Onwards in 2022
I want to begin by thanking everyone for their support throughout a remarkable 2021 and over the last 9 years. We are 7+ months into our integration with Pangiam and I am very excited and optimistic that the work we are undertaking is positively impacting the world. Below you will find a high-level recap of 2021 and the accomplishments of the Trueface and Pangiam teams.
The first half of the year was spent aligning ourselves with Pangiam and closing the acquisition. Reflecting on the process, it taught me a tremendous amount about trust, building genuine relationships and finding the right partners, of which I believe we have successfully accomplished.
Trueface started as a smart doorbell (Chui) in 2012. We were on a mission to bring face recognition to everyone but do so ethically and responsibly. To reflect on the people I’ve met, the places I’ve been, and the lessons I’ve learned is more than overwhelming and I am eternally grateful for the people that helped us along the way. Without every one of you, this vision of bringing an extremely complex technology into people’s hands would have never been achievable. Thank you.
We experienced rapid expansion over the past three years, and as our customers grew so did the size of our team and ambition. Our team was quick to respond when the pandemic struck, delivering contactless access control solutions to two Air Force bases in response to COVID — 19.
While others were cutting corners with their data collection, in the early days of Trueface, we collected data ethically and focused on building a robust algorithm. As a result, we scored number 1 in the world in the National Institute of Standards and Technology for comparison speed out of 382 submissions! After years of collecting data ethically from around the world, also achieved number 3 in the West for highest accuracy by NIST.
We knew that facial recognition was only going to be adopted by the public when its benefits could be realized by all, regardless of ethnicity and gender. Therefore, bias mitigation became a paramount focus for our team and we set out to demonstrate publicly that our face recognition models could achieve parity across countries and ethnicities.
We published our Fair Face analysis which demonstrates significant improvement year over year on the reduction in discrepancy across ethnicities and gender. We have not yet reached perfection, but we are very proud of our progress and continue to advance this effort. Currently, at the proper threshold we correctly identify 9,999 of every 10,000 identities.
Moving forward in 2022: One Pangiam
The organization is unified around one core mission: to define the future of trusted movement by applying our unique expertise and technology to government and commercial markets. In the little time we’ve been part of Pangiam, I am excited to share a few announcements that have prepared us for rapid growth in 2022.
Pangiam, Delta, and TSA: Forbes: “Delta Airlines, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and…Pangiam have partnered up to bring facial recognition technology to the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL).”
Pangiam and Google Cloud: Bloomberg: “Pangiam, in collaboration with Google Cloud, announced details of Project DARTMOUTH, an initiative to transform airport security operations by looking for threats concealed within baggage and other shipments at the airport. AGS Airports Ltd to trial new artificial intelligence-led technology at security sites in Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Southampton airports.”
Over the past year I’ve personally grown a tremendous amount as a leader and a new father. I couldn’t be more proud of the Trueface team and their dedication, patience and resilience. We’ve learned lessons, we’ve succeeded, we’ve failed, we’ve stepped back and leaped forward. I am incredibly proud of the team we’ve built at Trueface and the potential that everyone has inside of the larger Pangiam organization. To reflect on the camaraderie and drive of the Trueface team is truly an astonishing feeling. Over the years, our team has been built by individuals taking a major career risk to join an ambitious startup. It is the Trueface team that I owe the most gratitude towards.
The next chapter of our collective journey starts with Pangiam. They have taken us in as family and we are excited to be an integral part of their growth plan. As always, thank you for your support and help along the journey. We will be providing future updates through a Pangiam newsletter, please stay tuned for an exciting 2022!
Disclaimer: Results shown from NIST do not constitute an endorsement of any particular system, product, service, or company by NIST. For more information, visit https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/face-recognition-vendor-test-frvt-ongoing
