Nowadays everyone is using
face recognition and businesses are no exception. The use of face analytics solutions to gather information on demographics and consumer buying patterns is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, according to a report by MarketsandMarkets.
Adoption of face recognition technology is growing across industries, which is being fueled by growing awareness, advancements in the technology, and accessibility. For instance, the development of advanced facial recognition analytics that are centralized has made it relatively easy to apply to any networked camera, explained Shawn Mather, Director of Sales for the U.S. at
Intelligent Security Systems (ISS).
With businesses also looking for more ways to utilize smart technologies, and with
artificial intelligence (AI) and
deep learning gaining momentum, the use cases for face recognition have opened up. Additionally, improvements in video surveillance cameras has allowed “organizations to realize the full value of video surveillance investments,” according to Stephanie Weagle, CMO of
BriefCam.
Stephanie Weagle,
CMO, BriefCam
“The growing sophistication of video content analytics (VCA) systems combined with the market’s fuller understanding of the ways in which video analytics solutions can drive organizational efficiency and performance alongside security, has resulted in businesses of all types taking a deeper interest in VCA and face recognition,” Weagle said.
From a
retail perspective, leveraging face recognition technology allows them to better understand customer demography (e.g., gender, age, etc.). This data provides the retailer with a better understanding of who their customers are, which could enable them to better personalize the shopping experience and tailor their marketing strategy.
“When companies educate themselves on demographic composition, they create business intelligence opportunities to improve convenience in how people interact with their built environments and to enhance the personalization of experiences in advertising,” explained Dan Grimm, VP of Computer Vision and GM of SAFR at
RealNetworks.
Grimm explained that companies can use facial detection and characterization, which does not retain any biometric information, to gain actionable insights of their customers. “For example, shopping mall owners will be able to make better advertising, leasing and customer service decisions if they know that between the hours of 12pm and 1pm they tend to see traffic of X number of persons broken down by 60 percent female, 40 percent male, with an average age of 42, based on a single IP camera properly tuned for an entrance,” he added.
Businesses are also using face recognition to create customer loyalty programs to help identify VIPs.
Mather also highlighted the use of facial recognition in workforce management. This is a trend he sees on the rise globally. The ability to accurately identify and track personnel for time and attendance management with face recognition is especially being sought after. Face recognition is being deployed for this purpose in a large number of industries where large, but often temporary workforces are being deployed to either permanent or temporary sites, he said.
“Perfect examples are factories and construction sites, where shifts change based on delivery schedules and production lines, and different groups of specialized workers need to be on production lines at different intervals,” Mather explained.
These are just some of the ways businesses are using face recognition technology for non-security purposes today. In the near future, many expect facial recognition to become more mainstream where its use for even more business intelligence operations will continue to grow.