Face recognition technology has came a long way before becoming useful. And it's still advancing as more people are curious in developing it.
Usually, the technology involves the AI in scanning a full face to create biometrics facial map features. The technology tries to reads the geometry of the face by collecting data about the eyes, nose, mouth, and see how they all come together.
After that, it compares the information with a database of its known faces to find a match.
Facial recognition can help verify personal identity.
Here. a Chinese company Hanwang Technology, which also goes by the English name Hanvon, said that its face recognition AI can identify people even if they are wearing face masks.
In the middle of the coronavirus epidemic, where people are urged to wear face masks in public to prevent the spread of infection, the Beijing-based company has an AI that can recognize faces without having to see people's noses and mouths.
The Beijing-based firm said a team of 20 staff used core technology developed over the past 10 years, and a sample database of about 6 million unmasked faces and a much smaller database of masked faces, to develop the technology.
The company began developing the system in January 2020, as people in China started mandating citizens to wear face masks. The system was rolled out just one month later.
Hanwang Vice President Huang Lei said that the AI reached about 95% success rate when people wore a mask, or way below its regular success rate of 99.5%.
He said that its AI is China's first facial recognition technology that can accomplish this feat.
Huang told Reuters:
Hanwang sells two main types of products that use the technology:
The first is the one capable of performing "single channel" recognition that can be used at, for example, entrances to buildings. The second is the more powerful "multi-channel" recognition system that uses "multiple surveillance cameras".
Huang said that the face recognition system can identify everyone in a crowd of up to 30 people "within a second".
“It can detect crime suspects, terrorists or make reports or warnings,” Huang said.
While the AI should be a sophisticated one, it still struggles to identify people with both a mask and sunglasses.
“In this situation, all of the key facial information is lost,” Huang said. “In such cases recognition is tough.”
In China where the government employs some of the world’s most sophisticated systems of electronic surveillance, including facial recognition, this technology can help it continue monitoring its citizens and identify people in the mid-coronavirus fear, where people wear face masks in public.
This kind of AI development has led critics to claim that the coronavirus is being used as an excuse to ramp up surveillance.
Previously. China's tech giant Baidu created an AI that is capable of distinguishing people with face masks and those who don't.