Why face recognition is more than just a way to put cute filters on our faces

We all know Snapchat and its famous “lenses” or as most people call them “filters”. They came out with a bang in September 15, 2015 and Snapchat users have loved them ever since. I mean, who doesn’t love puking rainbows? I know I do. But, we hardly realize what this software they have created can actually do is no joke. It can understand what a face is, detect it, follow it in real time and manipulate it into an infinite number of shapes and sizes. That’s AMAZING and this kind of technology does not just develop overnight. So how did this technology come to fruition, and was it really just made to put cute ears one people’s heads?

the RAND tablet (It’s history time!)

Even though the police had been collecting mugshots for identification long before any face-recognition software was developed, the first time any real technology got created was in the 1960s. Woodrow Wilson Bledsoe and his team were the first ones to develop it. They manually uploaded the coordinate locations of facial features into what was called a RAND tablet. This tablet could receive input from the electomagnetic pulses its stylus emitted and record them into its computer’s data base. So when they had the photo of an individual the tablet would scan its database and show the best match. By no means was it a sophisticated technology, but it was a huge step for the beginning of automated facial recognition.

Then in the 1970s Goldstein, Harmon, and Lesk raised the accuracy of the system by determining 21 facial markers such as width of nose, length of forehead and distance between eyes. Following their footsteps were Sirovich and Kirby, who developed Eigenface, which was the accumulated data of hundereds of different faces processed to become one set of basic features. Afterwards in 1991 this technology would be used to detect human faces.

Of course later on the military came into the picture and then the social media got involved and face recognition got to a point where they could identify people on streets (yes, I did just talk about 30 years in one sentence).

Now, how does this technology actually work? Well, right now, there are 4 ways that current technology can identify a face:

Yes… This is me

1. Traditional: The traditional way is actually the way Snapchat has been using to turn us into cute little puppies. What it does is that it analyzes the contrast of color between different pixels and tries to match the contrasting areas with the template face it already has on its database. Then, it adjustes the focal points on the template according to your face and slaps the filter on the 3D mask it created (of course, sometimes it might put a filter on your jacket instead of your face, but everybody makes mistakes, right?). But when it comes to recognition, it goes one step further and tries to find a match for the focal points other than just detecting it.
2. 3D Recognition: The only difference between traditional and 3D recognition is that it can scan every angle of your face and recognize it even from a profile angle. But, 3D recognition has its own troubles; We can’t scan every single person with a 3D scanner (at least not now) which makes its domain very restricted compared to the traditional method.
3. Skin Texture Analysis: This method is very different compared to the others. It takes your skin and analyzes all the dots and stripes on your face in a mathematical fashion. It can even identify between twin siblings, which the other methods are not yet capable to do.
4. Thermal Analyzation: Last but not least, this method uses the thermal signatures coming from the face in order to identify people. The best thing about this method is that it is possible for you to identify people even when they are covering their faces. However the data required for the thermal identification is very little at the moment to be used regularly. When enough thermal readings are collected, it will surely be a widely used method.

Now that we are done with all the boring stuff, let’s talk about the applications of this technology to real-life. The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when we say face recognition these days is IPhone X and its controversial Face ID technology. Frankly, I’m not that concerned about it since I’m not gonna pay 1000 dollars just to play with the face-changing emojis (which actually does sound pretty fun). I’m more interested in how this technology is going to (or has) affected our daily lives.

Even though what I’m about to say might sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, face recognition is already here. It’s already being implemented to cameras on the streets, your work place, your house even. You might be thinking to yourself right now: “No, they don’t have any info on me. I’m not some criminal.” Well, think again. Think about the last time you uploaded a picture of you with your friends on Facebook. Think about the last time you sent your best friend a goofy selfie on Snapchat. And think about the last time you were annoyed by all the instructions you had to follow for your passport picture to be taken. Yes, they do have your information, and there really aren’t any laws that protect our faces.

Big Brother is watching us, and yes it is a little creepy, but this technology is starting to be really useful for safety. Police have started to use it to take criminals off the streets, and they are getting more and more successful. Especially China has surpassed all the other countries in the implementation of this technology. You can get into buildings and buy food from fastfood restaurants. There even is a KFC that can offer you menu options based on your gender, age and mood. But, you can also get caught for the pettiest crimes such as walking in the red light. Later on this might result in the arrest of every single person that does not agree with the opinions of their government. Is that really ethical?

What do you think about it? Is this technology violating our privacies? How do you think it will change our lives? Write on the comments below. Oh and, Stay Golden …