Even those in the tank have already noticed that the world has changed, and the coronavirus pandemic is largely to blame for this, which upside down many areas of life and led to the fact that a huge number of people in the world lost their jobs, and the rest were simply forced to change their habits. . One worldwide isolation is worth it. But there is one problem that few people paid attention to, but it is more tangible than it seems at first glance. What I am talking about has primarily affected smartphone users and their manufacturers. Although, entire governments have suffered from this. On the other hand, someone even benefited from this. In general, everything is as usual.
The consequences of the coronavirus have not yet fully revealed themselves. There are some hidden points.
Face recognition system in smartphones
I'm talking about the face recognition system now. Just a few years ago, such a function began to be actively implemented in our smartphones, and now we simply cannot use it when there is a mask on our face. Those manufacturers who, just in case, did not abandon the traditional or on-screen fingerprint scanner, are still lucky, because their users can choose this method or simply configure the use of both.
Personally, I really like it when a smartphone recognizes me by sight. That is, nothing is required of me – I just take my phone and start using it. Only lately this has become a little problematic. I noticed that while in the store, I manage to turn on my smartphone up to ten times. I have only face recognition set up and every time I have to enter the code. Yes, I go to the store wearing a mask.
Anyone who wears a mask in a public place is great.
Someone writes, you need to see what to buy, check the recipe, unlock the phone for payment. Every time you enter six numbers and sometimes it starts to strain. She lost the most in this regard Apple. For almost three years now, the new iPhone, except for the second generation iPhone SE, have no fingerprint scanner. And this really becomes a problem.
Previously, if I did not have my finger scan set up, I only experienced discomfort when I used my phone in a motorcycle helmet or balaclava while snowboarding. Now every time I go to a public place.
A useless feature in a smartphone
It turns out that face recognition has now become as useless as possible since its inception? It turns out that now it doesn't make much sense to look at its presence? In general, yes.
The person who uses the mask must now look for alternative ways to unlock the phone. This is not so bad. We can just go to a finger scan or enter a code, but what about the security forces? For example, customs services.
Scanning a face is a difficult but necessary process.
This can be a real boon for privacy advocates. Although, if they are shouting about it at every corner, why are so few people using masks? The study found that face masks cause serious problems with facial recognition software.
Facial recognition accuracy
Facial recognition algorithms cannot cope with masks, and research by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has proven this. It revealed significant leaps in error rates for the most popular face recognition software. The peak was somewhere between 5 and 50% for a variety of algorithms. That is, everyone suffered to one degree or another.
Interestingly, black masks cause more errors than blue ones, and if the nose is open, the chance of error becomes higher (which is strange). Now analysts agree that something needs to be done with the software. There are already some solutions in this direction, and experts promise to test new methods of recognizing people's faces when they are wearing masks by the end of summer.
Sometimes it can be scary, but in some cases it can even save lives if done correctly.
If we are talking about a facial recognition system in a public place, the mistake may turn out to be fatal, but it can still be made with a stretch. And here's how to be at checkpoints or customs control. Making people take off their masks is a bad idea. After all, if everyone takes it off in line, then there is no point in them at all. It is one thing when the epidemiological situation in the world is normal and quite another thing now. It is in this direction that something must be invented in the first place.
It is noted that, in general, it is possible to recognize a person's face even in a mask, but one must understand that recognition “one to one” in this case will be much more effective than “one to many”. To put it simply, it is quite simple to ask the system to compare a person with his photograph, which is already in the database.
If you need to scan the face (part of the face) of a person and check it against the entire base, then the task becomes almost unrealistic. Such a comparison, even without a mask, often fails when it is necessary to compare a person with a base of thousands, if not millions, of faces.
It is generally impossible to define a person's face in this way.
Some companies are already saying that they are ready for this state of affairs and can quickly and accurately identify a person, even if only his eyes are visible. This also applies to the Russian NtechLab, but so far the company has not shown in action how its system works, therefore, it treats such statements with a certain degree of skepticism.
The above example proves that we will find the negative consequences of the coronavirus more than once. Those who fear that they will be watched will be able to use the situation to their advantage and not take off their masks, relying on the demands of the authorities, but what other people should do. For example, I was once stopped to check my documents and I talked to an employee without removing my mask. Of course, privacy is good and even cool, but there are safety standards. And just the feeling of comfort when using a cool new smartphone with convenient functions.