Facial Recognition: how it is changing our daily lives

When we talk about facial recognition we are referring to a technology first used in the nineteen sixties and which has been improved over time, thanks mainly to companies such as Microsoft and Apple.

Today there are two main types of facial recognition.

• The first one considers the distance between nose, pupils and lips or analyses the way pixels are grouped to form facial features;
• and the second (much more advanced from a technological point of view and based on machine learning) method which offers ways of recognising facial features by providing thousands of different images.

Facial recognition programs are generally equipped with proximity sensors which allow the activation of the computer’s cameras to take a photo or video of the person in front of it.

After this initial detection phase, the next phase is alignment, when the device defines the inclination, size and position of the head. Then there is the measurement phase, which creates a digital model of the face by analysing its curves and furrows.

These values are then translated into a code which represents the individual’s face (representation). That code is used to compare the face with those already saved in the database (comparison). Lastly, there is the identification phase.

Following this brief outline of how facial recognition works, let us now move on to a description of the connection between facial recognition and privacy protection: this relationship has become a hotly debated topic, mainly due to the widespread use of this technology in systems such as those used by the Facebook site.

Social Networks (and the entire Internet-related sphere in general) are leading us to reconsider the concept of our private lives, in as much as this no longer involves just the individual (who chooses whether to make something visible or to others or not), but the entire population.

While everyone shares both their own personal photos and videos and those of others, privacy has been gradually transformed into an interpersonal relationship, based on the common conviction of being able to publish anything at all without the others’ consent.

Facebook has more or less solved this problem, by providing an on-off button to allow or block the facial recognition of images. However, for that system to be really efficient, it needs to be combined with a proper understanding of this issue.

The real solution involves rendering the use of biometric data for identification purposes as secure as possible and being able to show that the technology only uses information which is essential for that purpose, of which the user has been informed.

The problem is that, as things currently stand, biometric data contains much more information than that which is strictly necessary. An example of this is photographs, which also provide superfluous information regarding religion, ethnicity etc.

From a brief analysis of the situation, it is clear just how important it is to create a facial recognition tool capable of limiting the quantity of data and storing only that which is indispensable for the success of the procedure in hand.

It is true that facial recognition still needs to undergo some significant improvements, regarding both the technologies it uses and the regulations that govern it. This is a necessary evolution which, if done correctly, could guarantee great improvements for our society.

The road towards this outcome is, undoubtedly, still very long, but the direction it has taken seems the right one. In any case we should hope in some positive intervention by the leading IT companies, whose actions can either promote or destroy this technology completely.

So that concludes our brief introduction to facial recognition: the system for identifying faces, which is gradually becoming a feature of a growing number of devices and platforms.

Translated by Joanne Beckwith