Intel yesterday launched RealSense ID, a facial recognition solution that features its RealSense depth sensor technology (via Gizmodo) RealSense started out as a Kinect-style camera for touchless interaction, but RealSense ID looks like an attempt by Intel to reposition its camera business towards secure facial recognition on the device first, while also potentially putting the company in the crossfire of controversy. .
RealSense ID is based on Intel’s depth detection technology with a neural network to identify faces, a dedicated system on a chip and a secure element that encrypts and processes user data. The device must learn and adapt to a face over time, working around facial hair, a variety of different skin tones and face masks, Gizmodo writes. The technology is available in a module that can be integrated with other products or as a standalone peripheral that can be connected to a computer.
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Intel’s RealSense technology has been in use for several years, coming up in weird technology demo use cases, like inserting your face in Fallout 4, and more useful ones, like unlocking a Windows Hello laptop. Intel suggests that this new RealSense application can be used in a variety of configurations, such as ATMs, recorders and smart locks. What the company does not mention is the other popular use of facial recognition: governments and law enforcement agencies tracking and profiling people.
Just last year, facial recognition software created by Huawei was used to track the persecuted Uighur minority in China. And in the United States last summer, facial recognition technology was used by the New York Police Department to track down a Black Lives Matter activist accused of assault. Intel says it processes facial recognition on the device, but it is unclear how it would work to give you access to a bank’s ATMs or cash registers. In addition to the potential for abuse, facial recognition software proved to be biased for race and gender, opening up the possibility of false positives. For example, a version of Amazon Rekognition’s facial recognition software had a harder time identifying people if they were women or dark skinned than if they were white men.
Intel has taken steps to address the potential for distortion in RealSense ID, creating a more diverse sample of faces to train RealSense. “We did extensive data collection from all ethnicities in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” said Intel VentureBeat at a press conference on the new device. Intel says RealSense ID has a one in one million chance of falsely identifying someone, but we will have to wait and see if outside researchers find fault.
Facial recognition is not the only future that Intel envisions for RealSense. For this year’s digital CES, the company announced RealSense Touchless Control (TCS) software, which uses Intel’s RealSense Depth Camera to allow you to interact with a touchscreen by swiping it instead of touching it. . Like facial recognition, the new app makes a lot of sense for a world that still faces a pandemic and shows that there is still room for the past of RealSense motion controllers.
Intel’s RealSense ID peripheral is available for pre-order now for $ 99, and the RealSense ID Module is available in a 10-pack for $ 750. Intel plans to start shipping both in March.