News and insight into biometric identification and authentication

UK researchers claim 100% accuracy in facial recognition

Monday, January 28, 2008

Mike Burton, professor of psychology at Glasgow University, and lecturer Rob Jenkins claim to have achieved 100% accuracy with facial recognition technology.

Lighting, angle of the photo and other factors typically interfere with getting an accurate facial match. Burton and Jenkins got around this by taking 20 different photos and producing an average photo.

“We modeled human familiarity by using image averaging to derive stable face representations from naturally varying photographs,” the two say in a paper published in the January issue of Science. “This simple procedure increased the accuracy of an industry standard face-recognition algorithm from 54% to 100%, bringing the robust performance of a familiar human to an automated system.”

Law enforcement and government officials have tried to use facial recognition biometrics to identify individuals in a crowd, but it hasn’t been very successful.

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Luxand announced release of a free, downloadable version of its Blink! facial recognition software. The software provides as a biometric-based login service Windows 7 and Windows Vista operating systems via a user’s regular webcam. In addition to authenticating the individual accessing the computer, Blink! also takes and records a still image of each person trying to access the computer to help prevent unauthorized access, and touts the ability to correctly recognize stored faces despite poor lighting conditions or basic changes in a user’s look such as glasses or hair cuts.  

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A facial recognition system developed by California-based biometric technology developer Airborne Biometrics Group (ABG) is seeing use in a number of industries including government, casinos, transportation and corporations, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal article.

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Skeletal scanning technology developed at Wright State University could hold potential as a new biometric mode particularly effective in weeding out people of interest from crowds, according to an Ubergizmo article.

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Animetrics has announced the release of a new facial recognition authentication service available on certain mobile phones.

The service, called FaceR CredentialME, is available on devices using the Android, Windows Mobile and RIM operating systems on the Sprint 3G or 4G networks and was launched in conjunction with Troy Security Solutions, a mobile products and solutions provider.

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Biometric Intelligence & Identification Technologies has announced it has been awarded a contract with the Massachusetts Sheriffs’ Association (MSA) for providing facial recognition systems to each county’s sheriff’s department as well as a number of individual police departments in the state.

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Airports in Barcelona and Madrid in Spain have installed self-service kiosks available for use by holders of Spanish citizen ID cards or European Community electronic passports, according to a Pro Security Zone article.

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