Privacy or convenience? Technology today often asks users to choose. Security for your home is smart, and it brings this uneasy choice home. In the end, smart home devices must gather and transmit information to provide the best value. However, the methods and features that ensure that smart home security is seamless (like automatic syncing of devices) can also make them difficult to use.
Face recognition can take the security and privacy concerns that smart homes have to a new level. Security cameras that are smart, either with and without facial recognition, are susceptible to being hacked, function and footage that is maliciously transferred by hackers. What about cameras that create a database that matches names to faces? Biometric data increases the risk of hacking much more serious and also adds another, more globally-focused concern- the racial bias.
Face recognition: What is it and how it’s applied
The latest technology is often expensive as well as insecure and controversial. Face recognition is a perfect example of all three. However, the technology has huge potential in a wide range of areas — for airports, crowd management and in supermarkets, where cameras on the shelves can detect the mood of shoppers. Face recognition is used all over the world, for example, the security of your house.
Facial analysis algorithms allow security cameras to recognize the faces of your family members. This allows for an easier and more efficient system control (the camera will “recognize” you when you walk through the door, and then deactivate your alarm) and improves the quality of alarms.
However, the technology of today is still a bit clunky. It is necessary to present the facial recognition camera to the faces you wish it to recall or by adding pictures or letting the camera capture their picture. Face recognition cameras create an inventory of faces that are familiar to you (most are able to remember between 16 and 32). Since faces are three-dimensional and always in motion and not static like a fingerprint, cameras must be able to recognize faces by viewing them from various angles over time for a few days or longer. You might have been through this process if you created the Face ID on your brand new iPhone.
Analytics happen within the camera and are a blessing for privacy. Faces and names aren’t transferred to a server at a company which means they’re not vulnerable to massive data breaches or exploitable for business use. This also means that obtaining an alert for a repeat offense criminal is still far off.
Face recognition makes the smart home smarter
Security systems that can remember faces can improve user-friendliness and prevention. The first users can go beyond to the “Hey, Alexa” style of system control. Simply showing your face to the camera will allow you to set the temperature of your room to the desired temperature of 71 degrees and then turn on Spotify.
Face recognition can also provide more useful information to alerts from the system. Instead of reporting that an anonymous visitor to your door at 2:33pm the camera that recognizes faces will let you know that it was your grandmother. False alarms begin with false alarms. Cameras that can distinguish the loved ones from an intruder can cut the false alarms and can help you decide if you should call the police.
A few smart cameras provide facial recognition.
Face recognition is an uncommon feature on camera systems for home surveillance. It isn’t the case that all cameras that boast the feature actually come with it. There are a few cameras that have facial recognition software — that includes Honeywell, Nest, Netatmo, Tend Secure, Wisenet and more — but there are many more coming soon. Abode, ADT, and LG have all teased facial recognition devices during CES 2020.
Notably, Ring Alarm, the security firm acquired from Amazon at the end of 2016 and credited with a frenzied innovation process is yet to include facial recognition technology in its smart cameras.
In the end, for better or worse Amazon envisions exactly such an eventuality: An Amazon patent outlines the pairing of Ring doorbells with technology known as Rekognition. This upgrade could connect citizen cameras to police databases.
Facial recognition is not without its drawbacks.
Ring cameras don’t yet feature facial recognition, however the negative press that the company has faced in the last year highlights the technology’s theoretical negatives, including big brother surveillance and privacy loss hacking, and the practice of racial profiling. Cameras may have difficulty recognizing people with dark skin tones. This weakness can have a significant consequences if footage from cameras is used to identify criminals.
Technology’s privacy and biased nature -Two reasons why you should not use facial recognition. The relative degree of green in facial recognition a different one. The software for facial recognition requires time to build its database, and it is susceptible to being fooled. If the cameras aren’t as sophisticated is, the more likely that shadows or glasses can be used to confuse it.
What should you look for in security cameras that recognize faces
The concept of facial recognition, as nascent and tangled as it might be, is a brand new technological frontier in artificial intelligence. The ability to recognize someone’s face is a unique human capability.
If you’re looking to add the ability to recognize faces in your security systems, look and set up the system with security and security in your mind. Make sure you purchase devices for your home with strong security protocols installed. It is a minimum requirement that you have two-factor authentication as well as regular security updates. Controls that are user-friendly to disable audio, video or certain features (including face recognition) are essential as well. Make sure to place your facial recognition device in a way that it only records people who are within your property — not just any stranger who walks by. Consider putting up a sign in the vicinity to inform anyone who steps onto your property that they are being monitored.
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