The concept of face recognition technology has existed for years, though multiple large-scale attempts to implement it failed. The reason being the lack of scalability and precision. But as time passed, and technology moved towards advancement, everything got changed. The last decade has proved to be a great one for progression in facial recognition.

At the starting of this decade, both the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office and Panama’s Tocumen airport implemented their systems using facial recognition technology. Both of them noticed the impressive results; since the time took to process criminal investigation went down drastically. It resulted in a significant decrease in drug smuggling and other organized crime. The mainstream applications started following next.

In 2012, facebook rolled out its face recognition feature. Whenever your untagged pictures or videos were uploaded on facebook, it used to alert you. Later on, in 2015, Google leveraged the companies’ technologies combining with machine learning algorithms to build Google Photos. Similarly, Apple introduced Face ID in the iPhone X; followed by Amazon Recognition.

Now let’s see what is facial recognition technology and why is it considered to be the next big thing in the technology world?

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What is Facial Recognition?

Facial recognition technology, when introduced at first had one major goal and that was to identify humans. But with the technological advancements, the goals started revolutionizing as well. Now facial recognition is not limited to identify humans but the use of this technology is widespread for identity verification and even emotion reading and detection. Out of all the biometric systems, this technology is the most reliable, intrusive and fastest one.

To verify people, many organizations are integrating this technology with their systems. Instead of asking people for fingerprint or retina scanning, facial recognition technology can timidly capture individuals’ pictures and verify them. In some cases, people aren’t even aware of the process. An example of such case is surveillance cameras that are hidden somewhere. This process is quite beneficial since it removes the feeling of being under surveillance and privacy invasion.

Facial recognition systems are very effective in producing the results due to the use of machine learning and neural network algorithms. Just like our brain subconsciously recognizes different faces of people based on their physical features like the width of the nose, cheekbones, and jawlines symmetry, space between eyes, the height of hairline, etc. face recognition software online needs to do that intentionally The whole process of facial recognition and verification works in three basics steps.

Face Detection – checks for the presence of human faces.

Face Capture – 2D or 3D sensor capture the face and apply algorithms to transform an image to machine-readable data.

Face Matching – Using neural network and machine learning algorithms, the captured face is matched against already stored images.

Real-world Applications of Facial Recognition Technology:

Face recognition and verification are being used by multiple businesses and organizations to meet their desired goals whether it’s for entertainment, security or user experience.

Health Industry:

In the past few years, hospitals and clinics have started using this technology to make patient processing easier and efficient. Capturing the face of the patient, the system matches it to the right record, avoiding record duplication or oversight. Many times it happens that during an emergency situation (e.g. heart attack, accidents, etc.) it is difficult to obtain personal or medical information of the patient-important for medical care. In that situation through facial recognition, the information can be accessed easily and timely.

Moreover, in healthcare industries, the fraudsters are getting pace by exploiting patients’ information and gaining medical and financial advantages on their behalf. For example, identity thieves are taking advantage of health insurance companies by pretending to be someone else and gaining medical benefits. Face verification systems are integrated into the industry to hinder the activities of fraudsters.

Banking Industry:

The banking industry has always been on the hit list of fraudsters and cyber criminals for years due to financial gains. The financial industries have been using the traditional security measures which have proved to be an easy gateway for fraudsters. With the world moving towards digitization, the banking operations have evolved enough to meet the increasing demands of the customers. The advancement of technology has made fraudsters more sophisticated in committing online fraud and cyber crimes; also there has been a relative increase in fraud ratio.

The banks are now using face verification as the primary security check for accessing the account. At first, binary authentication (user id and password) was the only authentication method which was, later on, replaced by 2-Factor authentication. However, both of these verification methods are not secure because the only proof of one’s verification is these credentials. Banks are not using face verification to allow access to users but it is also to ensure the remote presence of an individual at the time of any online transaction. To say that the face of the user serves as the password won’t be an understatement. Also, face ID login is much simpler, faster and hassle-free than traditional IDs.

Online Retailing Industry:

The invention of E-commerce platforms has taken the shopping experience to the next level. With one click, the users can get goods delivered at their doorsteps. But this platform has also attracted fraudsters. Every year e-commerce industry loses millions of dollars because of fraud. The online retailing industry is implementing facial recognition technology to curb online frauds and false charge backs.

Just like the banking industry, e-commerce platforms have implemented facial recognition technology as the primary authentication method. Major retailers incorporating this technology not just for fraud prevention but for improved customer experience as well. For example, Amazon is looking forward to implementing the “Smile to Pay” feature which will require the customers to smile in front of the camera before checking out or confirming the transaction.

What does the future hold?

Face recognition is an emerging technology that is coming up with enormous benefits for individuals as well as industries. It is an incredible technology for the companies as it saves time and resources, improves customer experience, prevents frauds, and even generates new income streams. It is quite difficult to be certain of what lies ahead for this technology. Bt according to experts, that time is not far when our face will replace IDs, credit cards pin numbers and even passports. Given the fact of how convenient this technology is, the prediction is not far-fetched.

Author Bio:

Kevin Martez – Technical Content writing is my passion. I have broad experience in writing for the technical field. I started my writing at the age of sixteen when I was in college. Now I’m already writing for contribution sites as an independent influencer. I wrote many articles on medium and many of them are published in various publications. I wrote many case studies for businesses to let them know the real need for digital transformation of Facial Recognition technology for their business

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