Biometric -Face Recognition Technology

Introduction:

Face recognition technology is secured and fastest biometric technology. Technology requires identifier – the human face.Due to hygiene issue other technology like fingerprint,palm etc are not acceptable in some cultures.

Instead of requiring people to place their hand on a reader or precisely position their eye in front of a scanner, face recognition systems takes pictures of people’s faces with ease as they enter a defined area. There is no intrusion or delay, and in most cases the subjects are entirely unaware of the process. People do not feel “under surveillance” or infringement of privacy.

About Technology

System analyzes the characteristics of a person’s face images taken from a digital video camera. It measures the overall facial structure, including distances between eyes, nose, mouth, and jaw edges. These measurements are stored in a database and used as a comparison when a user comes in front of digital camera.

Face recognition has been accepted by people for recognizing potential threats but it has got one major disadvantage as it can not used for large sample.In small size organizations, biometric facial recognition technology becomes more popular than fingerprint biometrics for user authentication

Every individual’s face has enormous , distinguishable feature points, the different peaks and valleys that make up facial features. Each human face has approximately 80 nodal points. Some of these measured by the Facial Recognition Technology are:

  • Distance between the eyes
  • Width of the nose
  • Depth of the eye sockets
  • The shape of the cheekbones
  • The length of the jaw line
  • These nodal points are measured creating a numerical code, called a faceprint, representing the face in the database

Working of Facial Recognition Technology:

The following points defines the facial biometric systems working:

  • Face Capture – a physical or behavioral sample is captured by the system during enrollment
  • Extraction – unique data is extracted from the sample and a template is created
  • Comparison – the template is then compared with a new sample
  • Matching – System compares ,if the features extracted from the new sample are matching or not When the user faces the camera. The system will locate the user’s face and perform matches against the the facial database.

It is possible that the user may need to to move and reattempt the verification based on his facial position. The system usually gives result in less than 5 seconds.

Applications :

Face recognition System can be used in high traffic areas , such as:

  • Airports and railway stations
  • Corporations
  • Cashpoints
  • Sport Stadiums
  • Public transportation
  • Financial institutions
  • Government offices
  • Small/Medium Scale Organization