Mask-Wearers Can Be Accurately Identified Using Innovatrics Technology
BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA — 4 April, 2020 —Following several rounds of laboratory testing, Innovatrics researchers have demonstrated that our facial recognition algorithm can still detect and identify masked faces with only a small decrease in overall accuracy. Furthermore, the algorithm is significantly more accurate at identifying masked faces than humans – and much faster.
“As soon as masks started becoming commonplace, we began collecting test data to see how face recognition accuracy would be affected. What we noticed was that even without any changes to the settings, the system is still 95 percent accurate when recognizing a given person in a database of hundreds of faces,” explains Metod Rybar, Solution Manager at Innovatrics.
The testing team used thousands of images of masked and unmasked faces to thoroughly test the capabilities of the algorithm.
The team behind this testing is confident that the overall accuracy can be further improved with some minor adjustments. The optimal approach is to have two pictures of each individual in a database: one with and one without a mask. Both watchlists will have separate confidence thresholds, an option that is available in all Innovatrics software. Using this approach, the solution can achieve a 99 percent accuracy rate while maintaining a very low level of false positives (i.e. falsely identifying a person).
In cases where a database containing thousands of individuals is used, the accuracy depends on the required level of security. With a security level of 99.9 percent, the overall accuracy between 90 and 93 percent. Tightening the security to 99.99 %, the accuracy is still above 80 percent, an acceptable tradeoff in high-security use cases.
A recent report by Research and Markets identified the biometrics industry as one of thirty areas expected to see a surge in demand as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Key among the challenges posed by this unprecedented time of pandemic and quarantine is precisely the adaptation of facial recognition technology to reliably identify people, even those wearing protective masks.
Innovatrics R&D team is working on improving the face recognition to be even more robust when it comes to wearing masks. If you’d like to find out more about this technology, please reach out to our sales team at sales@innovatrics.com.
