Facial recognition: how it works, uses and the best facial identification programs

Facial recognition had its beginnings in the 60s. At that time the tools used were quite basic, with patterns where some features such as the distance between the eyes, ears, nose and mouth were measured. Currently, recognition can even occur with partially covered faces, with glasses, beards and other elements. It has become a multidisciplinary method where efforts and knowledge from different branches of science and technology are added. Today's facial identification has many uses and is an increasingly common tool in much of the world.

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What is facial recognition?

Facial recognition is a way of identifying people through their faces. The process is done by analyzing and comparing the person's shape, proportion (eye spacing, jaw length, etc.), contours, and facial features.

It is classified as one of the biometric forms of recognition, as is the case with recognition through fingerprints, voice or iris. There are different methods to obtain it: it can be in real time, through photos or videos. Nowadays it is increasingly used in daily processes.

Importance of facial identification

Facial biometrics have very useful and important uses in the digital age. It is a convenient tool for identifying criminals, blocking personal devices, accessing facilities, making payments, etc.

Advantages

It has many important advantages, such as the following:

Disadvantages

People recognition is a controversial topic, as it can constitute a privacy violation. One cannot lose sight of the fact that we are providing our image to various systems and software that could add any type of information without our knowledge or consent.

On the other hand, facial recognition processes are not free of errors. This can have serious consequences, such as implicating innocent people in a crime. An example of recognizing a person in the wrong way was in 2018. That year, Amazon's facial recognition program mistakenly identified 28 United States congressmen as people with criminal records, according to information provided by Newsweek.

Another fear that it raises is that it will be used as a discriminatory mechanism on racial issues or of any other nature and of course there is always the fear that our image may fall into the hands of cybercriminals.

In the European Union there are data protection laws, but it is necessary to observe the legislation of each country in relation to this important point. While it is true that governments can locate criminals with this method, they can also track any ordinary citizen at any time and use that system as a mechanism for mass surveillance, which can restrict individual liberties.

For these reasons, MEPs recently voted in favor of a permanent ban on facial recognition machines in public places, considering this a violation of privacy and human dignity. The prohibition of the use of private databases was also requested, for example, Clearview, a US company that is already used in several countries of the Union.

Disciplines involved in facial recognition

Different disciplines are involved in facial recognition:

How does facial recognition work?

Biometric recognition technology is constantly evolving and in recent years various increasingly efficient and accurate systems have been developed.

Steps in the facial identification process

There are different methods that can vary in themselves, but in general they work like this:

Factors that affect facial recognition

There are biometric processes such as fingerprints that are unalterable throughout life. Facial recognition is not like that and is conditioned by several factors, some natural such as aging and others induced such as plastic surgery. The most common factors are:

Uses of facial biometrics

Technology is immersed in our lives in many ways and it is increasingly common to validate our identity through biometric processes.

Current uses

This method has all kinds of uses: recreational, for security of mobile devices or computers, bank security, making payments, police surveillance systems, marketing and advertising measurements, etc.

Phone Access

Apple was a pioneer in implementing this technology. Now in mobiles the uses are multiple. There are applications that use facial recognition as a security measure for access to the phone, blocking applications, confirming bank transactions, blocking access to the gallery (photos and videos), etc. There is also a whole range of increasingly inventive developments related to the entertainment industry.

Payment method

Used to make payments in person and online. For example, in China the famous KFC restaurant chain was a pioneer in incorporating this system in this type of establishment in the country.

In Madrid, BBVA is the first bank to enable face detection as a payment system. This technology has been called "by the face" and consists of carrying out the transaction with the recognition of the users just by looking at the camera for a few seconds. Now it is an increasingly widespread method, used in all kinds of businesses and services.

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In Moscow it has been implemented in the metro in order to streamline passenger procedures. This method will improve waiting times. It is believed that they will be three times faster.

Airports

Many airports around the world already have facial recognition as a security mechanism. It is also being implemented at border crossings. In this sense, it should be noted that Singapore will be the first country in the world to replace the passport with facial verification, likewise this system will form part of the national identity of its citizens.

Surveillance

This technology also helps security officials identify people from a safe distance. This is very useful so that the necessary precautions are taken when dealing with a criminal. Likewise, through police images, suspicious subjects can be identified when entering stores, shopping centers, etc.

Interpol maintains a database of images from more than 179 countries. The system began to be used in 2016 and since then more than a thousand fugitives, criminals, disappeared persons, etc. have been identified.

According to research by Surfshark, a British Virgin Islands-based VPN provider, there are currently 109 countries that have approved the use of facial recognition for surveillance purposes.

Until now it has only been banned in Belgium, as it was determined in 2019 to be in violation of federal law; in Morocco and Luxembourg. Other countries like Sweden and France had also banned it in schools. However, recently MEPs have voted against its use in public places throughout the European Union, alleging that it is a violation of privacy.

In the United States, surveillance by facial identification has spread significantly, but many cities have fought fervently to achieve its ban, such is the case of San Francisco, Oakland and Northampton.

China is the country with the most facial recognition cameras per inhabitant (one in twelve). It is also a leader in the hardware of these systems throughout the world. Recently, its use has been expanded in this country to monitor the treatment and mobilization of the coronavirus-positive population. Countries like Russia, South Korea and Singapore are doing the same in this regard.

Advertising

Advertisers have used facial reading to measure consumer reaction to certain products. The media also use it to measure the public's reaction to announcements, programs, news, etc...

An example of this was the GMC company in its promotional campaign for the GMC SUV. The interactive videos with the face detector were placed in Santa Monica Place (California).

Entry to facilities and workplaces

This technology is already used in some countries around the world for access to work facilities to control entry, exit and attendance monitoring. In this sense, facial recognition offers great advantages:

To increase the security of any application

Face ID can be used as factor 2 authentication to increase the security of any login.

