What is facial recognition?

The facial features of individuals are unique like fingerprints. Using these features to provide ultimate protection to your data, makes it impossible for hackers to peep into your pieces of information. Facial recognition is a way of recognizing a human face through technology. Facial recognition systems use biometrics to map facial features from a photograph or video. It then compares the information with a database of known faces to find a match.

You can avail of this protection with several face recognition apps available. With the face recognition app, you can search and identify similar images on social media platforms. Facial recognition has many commercial applications too: it can be used for everything from surveillance to marketing.

The facial recognition market is expected to grow to $7.7 billion in 2022 from $4 billion in 2017. Facial recognition can help verify personal identity, but it also raises privacy issues.

How do facial recognition apps work?

The facial recognition software in the app works under algorithms asking users for various personal details during registration. It also records the unique characteristics of an individual’s facial patterns. That’s why when users log in after registration, the app asks for a passcode as well as a facial identification.

Who uses it?

Face recognition systems can be used to identify people in photos, video, or in real-time. Law enforcement may use it via mobile devices to identify people during police stops. Here are other uses for facial application:

Unlock phones, this protects personal data and if a phone is stolen, sensitive data remains inaccessible.

Find missing persons if there facial signatures are in a database, law enforcement is alerted by face recognition, in any public space whether it is an airport, street or retail store.

Prevent retail crime by instantly identifying when known shoplifters, organized retail criminals or people with a history of fraud enter retail establishments.

Smarter advertising by making targeted guesses at people’s age and gender

A certain app helps the visually impaired navigate social situations by alerting them with a vibration, if people are smiling.

Protect Law Enforcement officers can instantly identify individuals and receive contextual data about them in the field from a safe distance.

Aid forensic investigations by automatically recognizing individuals in security footage or other videos or to identify dead or unconscious individuals at crime scenes.

Identify people on social media platforms making it easy for people to find photos they are in and can correctly suggest who to tag in photos.

Protect schools from threats as surveillance systems instantly identify when expelled students, dangerous parents, drug dealers or other threats to school safety enter school grounds.

Face recognition can help casinos recognize if cheaters, members of voluntary exclusion lists, or advantage gamblers enters a casino.

Face scans may eventually replace ATM cards completely since face recognition is a powerful identity authentication tool

How does facial recognition programming work?

Although different manufacturers or developers may use different technologies but here are the basic steps would remain the same.

Your face is captured from a photo or video, whether the picture shows you are alone or in a crowd. Your image doesn’t even have to be looking straight ahead, you could appear nearly in profile.

Next facial recognition software reads the geometry of your face, noting down key factors such as the distance from forehead to chin or the distance between your eyes. The software identifies facial landmarks that are key to distinguishing your face, resulting in your unique facial signature being captured and retained as data.

Your facial signature, is compared to a database of known faces. At least 117 million Americans have images of their faces in one or more police databases, and according to a May 2018 report, the FBI had access to 412 million facial images for searches.

A determination is made, if your face print matches that of an image in a facial recognition system database.

Best Face Recognition App for Android

Facial recognition technology is now a regular feature in smartphone security, along with the PIN and now elaborate fingerprint scanners. It be may not necessarily be more secure than a fingerprint scanner, biometric ideas like facial recognition tend to be faster and more convenient to use. So let’s explore what options are out there, how they work, and what they mean for security.

Best Facial Recognition Software

Deep Vision AI is a computer vision software company that excels at facial recognition. It applies patented advanced computer vision technology that recognizes and understand images and videos automatically, turning visual content into real-time analytics and valuable insights.

Deep Vision AI has more than 500M existing cameras worldwide today, and holds the ability to analyze camera streams through different AI-based software modules on a single offers plug-and-play platform, enabling users with real-time alerts and faster responsiveness.

Android’s Basic Facial Recognition Software

While OEMs may be flaunting their own fancy security technologies, Android has been able to unlock your phone with your face since its Ice Cream Sandwich days which was fourth major operating system version of Android developed and unveiled by Google on October 19, 2011. Today, almost all smartphones use it, as an alternative security feature to unlocking your phone with a PIN or fingerprint.

Unfortunately, it is still not very secure, since it only relies on your front facing camera and a 2D facial recognition algorithm. As this is just a 2D image a simple photograph of you is enough for a thief to fool the system and unlock your phone.

The quality of the front camera is a determining factor, as is the complexity of the algorithm used to extract facial details. The use of neural network hardware can also accelerate more secure algorithms on high-end smartphones. Huawei’s 360 Face Unlock shipped with its P20 series and OnePlus’ speedy unlocking technologies as examples of faster algorithms. Lower cost models are often not as quick.

Facial Recognition Software for iPhones

As part of its iPhone X launch Apple unveiled its new Face ID technology. This is the first 3D face scanning technology to be used in a smartphone. Unlike the basic IR technology, 3D scanning maps out a user’s entire face in a highly secure manner. It doesn’t use just the phone’s familiar front-facing camera, but has many sensors crammed onto a strip at the top.

These iPhone X sensors are designed to capture details of your face. It initiates the process by using an infrared flood light to illuminate your face, regardless of your surrounding lighting conditions. A secondary 30,000-point infrared laser matrix is then projected, which reflects off the first flood light. Next a special infrared camera detects subtle changes in matrix point reflections as your face makes minute movements, which allows the camera to capture very precise 3D depth data.

Google Facial Recognition App

Google offers the best reverse image search by matching similar images. A user can go to images.google.com and click a photo by clicking on the camera icon or uploads an image in the search box and finally tap on the search button. On an Android phone or tablet, a user can open the Google Photos app and sign in to their Google Account. At the top, tap the search bar. Under your list of recent or suggested searches, you’ll see a row of faces, to identify any particular face, tap on it. To see more faces, tap Next.

