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Face Recognition

  


Face recognition is the verification of a person by a machine using their facial features. It is a type of biometric identifier popularly used to authenticate users and for access control.  It uses the physical pattern of the face such as the eyes, lips, etc. to uniquely identify the person and convert it into a unique mathematical equation.

 

Working:

Facial recognition works in three steps: detection, analysis and recognition.

1) Detection: The camera detects the face or finds the face in an image that may contain many faces be it in front or side profile using various algorithms and ML. One of the simplest features to detect in a face is the eyes, which are used by these algorithms to find a face.


2) Analysis: The image captured is analyzed. The software basically reads the geometry of our face i.e. distance between eyes, shape of cheekbones, depth of eye sockets, distance between nose and mouth and the contour of our ears, lips, chin etc.

Based on the person's facial traits, the analog information (a face) is converted into a collection of digital information (a string of numbers) called faceprint which is unique to every person.


3) Recognition: The faceprint is then compared against the database of faces and the required face is recognized by the software.

It is accurate under some circumstances like clear facial features (without mask or goggles), controlled color of background, consistent positioning, good camera quality and image resolution.

 


Applications:

1) Cyber security: Passwords can be easily hacked while biometrics are a permanent solution. Therefore, people use biometric recognition to strengthen cyber security measures. Various phones, nowadays use this technique to unlock the device and ensure safety.  

2) Fraud detection: Companies have adopted face recognition to authenticate users and identify them uniquely. They can detect the identity of a person in case of any suspicious attack.

3) Airports: Airports use this biometric data as passports, while entering the face is scanned and passport is checked automatically. It reduces the time that passengers use to spend standing in long lines instead they can walk through ePassport automated system.

4) Banking: Biometric online payments can make transactions easier and safer as we can make transactions after verifying our faces. Therefore, no passwords mean no room for hackers to hack our personal information.

5) Healthcare: Hospitals use this technique to know the history of any patient like what diseases the person had and from how much time. It also detects emotion and pain in patients. Also, it is used to ensure that the person takes medication as prescribed.

 

Advantages:

1) Increased security: Facial recognition is used for securing personal data and information. It can also be used to detect criminals in public.

2) Reduces time: It removes the human effort of searching for a particular person, it can search in masses. Also, the time we used to spend standing in line in ATMs could be easily reduced with the help of a facial recognition system.

3) Secure and fast: In this era of cyber-attacks and advanced hacking tools, face recognition is a good tool to verify a person’s identity.

4) Integration: It can be easily integrated with the existing security features and technologies. For example, smartphones have built-in face recognition system which accordingly sorts the photos of the gallery.

 

Disadvantages:

1) Not error free: This is machine-based technology and we all know machines can be easily tricked. With a little change of angle and a new hairstyle, people may succeed in fooling the system.

2) Breach of privacy: While in public, these cameras can detect criminals but the common masses also cannot refrain from being captured. Privacy cannot be maintained as we can easily track anyone down.

3) Huge data storage: This technique works on machine learning algorithms that require huge data sets for an accurate result. For this large data, efficient storage is required and data management should be proper.

 

Conclusion:

Facial technology is widely used nowadays for authentication purposes due to its smooth and fast user experience. Law enforcement companies are using face recognition techniques actively to ensure obedience to their laws. It is proven to be one of the best biometrics due to its least physical contact with the individual.

 

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