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IdentiFace
The Problem
Many law enforcement organizations employ surveillance units to
monitor the activities and movements of suspected criminals. Frequently,
surveillance activity discovers unidentified individuals who become
suspects by reason of their behavior or association with suspected
criminals. Identifying these unknown individuals requires a great
deal of manpower. Because many of these individuals have a previous
record, they can be readily identified by comparing their video image
to databases (mug shots on file with police agencies, Department of
Motor Vehicles records, etc.).
The Solution: IdentiFace
The ANSER team, funded under National Institute of Justice Cooperative
Agreement 98-LB-VX-K021, is developing the IdentiFace system, specifically
geared to meet the needs of law enforcement agencies. IdentiFace automatically
captures and processes images (still photographs and/or live video)
of suspected criminals and applies automated face recognition techniques
to query, compare, and match these images with a booking database
of enrolled images and other stored digital images. IdentiFace then
displays the enrolled images that most closely match the suspect to
the surveillance unit in near-real time. Face recognition systems
will enable law enforcement officers to quickly make positive identifications
of suspects and to arrest suspects who have outstanding warrants.
The system includes
the following modules:
- Video processing
to capture the best-quality facial images (or a sequence of faces)
of persons under surveillance
- An automated
face recognition engine integrated with a database of booking photographs
and other stored digital images
- Electronic
facial probe data queries for comparison and for finding the best
matches against mug shot database galleries
- Formatting
and displaying the best matches in comparing the gallery images
to the probe image
- A face-finding
tool to assist the user in locating the face within the image and
image enhancement and pose correction
- The use of
a physical description query filter to reduce the number of false
positive matches
- Communication
(transmitting/receiving) of data between the surveillance unit and
central databases
Other Law Enforcement
Applications
This system could be used to monitor transportation portals (such
as airports) for known terrorists, drug dealers, or other known criminals
on a "watch list." It can also be extended to provide access
authentication, monitoring and control functions for physical, computer,
and network security systems. Law enforcement officers have shown
interest in using the Identiface application as an "electronic" lineup
tool.
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