Can Face Recognition Work For More Than Just Humans?

Face recognition has quickly become phone manufacturers’ security method of the year. Apple, Samsung, Vivo are just some of the manufacturers that have added facial recognition software to their mobile devices. Since iPhone X has been the most recent phone to be deployed, Face ID is the latest facial recognition software to “go under the knife” or in other words, studied by hackers and security wizards to find its weaknesses. One company is claiming to have done that already. But how could they have done that? How does facial recognition work? And can it give results for other living creatures, not just humans? #biomagic

In order to answer that, you have to know exactly how facial recognition works. What makes it tick and why the most sophisticated tech of this kind can’t be tricked with a digital picture. It’s why retailers and banks are inclined to authorize payments made by scanning your face:

Now that face recognition makes sense, make sure you look out for telling signs that the tech on your phone is the best out there:

1. Test it in different lighting conditions. See if your face recognition program works swiftly with poor light around or outside, when the sun is shining. Sophisticated face recognition technologies should be able to work just fine with a hat on or a scarf around your neck. See the kind of obstructions FotoNation’s algorithm is able to ignore and still recognize your facial features.
2. See if it can recognize your face even when you’re not looking straight at the sensor. Smile, frown and slightly move your head at different angles to check its response time and accuracy
3. Figure out if it has liveliness detection. Point a printed photo of yours or a selfie taken with a different smartphone towards it and watch if it gets confused about the image shown or if it senses that it’s not a live face.

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