Facial Recognition Technology May Soon be Part of Your Travel Plans

Now that the 2014 Winter Olympic Games have passed into history, we can exhale in relief that they passed without any of the fears of terrorism coming to fruition. Some credit should be given to the Sochi

International Airport’s use of Facial Recognition Technology  (FRT) to screen the thousands of athletes, spectators, and employees entering secure areas.  Several other Russian airports employ the technology, and airports around the world are mulling over how they can use it as well.

Here in the U.S, the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate, which oversees all R&D, tests, and evaluations is gearing up to make Facial Recognition screening a permanent part of our travel plans as well.

 The Directorate serves on two fronts. 

• On the one hand, they gather input from DHS agents, law enforcement  and other emergency responders on what can be done to best prepare them for the risks they face day in and day out.
• With this information in hand, they set out to find who in the private sector, research labs, or academic world has the technology to make it happen.

To this end, the Directorate has commissioned an initial FRT evaluation project with the intent of determining  how and which:

• ·         how FRT can be put into place, not only at airports. but at all levels of government, and
• ·         which software companies employ algorithms that can best aid first responders .  

Since the intent of the study is more to evaluate the technology than to pinpoint a setting or application, the first step they took was to gather neutral video footage, choosing to film attendees at minor league hockey games in Washington State. 

The hockey arena fits the bill, in that it offers crowds of people funneling through ticket collection areas or milling about at refreshment stands; a similar milieu to airports, cruise ships, transportation hubs, inaugurations, and other functions that could be targets.

Attendees were given the opportunity to opt out. Only a handful did. The next step was to pair the actual images with fictional profiles of the volunteer participants to be used to compile a database. This is all part of the how stage, and as of this writing, that's where they remain.

However, once they have the data standardized, and know exactly what test methods they will use, DHS will begin the which stage, sending out a call to selected manufacturers for the algorithms their FRT software products use.  The various algorithms will then be applied to the collected data to test the strengths and weaknesses of each of the FRT products. 

A major determining factor will be the percentage of successful matches made vs. false positive matches. After all, isn’t that what’s it all about?

For information on facial recognition technology or IP cameras, call Kintronics at 914-944-3425 or fill out an information request form and a sales engineer will contact you.