In essence, facial recognition enables computers to identify - or possibly verify - the identity of a person using their face.
It does this by analysing and comparing patterns based on that individual’s facial features.
Facial recognition is part of an area of technology commonly referred to as “applied machine learning” and it’s used to detect and identify human faces, a problem that has previously been notoriously difficult for computers.
READ MORE: {}
And the dawn of facial recognition creates a plethora of exciting possibilities - and challenges - for businesses.
Abdul Alim is co-founder and chief executive of a cutting-edge tech firm headquartered in Oldham that’s behind the world’s first facial recognition software for digital billboards.
Bidooh uses facial recognition cameras within billboards to identify characteristics from passers-by, such as their age or gender and subsequently use that information to provide tailored adverts.
The GDPR-compliant technology works by plugging a “Bidooh Box”, containing the cameras and artificial intelligence (AI), into the HDMI port of any screen.
Here, Alim gives his views about the significance of this rapidly emerging technology.
Most Read
How significant is facial recognition for businesses?
Facial recognition is extremely important in a world where it’s costing businesses more and more to acquire and retain customers.
To get the attention of a consumer is extremely difficult so it becomes extremely valuable to be able to personalise the experience and journey to ensure customers can see and feel the value received.
This type of targeting is essential for optimising the exposure to relevant advertising while keeping customer data confidential.
Facial analysis will become an integral part of any marketing strategy and the more data that’s obtained and layered with other data subsets will see advertising become more effective.
How do you work with businesses to help them capitalise on facial recognition?
At Bidooh, we focus on a subset of facial recognition called facial analysis which anonymises the data ensuring that the individual’s data is not stored as personally identifiable.
Don’t miss
But it still allows our systems to categorise, count and market to people effectively using their age, gender, facial attributes and emotions with the next iteration being able to recognise clothing colour and brands.
Essentially, we have two products, one for retailers to analyse the demographics of people entering a store and another which displays the relevant advertising to those people.
Both can be used either as a white-labelled platform privately or as a public platform which enables anyone to book advertising via the Bidooh platform.
The software helps retailers make smarter decisions based on who’s entering their store and gives access to live data that they can act upon immediately.
So far we have analysed 30m people across four countries.
What are your predictions for the future?
Facial recognition and facial analysis has extended into our daily lives, from security products that tell us who’s entering our homes to notifying us who’s uploading our photos on social media.
The business use-cases of facial data is remarkable...
For example, in security scenarios it can increase safety for everyone, in healthcare can predict genetic disorders and in gaming can create immersive augmented reality experiences that will transform industries.
Facial recognition will eventually become a part of everything we do from entering our own home, car and work places to boarding flights, paying for our shopping without the need to enter pins, carry cards or remember banking details to even being linked to our credit files, taxes and government issued ID’s.
In essence, it will take the friction out of our daily lives allowing businesses and consumers to transact faster in every sense.
Your face - in essence - will become your passport to everything.
海角视频Fast CEO Lawrence Jones on facial recognition technology
How do you unlock your phone? For many of the latest handsets, you simply have to look at the screen.
This functionality has brought facial recognition out of the sci-fi and into the mainstream. Who could have imagined years ago that you would do everything from unlocking your device to accessing your bank account by looking at a camera in your phone? That was reserved for the realms of James Bond and Hollywood.
However, facial recognition is moving into our everyday lives at a rate of knots. Social media networks have the functionality to automatically tag and group images based on the faces featured within them, for example.
With this explosive technological growth comes a world of opportunity for business innovation. In the past week, a London bar hit the headlines for employing facial recognition tech to show who is next in line to be served. The company that invented the tech, DataSparQ, also plans to set up a ‘FaceTab’ to remove the need for a credit card when accumulating a tab in the bar.
But the new technology has not come without controversy. Police authorities in the 海角视频 are employing real-time facial recognition technologies through trials across the country.
Three cities in America have already banned the use of the technology, fearing its impact on basic human rights. Tech giant Microsoft is also arguing for a government initiative to regulate use of the technology.
Closer to home, last year Greater Manchester Police came under fire for running a trial at the Trafford Centre in which they monitored visitors for six months using Automatic Facial Recognition (AFR) tech, scanning shopper for known criminals and missing people.
So what’s the answer? Perhaps the key is finding an agreed regulation which any company or organisation using the technology adheres to, informing people when they are being monitored, for example. As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility.