Face Technologies

Introduction

The human face contains many mysteries and remains among the most expressive human features. Our faces even contain hidden information about our personalities. Given the fundamental role of the human face, this course aims to present innovative solutions based on deep learning that analyze human face data.

Face analysis technology basics

This cutting-edge technology is becoming much more common in a wide range of industries like online retailing, advertisement testing, virtual makeovers, and others. For example, face analysis technology currently allows online shoppers to virtually try on makeup, jewelry, or new eyewear in order to get an accurate portrayal of what those products will look like in real life.

In the advertisement testing field, this technology helps advertisers weigh the emotional impact of their ads on consumers. Face analysis technology records and analyzes the consumer’s facial expressions to quantitatively determine the effectiveness of a new advertisement. Moreover, face analysis also serves the medical field, facilitating the diagnosis of genetic disorders. At its core, face analysis is an intersection between machine learning, computer vision, and image processing domains. These domains all work together to gather information from a human face such as landmarks, age, gender, emotion, race, and so on.

Face detection technology basics

Introduced in 2001, face detection technology is considered a subclass of object detection technology. As its name implies, this computing technology can localize human faces within digital images or videos. As its name implies, this computing technology can localize human faces within digital images or videos. By exploiting a bundle of machine learning algorithms, face detection technology scans digital images to localize human faces without seeking to identify them or assign them names.

Face detection technology is widely used by digital cameras. This is done by overlaying a rectangle on each detected face, in the scene displayed on the camera’s LCD.

Face detection can also be beneficial for security purposes, for example, to monitor the number of people in a crowded scene or to count people attending large public events.

In the marketing field, for instance, some digital billboards can be configured to display an advert upon detecting a human face in the surroundings or they can be expanded to produce tailored advertisements, such as perfume advertisements targeting women.

Face recognition technology basics##

Face detection technology enables us to verify or identify the actual persons detected in a digital image. While this technology has been growing steadily, the COVID-19 outbreak accelerated the pace of its adoption due to an increased demand for touchless solutions. This technology’s market may reach $8.5 billion by 2025, given that the latter already showed a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 17.2% from 2020 to 2025, according to the MarketsandMarkets report.

In its most basic form, a facial recognition system makes use of biometric technology that can identify a person based on facial characteristics like eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and chin. Face detection technology is typically associated with the security sector. However, it’s useful for a wide range of applications, including the following:

• Facilitating access control to grant users access to a broad range of internet of things devices like cars and smartphones.
• Enabling customers to purchase items simply by scanning their faces in some retail sectors, like those in China.
• Advertising to enhance marketing campaigns and foster a pertinent user experience.

Conclusion

With the linear advancements offered by groundbreaking technologies like these, more markets will begin to open for their use. To stay on top of these emerging technology trends, let’s explore the facets of face analysis in more detail.