Intel today announced that it will make its RealSense 3D cameras available to customers who want to use the technology for faster facial recognition in the form of RealSense ID. The move comes months after competitor Amazon dodged its own facial recognition program, which was accused of perpetuating dangerous racial prejudices and putting people of color at risk.
Intel’s move is a little different. Amazon previously sold its Reckognition program to police departments and government organizations. The program was famous for eliciting false positives and endangering minorities. Intel’s RealSense is not simply an algorithm applied to recorded data from traditional cameras. It’s a camera combined with a depth sensor that’s capable of recording data in three dimensions, and Intel says that much of the data that may concern privacy advocates will be stored directly on the device, which uses algorithms to positively identify users. This one it means images that are unique to you shouldn’t go outside the device’s limits.
RealSense cameras have been around for more than half a decade and are prized by modists for their ability to scan 3D spaces while capturing video data. However, the popularity of alternative products, such as Apple facial ID, which also combines data from a camera with data collected by infrared lasers, has gained popularity, leaving RealSense without much to do.
Uses found by Intel. At a CES, the company scanned me in seconds that was converted to a laser-sculpted paperweight. Another year, showed the ability of RealSense control a wheelchair with facial gestures. However, RealSense is not normally used by laptop manufacturers to open laptops via facial recognition – most rely on other cameras that work with Windows Hello. Nor is it often found on phones or devices intended for gesture-based computing.
Intel will now sell RealSense cameras as RealSense ID, and will be available on a card or in a plug and play all-in-one package. Intel claims that it has been tested on various skin types and nationalities on all continents and should not generate false positives or negatives– although I’m sure we’ll hear more from privacy advocates if RealSense ID starts to take off. He also states that he will get around the masks normally used to protect against covid-19, with glasses, and even if the subject gets old or grows a lot by facials. In a demonstration for journalists, Intel showed the camera positively identifying someone, regardless of what they were wearing or around the face, but failed when a photo of the person was used on a phone. Intel claims it is more forgery-proof than competing facial recognition technology, with a chance of false detections being one in a million – on a par with the claimed facial identification fee.
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While Intel has repeatedly compared the RealSense camera obliquely to those found in consumer devices, the new module and card should not be used on a laptop or phone. Intel was reluctant to talk about possible integration with Windows Hello and instead said that the camera could be used in conjunction with a smart lock to open doors, or even with an ATM instead of a debit card.
Intel apparently envisions RealSense ID as a solution for fast authentication in the real world. Which makes me a little suspicious. Is the chance that one in a million of having a false identity is security enough to make you comfortable taking money out of your bank account with your face alone or going through airport security? Intel claims that the face identification data has no image and can only be read by the RealSense identification algorithm and the system on the chip built into the product, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be used as Amazon’s Reckognition and some other facial recognition technology that aroused the ire of privacy advocates (although there’s no word yet on whether law enforcement is interested or how it could use it). Still, Intel and its partners will have a long way to go to make consumers comfortable by scanning their faces to open a door.