Firm unveils face recognition tech in RP

MANILA, Philippines - A software application that recognizes a person’s face—even in well-lighted environments which alter an individual’s appearance—is all set to change the way Filipinos view and use biometrics technology. XID Technologies, a company that has offices in Redwood City, California and Singapore, unveiled in the country last June 27 its flagship product dubbed “Face Logon Xpress", an application that allows PCs or establishments to be accessed only by authorized users. Top XID executives led by CEO Mike Holt and sales director Steve Seah formally launched the face recognition technology at the Ascott hotel in Makati during a press briefing arranged by local IT distributor Columbia Technologies Inc. (CTI) and Acer Philippines. According to Holt, biometrics solutions, specifically face recognition technology, has been around for sometime but it has not been widely adopted because of its high error rate. “One of the factors that severely affect this high error rate is lighting, especially outdoors, because it can change the way a person looks. This is the reason why they are only used in enclosed areas such as airports and offices," explained Holt. The executive said that XID set out early on to fix the problem so that outdoor users, particularly mobile workers who carry their laptops around, can have access regardless of the lighting conditions. The secret behind the breakthrough, Holt said, is the company’s facial synthesis technology which detects, recognizes, and synthesizes the human face. It automatically generates thousands of face images from a single 2D photo, allowing the technology to accurately perform face recognition in different lighting environments and angles, he said. Additionally, Holt said the product can compensate for extreme conditions such as complete darkness by allowing users to access the PC through the use of a default password instead of the camera. The company said that while the faces of the earth’s six billion people could each be a potential customer, their targeted customers for now are mobile workers and establishments that need light-sensitive door access technology. Acer Philippines, for its part, said it can bundle the technology in its PCs and laptops. “It can compensate the biometric solutions that we already have in our products so our customers can have a higher level of security," said Agnes Espino, marketing manager of Acer Philippines. - GMANews.TV