatio-temporal modelling of features extracted from talking face. Models are trained
specific to a person’s speech articulate and the way that the person speaks. Person
identification is performed by tracking mouth movements of the talking face and by
estimating the likelihood of each model of having generated the observed sequence of
features. The model with the highest likelihood is chosen as the recognized person.

Block diagram:

Talking Face

Lip Tracker

Normalization

Thresholding

alignment

Score & Decision Accept/ Reject

Face image classification and decision making:

FACE SYNERGETIC
EXTRACTION COMPUTERS

DECISION
FACE IMAGE
STRATEGY

SYNERGETIC
LIP MOVEMENT
COMPUTERS

Synergetic computer are used to classify optical and audio features, respectively. A
synergetic computer is a set of algorithm that simulates synergetic phenomena. In
training phase the BIOID creates a prototype called face print for each person. A
newly recorded pattern is pre-processed and compared with each face print stored in
the database. As comparisons are made, the system assigns a value to the comparison
using a scale of one to ten. If a score is above a predetermined threshold, a match is
declared.

From the image of the face, a particular trait is extracted. It may measure various nodal
points of the face like the distance between the eyes, width of nose etc. it is fed to a
synergetic computer which consists of algorithm to capture, process, compare the
sample with the one stored in the database. We can also track the lip movements which
is also fed to the synergetic computer. Observing the likelihood each of the sample with
the one stored in the database we can accept or reject the sample.

1.3 Hardware used specification

1.3.1 Web camera (25 MP interpolated with high quality CMOS sensor, motion
sensor and night vision)

1.3.2 A personal computer system

1.3.3 Hard Disk Drive (40GB)

1.3.5 RAM (4GB)

1.3.6 Processor (64-bit)

1.4 Software used specification

1.4.1 MATLAB 9.3 (Version R2017a)

1.4.2 Professional Windows 10 pro

1.4.3 PCA Algorithm

1.4.4 Plug-ins for Webcam

1.4.5 Data Base Management System (DBMS)

1.4.6 Machine Learning (Neural Network)

1.5 Applications in various fields

The natural use of face recognition technology is the replacement of PIN, physical
tokens or both needed in automatic authorization or identification schemes. Additional
uses are automation of human identification or role authentication in such cases where
assistance of another human needed in verifying the ID cards and its beholder.
There are numerous applications for face recognition technology:
1. Airport security
Airports are always under the threat of terrorist and criminal activities. International
airports are particularly sanative in this regard, as they can be the first or the last place
visited by criminals or terrorists before they enter or exit the country. This presents a
security challenge as well as an opportunity to catch criminals and terrorists while
they try to cross the international border of a country. Face recognition can address
the security challenges at the airports and help law enforcement agencies identify
known subjects crossing the border or indulging in criminal or terrorist activity.
Efforts to lay airport security with face biometrics are already underway in many parts
of the world. In the United States, Biometric Exit program at several airports requires
international travellers to go through the facial scan. Several other countries are also
adopting smart gates at airports to take travellers through facial scan before they can
board the flight. That is not all, surveillance cameras at the airport can be equipped
with face recognition ability to catch the subjects on surveillance that may be trying to
involve in a disruptive activity.
Being an international entry and exit point of a country, law enforcement agencies can
use facial recognition to identify subjects that they do not wish to enter or exit the
country.

