That Elusive Biometric
You know, when it comes to Biometrics, the customer, in general pretty much has what I call a “leave it-or love it” type of attitude. Meaning, they love the Biometric Technology so much, it provides the best level of Security, or they hate it, and swear that they will never use the technology again for their Security needs. When I think about this, Fingerprint Recognition and Iris Recognition come most to mind. Everybody, for the most part, loves it, because it is so easy to use, but when it comes to using the Iris, everybody does not like it (again, for the most part), because they are afraid going blind (this has still yet to be proven, though). But then, they are those Biometrics which skirmish the line between love and hate. And when it comes to this, Facial Recognition takes the cue. To some degree or another, some customers of Biometrics like using this, but yet, it still has its very fair share of critics in the media, and other circles. But, despite its flaws, Facial Recognition is actually growing strong in demand. Not here in the United States (because of privacy rights issue), but in other parts, especially that of the United Kingdom.
Here are some details: “The advent of 9/11 put biometric technology firmly in the spotlight as an effective way of verifying the identity of citizens and strengthening the security of potentially vulnerable areas such as airports and other public spaces. Plans for a national identity card in the UK have not come to fruition but biometrics – particularly face recognition technology has witnessed a growth in popularity in the aftermath of the shocking events of 9/11 . . . He said that the UK and much of the rest of the world has also introduced biometric passports following the recognition that the technology is capable of providing the most accurate method of identifying a person’s face . . . While trailblazing police forces in the UK such as Merseyside, Nottinghamshire and Hertfordshire have adopted the technology in their custody suites to verify the identity of persistent offenders. It is now widely recognised that there is a clear link between local crime and international terrorism and a recognition of the value of the work individual police forces carry out in helping identify potential terrorists.” (SOURCE: http://www.biometricnewsportal.com/biometrics_news3.asp?articleid=266686&arttitle=Face recognition technology has witnessed a growth in popularity in the aftermath of 9-11).
My Take
Really, it comes to of surprise to me that the United Kingdom is so quick in adopting Facial Recognition. For instance, in my view, they are light years ahead of the United States in terms of being proactive about protecting their own borders. While I am sure privacy rights issues do abound in that part of the world, people over there are much more accepting of trying new things, and not just staying with the status quo of Security. Heck, after all, the United Kingdom I think has one of the largest CCTV Camera systems in the world which surround London.
Well, whatever it is, Facial Recognition has really improved in terms of technological growth. I started writing about this way back in 2002 or so, and at that time, all Facial Recognition was good for was recognizing people on a one to one basis. Meaning, it worked best when only one person stood in front the Facial Recognition camera at a time. But now, it has evolved to the point where it can virtually recognize tons of people in one group, across a large distance, and moving at a fast speed. Probably the best example of this is in the major international airports, Heathrow International being one of them. Although Iris Recognition is also being used in conjunction with it, in my view, Facial Recognition far surpasses that. Another application where Facial Recognition is starting to be used rapidly now is in the area of cargo handling at maritime ports of entry.
Here, there are literally thousands of people who enter and exit these ports every day, so what other better tool t use than Facial Recognition??? Although it is not 100% accurate (really, in this regard, none of the Biometric Technologies really are that accurate), it can still do a pretty good job of trying to keep track of all these people. And with this, comes cost savings. For example, for the amount it would take to hire Security guards, and pay them, you can get a Facial Recognition for just a fraction of that cost.
But in the end, Facial Recognition, in my view, will always be one of those technologies which will have that “love and hate” syndrome. But just like anything else, it has to be kept in balance with other things, and both its plusses and minuses have to kept in perspective. This quote best sums up Facial Recognition: “Although it is wrong to describe face recognition in particular as a panacea to solving the world’s security problems – it has proved to be a major player in the crime fighting armoury of countries such as the UK . . . in the ten years since 9/11.” (SOURCE: http://www.biometricnewsportal.com/biometrics_news3.asp?articleid=266686&arttitle=Face recognition technology has witnessed a growth in popularity in the aftermath of 9-11.)