Facial recognition (面部识别) cameras are everywhere, including in your smartphone. Many people rely on this technology to unlock their phones, open doors or make quick payments, but there is a problem: Everyone is wearing masks. What a hassle!
Now, tech companies have updated their software. Facial recognition technology can now identify people even if they are wearing a mask.
Beijing-based tech company Hanwang has announced a software which can correctly recognize 95 percent of people wearing masks, Engineering & Technology (E&T) reported. What's the secret? It's all about your eyes. Marios Savvides, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, US, studies facial recognition technology. As we get older, he said, our faces change shape, but not the area around our eyes. It stays the same — even if we put on weight. Another company, Geneva-based Tech5, has also been working on this kind of software. Another Japan based NEC Corp claims an surprising 99. 9 percent accuracy rate when identifying people with masks.
Facial recognition software is about more than just unlocking your phone. It's about public safety. For example, you don't need to present an ID card, which can be lost or stolen. It also means that virus aren't spread by touching things, said NEC's Shinya Takeshima. "Touchless verification (验证) has become extremely important due to the coronavirus," he said to Reuters. "We hope to contribute to safety and peace of mind. " More than that, facial recognition can be used to fight crime. "It can detect crime suspects (嫌疑犯) or terrorists," said Huang Lei, Hanwang's vice president. Similar technology is used by the United States Air Force and other governments.
Huang admits one big weakness of this technology: It fails when people wear both a mask and sunglasses. "In this situation, all of the key facial information is lost," Huang said to E&T.
