FBI is not Facebook's opponent?

User "Phils":

Seeing foreign media reports, the FBI deployed facial recognition system was challenged, that the FBI system as Facebook, need its help to improve the accuracy of facial recognition. Really?

Tencent Technology:

The FBI plans to fully deploy Next Generation Identification (NGI) facial recognition system this summer. By the end of this year, the NGI Facial Recognition System will include massive picture information of citizens involved in all 50 states in the United States into the Central Federal Database.

NGI facial recognition system is not perfect

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) seems intent on throwing cold water at FBI's NGI facial recognition system: EFF believes NGI is not perfect. Assuming there is a facial photo of a suspect, the NGI system will display as many as 50 suspicious names and only 85% chance of successfully locking the name of the suspect.

Compared with the DeepFace facial recognition system just released by Facebook earlier this month, NGI looks quite clumsy. DeepFace system can distinguish whether two people on the same picture, the accuracy of this technology up to 97%, and even comparable to human identification ability.

There is no doubt that Facebook's advantage lies in the value of the data network, in the same case, it can face recognition in a smaller range, the success rate is naturally higher. Only by one point, even the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the United States can only start to feel the same off in front of Facebook.

Some people pour cold water on facial recognition technology

Although many people are happy to see this facial recognition technology "close to human beings" born, the real face recognition technology is far less readily promised by the industry.

Shahar Belkin, chief technology officer at FST Biometrics, a well-known facial recognition technology development company, said: "Those commercial companies that are self-conscious of face recognition are lying because the gap between the human brain and the computer is huge ".

FST Biometrics' customer base is willing to work in front of the camera, and its recognition technology has multiple layers of validation, such as height and gait tracking, that eliminate as much active error as possible.

FBI's NGI facial recognition system does not have these advantages. Its so-called facial information is like fingerprints, a fingerprint corresponds to a status, more suitable for use in court. But people's face information is different, people can easily distinguish and identify facial information, but the machine can not.

FBI's disadvantage and Facebook's edge

To make matters worse, the quality of the pictures used by FBI facial recognition technology is worrying. Belkin said the face recognition system needs a positive picture, and the picture information is not less than 15 angles centered on the face of the face, this picture is often consciously presented.

Pictures taken from public area cameras are not suitable for face recognition systems, which is a very tricky issue for the FBI. Because surveillance cameras are generally placed on the ceiling or street lights, even if the suspects were photographed, because of the angle and quality problems, facial recognition system is difficult to distinguish such pictures. Nowadays, the surveillance camera system in various countries did not consider the coordination with facial recognition system at the beginning of the establishment.

However, Facebook can avoid this problem because Facebook knows who your friends are and this is crucial for facial recognition systems. Moreover, Facebook can find a large number of related photos, the total picture information, Facebook available pictures up to 250 billion, while the FBI only 50 million, is not at all a level.

The benefits of a large number of images are obvious - the greater the choice, and the greater the number that means more relevant information, which is of great benefit to the accuracy of facial recognition techniques.

FBI get Facebook help may only need a piece of paperwork

FBI can still create a good facial recognition system, it needs more pictures, more names and a more intelligent network that can organize them together. In short, the FBI needs the help of Facebook, and the cost of getting such help is low - just one court order.

Currently, Facebook is eating a lawsuit because of user privacy charges, law enforcement is likely to "get" more user data in the event of a lawsuit, which is what law enforcement departments are looking for facial recognition systems.

Like other cutting-edge technology competition, whether it is Mac PK.PC or Android VS. .OSOS, preconceptions will occupy the initiative, but "preemptive" does not ensure the competitive advantage. If Facebook can make its face recognition system perfect operation, FBI can also do it by a variety of means.

The question now is, what is the FBI's GNI in comparison to Facebook's facial recognition system? This is an open question. However, the FBI may lose to the camera and the computer anyway, but it will still win back in court. (Larry)