The Hindu : International : The new face of hi-tech detection

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 12, 2004

International

International

The new face of hi-tech detection

London: It is a TV cop show cliché — detectives thumbing through dozens of ancient police mugshots trying to identify the villain. But new computer software could eliminate hours of work by sifting through thousands of photographs at the click of a mouse, and matching the suspect's picture with the closest likenesses. The hi-tech system, which uses an algorithm to compare millions of bits of data per second, can see through superficial things which can distract the human eye, such as hair colour and spectacles. Instead, it focuses on a detailed series of facial measurements. If two photographs were taken 20 years apart and the suspect has since gained weight, grown a beard and dyed his hair, it will still find him. Facial recognition works by fixing on the eyes as two stable points in the photographs and carrying out a lightning-quick series of minute measurements to other facial features, such as the mouth, nose and chin, to produce a two-dimensional ``map'' of the face. It relies on matching the facial proportions, not the angle of the photographs, so it does not matter if the head is turned away from the camera, as long as both eyes are visible.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International