New research combines human visual perception with computer vision and forensic science to show that computer experts in computer face recognition are exceptionally accurate, but the highest quality in computer face recognition can only come through the collaboration of a human professional with state of the art face recognition software. This is where the computer expert comes in – by simply linking his computer face recognition system to his own facial recognition system, the computer face recognition expert can quickly, accurately, and efficiently identify faces with great accuracy.
The computer expert’s system is constantly linked to his or her database of millions of images. His or her database is updated with facial scans of people who are matched with the individual, based on their profile. This is used to instantly find out whether the image belongs to the subject, and what details about them are contained in the image. Using face scan results and other criteria to refine the search, this type of computer face recognition expert can quickly find any unknown person.
It has been shown that, even if the computer image of an unknown person has already been obtained from a source that the computer image expert knows nothing about, the computer image expert can still find the person from his or her database. The person will most likely be completely unknown, as it is unlikely for a computer image expert to be able to match a name to an image. However, this does not mean that the image is irrelevant. This type of computer face recognition expert has access to a huge database of images – including CCTV images – and can use these to build up a picture of the subject.
If the computer image expert uses his or her own database to match the person he or she is trying to identify to the person in the image, the computer image expert will need to have an excellent level of facial detail, and be able to match the size and shape of the face against the person. If the person has no known photograph, this will help to eliminate a lot of possible candidates.
Another way of ensuring that a person is correctly identified using a computer program is to check that he or she has a good face image. Although this does not guarantee a person’s identity, it does give the computer expert the ability to make an educated guess at the person’s identity, rather than using their best judgement – which is much more reliable than making an entirely random guess based on the person’s appearance alone.
It will be necessary to train the computer image expert in the use of face image processing software, and how to use that information in his or her training process. This will involve training the computer expert on how to match images to persons and how to process facial images correctly, so that he or she can provide high quality results. This process is the equivalent of a medical degree in computer image recognition – where a person learns how to take digital images and to match them with persons – without having to be able to read any body language or know anything about the person they are trying to identify.