What is face recognition?
Face recognition is a way of identifying or verifying a person using the unique features of their face, much like a fingerprint. It belongs to the category of biometric security, alongside fingerprint, voice and iris recognition. Today, face recognition is used in many ways, including security and law enforcement, and its use is likely to expand into other areas.
How face recognition works
Many people know face recognition through Face ID on the iPhone, but the technology is used in many other ways too. In general, a face recognition system does not rely on a large database of photos to identify people. Instead, it analyzes and remembers the unique features of a face, creating a kind of “faceprint” for each person, to restrict access to devices or specific areas.
The steps of a face recognition system
- Face detection: the camera detects and locates a face in an image, whether it shows one person or a crowd.
- Face analysis: the system analyzes the shape of the face, the distance between the eyes, the depth of the eye sockets and the shape of the cheekbones, lips, ears and chin to create key facial landmarks.
- Converting the image to data: the analyzed face data is converted into a digital data set, a faceprint unique to each person.
- Finding a match: the system compares your faceprint with a database of known faces, such as those of the FBI, Facebook or other security systems.