Accession       : 01309077
Original Title  : Facial-Recognition Software Gives A Better Picture; A 
                  National Institute of Standards and Technology study shows 
                  that the technology has improved markedly over the past two 
                  years.
Source          : Information Week:NA, March 14, 2003.
ISSN            : 8750-6874
Document Type   : Journal
Pub. Country    : United States
Language        : English
Record Type     : Fulltext
Word Count      : 249

Byline: Eric Chabrow, InformationWeek

Facial-recognition technology has immensely improved over the past two years, 
according to a study released Thursday by the National Institute of Standards 
and Technology. The Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks prompted Congress to order 
the study, titled Face Recognition Vendor Test 2002.

Key findings of the study include:

? The error rate was reduced by 50% from similar tests conducted in 2000.

? In determining if a person is who he or she claims, the best 
facial-recognition systems equal 1998 fingerprint-matching technologies, 
yielding a 90% verification rate with a 1% false-acceptance rate. The 2000 
tests had a verification rate of 80%.

? Facial-recognition performance for outdoor images is only about half as 
good as for indoor images, where there's better control of lighting 
conditions.

? Males are easier to identify than females; older people are easier to 
recognize than younger ones.

Scientists don't know why males and younger people are easier to identify. 
They speculate that women are more likely to change their appearance than 
men, especially their hair length and color. Also, because scientists 
compared current images with those taken three years earlier, they guess that 
young people's appearances are more likely to change during that timeframe 
than their elders. "People's appearance change less when they get older," an 
NIST spokesman says.

The study was conducted by scientists from NIST, the Defense Advanced 
Research Projects Agency, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy's 
Counter-drug Technology Assessment Center. Ten companies participated in the 
tests, which involved matching 121,589 images of 37,437 individuals.

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Concept Terms   : Financial reporting
Product Names   : Fabricated products, all other NEC (399893)
Geographic Area : North America (NOAX); United States (USA)