What is Facial Recognition, and How Does it Work?

Facial recognition is a modern and sophisticated technology that we encounter everywhere. Most of us use it multiple times daily when we unlock our smartphones with face recognition.

But have you ever thought about what exactly it is? How does it work? How does it instantly detect faces and make accurate decisions? In this blog, we will find the answers to all these questions.

Let’s get started with the most important thing!

What is Facial Recognition?

It’s an AI-powered technology that identifies people based on their facial features. Using computer vision and other advanced algorithms, it scans people’s faces, analyzes their features, and matches them with its database.

Everyone has different facial features, shapes, and structures, making us unique and identifiable to humans and machines. Facial recognition systems gather information about a person from various sources and store it in their databases to make accurate decisions. Whenever they see the same facial features, they instantly recognize the person.

Although this technology has existed for quite a long time, it wasn’t very effective then. However, recent advancements in artificial intelligence have made it faster, smarter, and more efficient. Therefore, we now see it everywhere, including airports, banks, workplaces, and even retail stores.

Applications of Facial Recognition

As mentioned earlier, facial recognition isn’t confined to a few things. Instead, we see its applications in different sectors and industries. It’s a tool with countless uses. Some are practical, and others are downright futuristic. Let’s look at a few key applications.

• Security and Surveillance

Here’s arguably the biggest use case of facial recognition technology. This technology is mainly used in most sectors to protect people and data from various threats. The cameras equipped with facial recognition technology compare faces with databases; if they find matches, they unlock systems and allow people to access confidential data.

In some countries, law enforcement agencies use facial recognition systems to monitor crowds, track suspects, and prevent crimes. This technology's cameras scan people in real time and flag individuals on watchlists.

• Smartphone Authentication

Protecting phones with passwords or PIN codes is no longer the norm. Instead, most people use their faces to unlock their mobile phones, one of the most valuable facial recognition applications. 

Now, you don’t need to remember and type long passwords to unlock our devices. Instead, just point the mobile’s camera to your face, and the device will be unlocked immediately. Apple’s Face ID and Android’s facial unlock are perfect examples. They’re fast, convenient, and secure.

• Attendance Tracking

Gone are the days of signing attendance sheets. Schools and offices are now using facial recognition to track attendance. Cameras scan faces as people walk in. The system automatically logs who’s present and who’s not. Such systems are very efficient and accurate for almost all types of businesses.

• Access Control

Do you want to get into a secure area? Or are you looking for ways to secure your own property? Facial recognition can help in both cases. That’s why it’s used in multiple offices, labs, and even homes.

Instead of keys or cards, your face is your ticket. The best part? It’s very convenient and hard to fake.

However, there is an issue with it. Not all systems are foolproof. Hackers have found ways to trick some systems. Therefore, you cannot rely on them at all. For maximum safety, you need updated facial recognition systems.

• Transportation and Travel

Airports worldwide are integrating facial recognition into check-in, security screening, and boarding. Delta, British Airways, and other airlines are leading the charge. They made the boarding process much smoother and quicker. Just scan your face and walk through. Even various train stations in China and Japan are doing the same. Their own citizens don’t need tickets or passes to enter the trains. Instead, their faces are their tickets.

• Finding People

Law enforcement agencies are using facial recognition to identify and locate people. In India, police located up to 3,000 missing children in just four days with the help of facial recognition technology.

Ordinary netizens can also use SmallSEOTools’ face search tool or reverse image search utility to find people online. For instance, if you want to find a childhood friend on social media, you can post their old photo to an advanced face search engine that uses facial recognition technology. It will show you pictures of people with similar facial features. Moreover, if that person has posted the same photo on their social media profile, you can instantly get the link to that and contact the person.

How Facial Recognition Works

Facial recognition may seem like magic, but it’s built on complex algorithms and machine learning models. The facial recognition process includes four main steps:

• Face Detection

First, the system detects the face of the person. It saves unique facial features, including the shapes and structures of the eyes, nose, and mouth. The best thing about them is they completely ignore the background. Your phone, security cameras, and social media platforms do this automatically.

• Analysis

Once the face is detected, the system analyzes key features. For instance, it checks the distance between the eyes, the shape of the jawline, the contours of the nose, and other details. This analysis helps the software convert all the information into a unique facial signature.

• Feature Extraction

Now comes the tricky part. The system converts your face into data and creates a mathematical model. This model is unique to you, like a digital fingerprint. But it’s not a photo. It’s a set of numbers. These numbers represent your facial features. They’re stored in a database for future reference.

• Comparison

Finally, the system compares the extracted data to images stored in a database. If it finds a match? Identity verified. If not? Access denied or flagged. Modern systems do this in milliseconds. Blink, and it’s already done.

Technologies Used in Facial Recognition

Facial recognition relies on cutting-edge technologies. Here’s a look at what powers it:

• Computer Vision

Computer vision is a modern and advanced technology that allows machines to see. Do you know what’s the best thing about computer vision? It’s not all about watching things. It’s about understanding them. It’s what lets a system know that a face is a face. And not a tree or a car. This vision of machines helps facial recognition systems detect faces, analyze features, and distinguish individuals.

• Deep Neural Networks

Deep neural networks are the brains of the operation. They are designed to mimic the workings of human brains. They’re a type of artificial intelligence. The deep neural networks allow machines to analyze images or faces as humans do. That’s why they are used in almost all facial recognition systems. In fact, this particular technology transformed the facial recognition world.

• Machine Learning

Another great thing about modern facial recognition systems is that they learn constantly. And that learning is possible because of machine learning. Machine learning algorithms improve identification by processing new data. The more faces they analyze, the sharper they become. Over time, they adapt, evolve, and become more efficient.

Summing Up

In the end, facial recognition is invaluable for users. It’s reshaping security, surveillance, and data analysis, so governments, law enforcement agencies, banks, and even SMEs are already using it.

Modern facial recognition systems use modern technologies and algorithms to understand and interpret facial features, which is why they are pretty accurate. However, this is not the end of the story. With time, these systems will become more mature and sophisticated. As a result, more industries will be attracted to them, and we will observe various surprising benefits of this technology.