ATMs

Can be used for cash withdrawals and balance inquiries. For example, in Singapore, OCBC Bank has implemented this technology taking advantage of the national infrastructure created in that country for citizen identity through facial recognition.

For entertainment and interaction between people and computer

Used in applications such as Apple iPhoto, Facebook, Google's Picasa, Sony's Picture Motion Browser, etc. Snapchat and FaceApp use it for entertainment by putting funny filters.

Some of these free applications, such as Faceapp, specify in the terms of use that the company can make any commercial use of the facial recognition images that are uploaded, also without expiration, the images belong to it in perpetuity .

Future Uses for Facial Recognition

Although biometric facial recognition technology is fairly new, it holds great promise for the future. Most likely, in the short term, passwords will disappear and be replaced by biometric authentication systems.

You can foresee the integration of face identification in automobiles, medical diagnostics (where some advances have already been made), remote identification systems, etc.

Facial recognition programs

There are a large number of facial recognition programs and there are for all tastes and needs. Its functions are multiple: they can be used for recreational purposes, for the security of personal data, entry into the PC, image plagiarism verification, personnel control (entries/exits), for surveillance (used by police and other security forces). security), etc. Below is a selection of some of them.

INTERPOL Facial Recognition System (IFRS)

This system uses an automated biometric identification program combined with a database where facial images from more than 179 countries are stored. This makes it the largest police database in the world.

How to identify a criminal? The software works with an algorithm that encodes in seconds the facial image being investigated (and entered into the system) and compares it with all the profiles stored in the database, obtaining a list of probable hits.

Age Bot Age Calculator

This application projects the user's face into the future by showing facial images of how they may look in a few years, even decades. It is a program developed with complex algorithms that make calculations based on expression lines and other features of the face.

You can also make very accurate calculations about a person's age from a photograph. He has an experimental test to analyze mental age. This app is available for free for Android in the Google Play Store. There is also a face recognition program for PC.

View application

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Berify

Berify is a search engine for locating photos or videos that may have been used online without the owner's consent. It is used to track the publication of unauthorized images and to track marketing campaigns, among other uses.

How is recognition done? Berify has a database containing 800 million images. Its powerful facial definition algorithm returns the results of possible matches using its database and others such as Google, Yandex, Bing and Baidu.

This face recognition software is widely used by celebrities, photographers, lawyers, marketing agencies, etc. Photos can be imported with direct uploads or from various platforms, links to websites, sites like Dropbox, Flickr, social networks, squarespace and others. It can be programmed to send an email alert whenever it finds one of the images online.

See program

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Vault

This facial recognition application is considered one of the best for data protection, also for quick and efficient access on mobile phones. Some of its functions are:

The app can be installed in such a way that it goes unnoticed by others, since among its options it has a kind of camouflage that prevents it from being perceived as a security system.

See application

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Google

Google has a function through which you can find people's faces or images related to any photo. The camera image that appears in the search engine is pressed and a photo is uploaded. In this way, Google's software is in charge of searching for faces (in its extensive database) and showing all those that are related, in a matter of seconds.

On mobile phones you can download the Google Photos app. It is compatible with Android or iOS and works in the same way in both terminals. Google face recognition is not available in some countries.

See application

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Windows Hello

With this security option for computers you can easily configure online facial recognition for all versions of Windows 10 and 11 operating systems.

The camera is used for face verification and the software also has options for fingerprint verification. The face recognizer does its work instantly, faster than entering a password.

See app

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AppLock Face / Voice Recognition

This facial recognition app is available on Google Play Store for Android. Its function is security and it does so through unlocking by voice recognition (optional) and the user's face on the mobile. Access to social networks, messaging systems, photo/video galleries and banking information can also be blocked.

You can choose to block as many apps as you want and it has different levels of security. It is very easy to use, as its interface is very intuitive, and it is also free.

See application

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Railer – Face Recognition Attendance

This online facial recognition program is used for schedule management and access control of personnel. Records the entry and exit of personnel and provides control of attendance, absences, punctuality, management of sick leave or other causes, holidays, etc. It offers detailed analysis through timeline charts and reports. This application is especially aimed at medium and small businesses. It is available for iOS and Android.

See application

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Yandex

Yandex is a search engine from Russia that uses a system of decomposition of the image into numerical characters and then compares it with those stored in its database, to give results similar or exact.

His method is called “Sibir” (for Siberia) and it is a very accurate and efficient reverse image search engine. This technology was implemented in Yandex from 2014 and in its beginnings it was used in Ukraine, Russia and Turkey.

Similar to Google, Yandex finds faces when the camera image displayed in the browser is clicked. There it requests that the photo be uploaded from the computer or that the URL with which you want to compare is entered. It is very easy to use and it is free.

See application

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Blippar

Blippar is a very interesting facial recognition software, since it combines the latest technologies, on the one hand Artificial Intelligence in face recognition and on the other hand the Augmented reality.

In the real world it works as a scanner. Positioning the app on any object or face will reveal all the information found on the network related to that. Anything can be scanned: trademarks, cars, animals, faces, etc... It is a free app.

See application

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Snapchat

It is one of the most famous and popular applications. Facial recognition is used for the entertainment and fun of users. It works like instant messaging, basically to share images and videos privately or publicly.

It is currently innovating its platform and has announced some modifications to its network that include voice controls and new features in the facial recognition system.

View on Amazon

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Facial recognition is a technology that has evolved in unpredictable ways. From belonging to the field of science fiction, to being feared for being a possible instrument of population control. The truth is that despite the controversy it causes and the precautions that must be taken in its use, it is undeniable that facial identification is increasingly present in all areas of our lives.

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