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In coming years, Accenture believes businesses and governments alike will introduce face recognition technologies to enable secure access to services, drive efficiencies, and increase security.

With advances in biometrics technology and improvements in IT infrastructure, there is a growing acceptance of face recognition technologies in our daily lives.

These days the idea of being caught on Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera is less ‘Big Brother’ and more a fact of life. Indeed, just as online enthusiasts have fostered a seismic shift in social networking, so too have the security, safety and operational benefits from new identification technologies encouraged a greater acceptance of sophisticated biometric technologies such as face recognition into our daily lives.

Face recognition technologies can be applied to various day-day scenarios, whether to identify faces in a crowd, to enable the personalization of service delivery to citizens or to understand the habits of consumers browsing product displays on supermarket shelves. However, perhaps one of the most obvious applications for face recognition technologies, and certainly one of the most topical, relates to matters of policing and security, and the role the technology can play around identity management and public safety.

While CCTV is widely recognized as a crime deterrent in urban areas, it has yet to prove its worth as a preventative measure.[3]  Unless the data capture is carefully and manually analyzed, often over long periods of time, greater insight into operational situations remains hidden. Accenture argues that the solution to such limitations now lies in the next generation of video analytics tools.  In particular, face recognition solutions lead the field in passive identification technologies , now highly versatile, they are enabling the automation of what were previously manual identification tasks allowing both governments and businesses to introduce new sources of value to citizens and customers, while reducing costs and driving efficiencies.

Picture Perfect?

Accenture Technology Labs has developed a “face in the crowd” technology solution capable of capturing individual faces from a live video stream and, typically, identifying subjects in just 0.5 seconds.  Whether used for border management purposes (identification of travelers) or to allow citizens access state services, multiple images captured can be aggregated together to deliver accurate subject identification against a database of thousands of images. Whether assisting border management agencies identify travelers, helping state organizations deliver personalized citizen services, or triggering messages to management to better assign operational resources, the public are already enjoying the benefits of a biometrics boom whether they realize it or not.

New digital advances are driving the increased uptake of biometric technologies, with three specific trends driving the uptake in face recognition methods: Improvements in digital camera technology with better resolution, higher frame rates and more capable lenses offer sharper, higher quality images more cost effectively. Secondly, the versatility that comes from digital video, IP networks, increased disk storage and new processing capabilities are removing analysis from the confines of the once necessary security control room and onto mobile devices and laptops. Such advances along with dramatic improvements in computer vision algorithms have enhanced the performance and accuracy of video analytics applications that allow for accurate face extraction and image matching to take place.

Public and private sector organizations are now aware of the operational benefits such intelligent and reliable identity management solutions bring. Face recognition is not simply about technology but has far-reaching implications for the strategic and business objectives of public service organizations. New identification tools and processes not only simplify citizen, customer and employee access to both services and locations, but also increase public safety and security.

For example with biometrics as an enabler, border management agencies have successfully introduced a speed and level of automation into their operations which enhances decision making. Schiphol, Amsterdam's International Airport, is now using video analytics to prevent accidental or malicious intrusion onto runway and hangar areas.[4] whilst currently a UK airport operator is trialling face recognition over video to assess its usefulness in managing passenger flow in their airports. Such recognition capabilities are immensely helpful to border management and public safety organizations, as well as to services providers, both private and public, who need to validate the identities of customers and citizens. Indeed, the Metropolitan Police in London[6] recently announced it hopes to capitalize on the advances in vehicle number plate recognition, DNA detection and face recognition software in a bid to reduce crime rates. In addition, early in 2012 the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will activate a nationwide face recognition service in select states that will allow local police to identify unknown subjects in photographs.[7]

Facing the future

Although there are physical obstacles to capturing a usable facial image due to environmental situations, such as angled faces, poor lighting or obscured facial features, increasingly, these challenges can be overcome.  Biometrics as an enabling technology continues to be welcomed by the public, particularly when practical applications, such as the automated immigration gates at Heathrow[8] and the provision of citizen services through secure ID cards.

Accenture believes the advanced capabilities of passive biometric identification and video analytics technologies increase the potential to convert previously-underused data for the public good.  Whether applied to the screening of people entering the country at border crossings, upgrading the functionality of high-street security cameras, supporting efforts to locate criminals or augmenting police efforts in the line of duty, the latest face recognition technologies are efficient, flexible and ready to be exploited.
Face recognition technologies are already impacting on the way we live and work. In an economy seeking creative solutions related to identity management and provision of services, face recognition technologies present public and private sector organizations with an opportunity.  By delivering access, security and services  in new ways  that enhance customer and citizen experiences, reduce costs and  enhance public safety, governments and business can experience  growth—and achieve high performance.
Accenture will showcase the ‘Face in the Crowd’ identity management solution at Biometrics 2011 event in London on October 19/20th in London. Please visit their exhibition booth, number 309 in the exhibition hall.

Cyrille Bataller leads the Accenture Research Labs’ R&D efforts around biometric technologies.

Mark Crego is a Senior Executive within Accenture’s Defense & Public Safety business who works directly with clients to implement technology led identity management and public safety solutions.