Facial-recognition experts will soon be able to make 2-D, partial images of suspects pop from computer screens with 3-D technology. Lockheed Martin and Animetrics were awarded a research and development contract by the US government to improve the accuracy of facial recognition.
Currently, many pictures taken by security cameras are only partial or side-views of the subject's face, making it difficult to identify suspects. The new technology will allow experts to use 3-D modeling to recreate the subject's entire face, which experts will then compare to existing mug shots or file photos of the suspect.
“Lockheed's experience in facial recognition software deployed in today's field, together with Animetrics' 3-D modeling will assist in our customer's ability to solve facial identity cases,” said Bob Eastman, VP, Information Systems for Lockheed Martin.
The contract calls for a facial image comparison tool to be used by human operators as they narrow down the results delivered by automated facial-recognition tools. The objective of this program is to develop a software product that may be validated for use in case work.
“This is an important step in advancing biometric and facial-recognition technology,” Eastman said. “In the future, we hope to develop technologies that will not only model existing pictures in 3-D, but also collect images in 3-D.”