2. Phone security
Mobile devices have become a hub of personal as well financial data of users. Present
day phones are used in taking photos, doing business and performing financial
transactions. Security requirements of these devices are as important as your bank
account, even more. We have seen PINs, passwords and patterns for phone security and
we have also seen them failing. Any shoulder surfer can steal them, patterns lock can
even be stolen by impression it makes on the device screen while swiping the pattern.
In recent years, phone security and even security of transactions performed on mobile
devices are increasingly moving towards facial biometrics. Initially, simpler
approaches of face recognition were implemented that leveraged front facing camera
of the device to capture facial details. Unfortunately, it was not secure enough as it
could be fooled with photographs. Addition of the requirement like blinking eyes or
smiling during the face scan tried to make them securer, however that too could be
fooled with a video clip.
Now smartphone manufacturers are looking at an entirely different approach: 3D map
of the facial structure. This method is claimed to be super secure, even securer than the
fingerprints recognition. 3D facial scan was first introduced by Apple with iPhone X,
Apple’s was so confident with its new facial recognition solution that it completely
ditched the fingerprint sensor on iPhone X. 3D facial scan makes use of an infrared
camera and a infrared light projector, which projects a pattern of infrared light on user’s
face and infrared camera captures it from different angles while the user rotates her
head, creating a 3D maps of the face.
3D facial recognition has not only elevated the level of phone security, it has also
improved security of transactions users perform on their smartphones using facial
recognition.

3. Student attendance with face recognition: to make sure college students aren’t
cutting class
Amid increasing cost of education and job market going through a cut throat
competition, educational outfits, specially colleges are under pressure to justify their
high tuition fees. Problem is that despite the high tuition fee paid, some students may
not attend the classes. Students not doing good in exams will eventually results in poor
college performance.
Keeping track of students attending (or not attending) classes can be tedious job when
done manually. It can cost a significant chunk of the class time, making the course fall
behind the schedule. Traditional roll calling is tedious, distracting and time consuming
job. It becomes a problem when there are a large numbers of students attend the class.

Also, traditional systems of attendance give students room to disappear after marking
their attendance. Facial recognition can make sure that students are not cutting classes
and attend the entire session. Unlike fingerprint recognition, face recognition does not
require students to mark their attendance separately. They can just go their class room
and the face recognition system can automatically identify them.
Face recognition is not limited till the student attendance. There are interesting
applications are emerging for use of face recognition in educational outfits. A school in
China is leveraging face recognition to make sure that students are paying attention.
4. Retail sector
Retail is the business of selling goods to the end-users in smaller quantities, which are
purchased in bulk at a cheaper price. Now with a number of channels like online, direct
sales, brick-and-mortar stores, etc. available, customers now have a choice to pick their
product as per their suitability. Rise of online stores has helped suppliers to cut costs
and offer benefits and cheaper prices to the consumers. Retail sector faces fierce
internal competition among different channels. Increasing numbers of online shoppers
and big brands investing in online channels have made it hard for retail stores to stay
profitable and they are now looking at technology to propose a solution.
Fortunately, face recognition offers all the help retail stores need to stay competitive.
Most stores already have surveillance cameras for monitoring and security. The
surveillance system can be equipped with facial recognition and leveraging target
marketing based on it, so customer can be treated uniquely. High value customers can
be retained by offering very competitive prices. When a customer enters the store, this
system can identify and track her movements and displays can show personalized
offers. It can also push offers to the mobile app if the customer has one installed on her
smartphone.
At retail POS terminals, facial recognition camera can perform facial scan of customers
and can brings up customer details like preferred payment method, loyalty account,
special discounts they are eligible for, etc. There is no need to ask for loyalty card or
phone number to fetch details. Where there are a large numbers of customers to process,
face recognition can save a lot of time collectively. Some stores around the world have
already started taking such initiatives and are looking at a card-free facial recognition
payment.
5. Law enforcement: criminal identification

