This Is How Facial Recognition Works

Regardless of whether you are alone, in a crowd, or in real-time, facial recognition can identify you.
Loukia Papadopoulos

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Did you know that facial recognition can be traced back all the way to the 1960s? Yes! It's true. However, it did not see widespread adoption until recently with the advent of artificial intelligence. But what exactly is facial recognition and how does it work?

Facial recognition is a biometric tool which means it identifies a person based on specific aspects of their physiology. It works through three steps.

First, your face is captured with a photo or video. Regardless of whether you are alone, in a crowd, or in real-time, the software works. 

Once the image is loaded, the software measures a variety of facial features, called landmarks or nodal points, on the face such as the distance between the eyes, the width of the nose, distance from forehead to chin, and so forth.

Up to 80 different measurements may be collected. This data is then transformed into a mathematical formula which represents your unique facial signature. Best of all, the system does all this in a matter of seconds.

Impressed yet? Want to know more about what facial recognition is and how it was developed over the years? Then watch this video now.

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