Ten Best Face Recognition App for Android and IOS

LUXAND (ANDROID, IOS) FaceSDK is ideal for surveillance, biometric identification, and other purposes, used by various top-notch organizations around the world. It can detect any face stored in its memory; by adding names to the images and using the app as a photo gallery you can use the app to put names to faces. Additionally, C can recognize faces in live video footage, as well as age and gender of the individual, further authenticating the profile identification.

The face recognition app allows users to experiment with avatars featuring different characteristics, such as hair color, facial hair, face, nose, eyebrow and ear piercings, and more.

Both users and developers are utilizing facial recognition software for their apps, it allows developers to experiment with emerging technology and also permits them to make AR-enabled apps. FaceSDK feature is publicly available with multiple face detection APIs, including:

Facial recognition API
Avatar API
E-cards API
Baby Prediction API
Face Aging API
Zombie API
Face Enhancement API
The facial recognition app

Blippar (ANDROID, IOS) is an entertainment app that used augmented reality (AR) object and face recognition functions. Blippar has an extensive database to recognize objects like plants, landmarks, animals, and food items, and can identify over 370,000 celebrity faces for a quick search on their life, work, and other details. This feature is called Public Figure Facial Recognition and can be used to recognize people, but in a more personal way, unlike for law enforcement agencies, since it depends on Blippar’s own database rather than an external one. Its feature called ‘Halos’ enables users to create their AR facial profiles and use them to share their mood and moments with followers or change their features to resemble celebrities.

RAILER (ANDROID, IOS) monitors student and employee attendance. It organize leave management, and time attendance for HR teams. With a kiosk mode, the app also allows self-check-ins and checkouts. Face recognition lets employees log in and out quickly. The main advantage is that attendance and leaves are seamlessly integrated, allowing for analytics. Detailed reports and analytics are readily available on the app.

MOJIPOP (ANDROID, IOS) makes customized avatars, and will quickly gain popularity as it is available in 58 languages. Users can create different avatars based on selfies. With simple steps, you can change your avatar’s expression, hairstyle, mood, and background. The app works quickly and is easy to use. Users can convert avatar stickers to different file formats, and thousands of new types of animated stickers are released every day. With a colorful design and full of customizable options, users find it engaging and entertaining. Since the app is used for entertainment purposes, rather than facial recognition, no false positive data has been released to public.

LOG ME (ANDROID, IOS) is an online photo directory, it has the capability to recognize faces in photos and pulls up their social media accounts. This allows users to connect with people you may know through facial identification. The processing is in real time and results displayed almost instantaneously. The app can also extract multiple faces from a single photo and does not have to be used in single instances. Users can also access images that are uploaded to their social media accounts

IOBIT APPLOCK (ANDROID) monitors device security allows users to unlock apps via face recognition or fingerprint authentication. It has a liveness detection feature, so using a 2D photograph to try and fool the system will not work. If a perpetrator attempts to unlock a device, the app emails the user a photo of them. Using deep learning and AI combinations, users receive a highly accurate experience. They can also add fake covers and disguise the lock-screen. App reviews state that the app is quick and accurate.

FACEPHI (ANDROID, IOS) is a banking app used as security as mobile banking increases. FacePhi allows banks to recognize their customers to enhance the mobile experience with an added level of security. The app works under an algorithm that asks users for various personal details during registration, while recording their unique facial patterns. After registration, when users log in, the app asks for a passcode along with facial identification. The details are checked in a database before the user is allowed to proceed and use other banking services.

FACEFIRST (ANDROID, IOS) provides security through facial identification from a distance. It can identify individuals from a distance, making it ideal for law enforcement, military, and other organizations. Once a photo is uploaded on the app, it is put against a massive database of known persons and offenders and provides real-time alerts, accurate details, mobile notifications, emails, and text alerts to users. Organizations can add people on a watch list and use it without an internet connection, it secures all data uploaded on the app from third-party access.

FACEAPP (ANDROID, IOS) is an entertainment app FaceApp launched in 2017 by iPhone. It offers a variety of filters that can edit your smile, allow you to look like a different gender, see an older or younger version of yourself, lighten your skin tone or change the color of your hair and your hairstyle. Additionally, it can recognize celebrities and allow users to share their old and new photographs like other social platforms.

FACE2GENE (ANDROID, IOS) is a healthcare app transforming the medical industry. Developed in Boston by an artificial intelligence agency, it uses the unique facial features of individuals to help doctors perform genetic evaluations. It can easily be called the best face recognition healthcare professionals using for Android and iOS platforms.

The app helps medical practitioners identify different syndromes within individuals by comparing genetic and phenotypic traits that cause certain facial features. It utilizes Deep Learning algorithms based on syndrome configurations, built on precise computational classifiers for each syndrome. The app converts a scanned photo into facial descriptors, which are then compared to the stored syndrome gestalts allowing doctors to analyze similarities and identify medical conditions.

All the above features make these the best face recognition apps available at the moment and predicted to grow even bigger in 2021.

Interested in building facial recognition software? The market is opening up now, with many opportunities to be explored. According to recent studies the global image recognition market was valued at $13.7 billion in 2015, and is expected to reach $79.8 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 19.7% from 2017 to 2025.”

Companies that can create innovative facial recognition solutions, will have made enormous profits. Here at Appedology we have the right equipment, resources, strategies and algorithms to create futuristic face recognition apps. Contact us to learn more.

RECENT BLOGS