{"id":1762,"date":"2011-03-28T15:35:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-28T19:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ipcamerasupply.com\/?p=1762"},"modified":"2011-03-28T15:35:16","modified_gmt":"2011-03-28T19:35:16","slug":"facial-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voipsupply.com\/blog\/ip-camera-supply\/facial-recognition\/","title":{"rendered":"Facial Recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been talking about intelligent video applications including license plate recognition.\u00a0 Another specialized application with huge potential across many vertical markets with almost unlimited uses is facial recognition.<\/p>\n

Other advanced security measures like biometrics that can recognize various features of the hand\u00a0are also still on the cutting edge of technology but even\u00a0they are more widely used more than facial recognition software.<\/p>\n

An emerging high-profile application, facial recognition has the potential for greater accuracy than other advanced systems and is easier to integrate into a surveillance system.<\/p>\n

Uses<\/h2>\n

The benefits of\u00a0facial recognition can be realized in\u00a0a virutally endless\u00a0amount of applications across many markets.<\/p>\n

Police<\/strong><\/p>\n

Police can receive alerts when people on their watch list are seen in public or specific areas of interest.<\/p>\n

Access Control<\/strong><\/p>\n

Facial recognition can be used to\u00a0grant access to restricted areas only to specific individuals.<\/p>\n

Investigations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Search for people in recorded surveillance video.\u00a0 For example, casino’s could identify patrons who have been banned.<\/p>\n

Border Patrol<\/strong><\/p>\n

Customs can use facial recognition to more accurately identify individuals of interest and help speed the process of manually checking citizens documentation.<\/p>\n

What’s the process?<\/h2>\n

Similar to license plate recognition<\/a>\u00a0but with a major difference.\u00a0 Instead of being able to define what the system should look for beforehand such as specific combinations of letters and numbers, facial recogntion systems need to build a database of faces in order to recognize someone passing by.<\/p>\n

Other than that, the process uses these steps:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Find the person:\u00a0 <\/strong>When not standing still, the first step the system implements is finding the person in the image.<\/li>\n
  2. Face finding:\u00a0 <\/strong>Next, the face is isolated from the rest of the body in the image.<\/li>\n
  3. Identify facial features:\u00a0 <\/strong>Typical parts of the face (eyes, nose, mouth, chin), skin\/hair color)\u00a0are identified and a unique pattern of the person’s face is constructed.<\/li>\n
  4. Matching<\/strong>:\u00a0 The last step is matching the facial pattern with those in\u00a0the database to identify an actual person.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Challenges<\/h2>\n

    The obstacles facing an efficient facial recognition system are substantial but the rewards can be great.\u00a0 Even perfect lighting and weather conditions can’t overcome the challenge of getting a good look at someone.\u00a0 That is, people are always moving around and will rarely look directly into a camera.\u00a0 Still, 3D facial recogntion systems are being introduced and the overall technology is continually being improved upon.<\/p>\n

    A reliable system may still be years away but the technology exists today.\u00a0 The Panasonic i-PRO<\/a> line of SmartHD IP cameras and network video recorders offer a limited face matching technology.\u00a0 This Panasonic\u00a0facial recognition system only works when the IP camera and NVR are paired together.\u00a0 Product examples that offer this are:<\/p>\n