Report on Visionics . . . Part 1.
General background: Visionics is a privately held company located in New Jersey. It was founded four years ago by faculty from Rockefeller University in New York, who spent ten years perfecting a face recognition system based on breaking facial features down in 64 different ways. Its chief executive officer is Dr. Joseph Atick. There is no information available to me on Visionics' number of employees, revenues, or profits.
Visionics originally produced a vision-enhancing device for medical uses, but found it commercially not viable. The company is developing several variations of face recognition products: FaceIt PC (for individual PC applications), FaceIt DB(for one to many surveillance and monitoring uses), and FaceIt AC(for door access control), as well as working on a FaceIt product for network uses.
The product requires a series of photos to be taken at enrollment. This takes about a minute. The subject will be asked to smile and to blink. The system has no problem with people putting on or taking off eyeglasses. It can handle varying lighting conditions, although one report noted that use of the PC version by a window can throw off the recognition program during different parts of the day. The system remains completely effective up to 25 degrees off full face, then performance can deteriorate. I cannot tell identical twins apart.
The FaceIt line has been introduced in the past six months to general acclaim. It has won several awards, notably Best in Show at COMDEX. Visionics has four contracts with the US government (terms not disclosed): with the INS on the Mexican border (SENTRI system); with the National Security Agency (access control); with the US Army Research Laboratory (access control, I think); and with the Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (police applications). FaceIt is also in use in the Malaysian airport and four other Pacific Rim airports, and in pilot with Diebold for ATM use.
End of Part 1 |