Law enforcement agencies often face identification related challenges during their field
operations. When there is no other technological advantage leveraged, law enforcement
officers ask for a government issued ID (e.g. driving licence, civil ID card, etc.) to
verify identity claims. They make a good observation to match photograph on the ID
with the suspect’s face along with other details. This method sounds good enough as
you carry a government issued ID and you are what it says you are. Unfortunately, this
way of identity verification is not free from errors, no matter how fair it might seem.
Identity verification with printed IDs leaves some serious loopholes, which give
criminals and terrorists advantage of faking their identity. Suspects can easily leverage
technology to create fake IDs or buy genuine looking fake IDs from underground
marketplaces.
Facial recognition technology can help quickly identify suspects in the field.
Fortunately facial recognition technology is available on present day smartphone as
well as other handheld devices specially made for law enforcement applications. These
devices can connect to law enforcement agency’s systems to access biometric templates
of facial scans and confirm identity on the go. There is absolutely no need to go through
any manual process of checking IDs or any other method. With face recognition,
criminals and terrorists cannot hide their identity as they do with forged IDs.
Law enforcement agencies around the world are successfully using face recognition to
catch criminals. For example, Ecuador has reportedly achieved a significant decrease
in its crime rate by deploying facial recognition and other surveillance technology from
China.

 Law Enforcement: Minimizing victim trauma by narrowing mugshot searches,

verifying identify for court records, and comparing school surveillance camera
images to known child molesters.
 Security/Counterterrorism. Access control, comparing surveillance images to
known terrorists.
 Immigration: Rapid progression through Customs.

6. Biometrics in Banking – for Identification and Verification

Passwords are outdated, biometrics is the new way to securely identify and verify bank
customers. For a very long time, user name and password combination was thought of
as the most secured authentication mechanism for user accounts and devices. However,
the rising instances of fraudulent transactions and identity theft prove otherwise.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, banks are losing almost
$450 billion annually to cyber-crimes and fake transactions. This shows the magnitude
of this problem and the reason as to why banks need to invest in stronger authentication
schemes such as fingerprint identification.
7. Online payment
As more and more mobile devices reach the consumers, innovative yet secure ways of
banking and making payment are emerging. Mobile biometrics has dramatically cut the
identification and authentication time on mobile devices. With fingerprint scanners,
unlocking your phones is just a touch away and face recognition makes it possible to
do the same just with a glimpse at the front camera. Face biometrics, however, can do
much more than that, it can be used as an app lock, as a login methods and it can even
make payments online!
Payments with face recognition are getting popularity. There are many banks and
financial service institutions enabling customers to pay with facial
recognition (commonly referred to as selfie-pay) on banking and finance apps. This
ability is also expected to hit on POS terminal software when biometric payments to
become a commonplace. Some POS terminals have already started accepting mobile
payments, authenticated with fingerprints or face recognition.
8. Surveillance
Surveillance cameras play a major role in public, private and mass surveillance
applications. These cameras are used to record video of the surveilled area so that any
incident can be investigated later. This approach of surveillance is only been good for
investigation of incidents but not stopping them. Fortunately, face recognition
technology can address this shortcoming when used with surveillance camera systems.
A face recognition system does the job of matching digital photographs of already
identified subjects. This system, when used along with a surveillance system, can take
photographs out of recorded or live video footage and match them with the database of
already identified subjects. Intelligence agencies can put certain individuals on
surveillance and face recognition system can keep photos out of captured video stream.
If a match is found, the system can raise an alert with the location of the camera it was
captured at.
This approach gives security officials a chance to identify individuals looking to carry
out an incident beforehand and stop any disruptive activity. This approach is also being
leveraged in mass surveillance applications around the world to identify subjects out of
a large number of people.
9. Social media
Social media has become the platform where people connect and share their life via
texting, photos and videos with friend and family. Convenience of connecting with
others while being on your couch has already turned social media platforms into tech
giants like Facebook. Facebook, the largest social media platform, houses millions of
user videos and photographs captured from different distances, angles and lighting
conditions. It presents an opportunity for social media platforms to leverage facial
recognition (which most of them are already doing) to automatically identify
individuals using the service.
Face recognition of social media platforms can find your photos you are tagged or
untagged in. It can also alert you if any of your photos is uploaded by any user in your
circles. It can help user better manage their privacy preferences. Google Photos, a photo
sharing platform by Google, takes the sharing and managing the ever increasing number
of photos to the next level. With the help of face recognition and AI, it can identify
people, place and even pets in the photos uploaded by you.