Eye Tracking: Nose Tracking (Update?)
In past Eye Tracking Update posts, we’ve covered a range of biometric and facial recognition technologies. Iris scanning is becoming more ubiquitous as technology improves, and with the need for higher levels of security, we expect to see an explosion of biometric devices very soon. A prime example being the news and debates we’ve reported on regarding the controversial full body scans at airports. Iris recognition and fingerprints are the first technologies that come to mind when it comes to the topic of biometric security, and they are touted and utilized for their accuracy and ease of identification. But what about other uniquely identifying features of the body, ones that seem to fall by the wayside? Aren’t these useful in facial recognition too?
Some researchers are now studying a feature that is perhaps one of the most defining on your face…the nose. In a recent article published in The Guardian, Dr. Adrian Evans, a lecturer in information systems at the University of Bath, England, says that until now, noses have been a relatively neglected feature of biometrics. While eyes and fingerprints are indeed highly accurate, they are more difficult to obtain, say, from a passer by on closed circuit television, something the English have grown accustomed to in recent years. Noses are more difficult to hide without drawing attention to one’s self, and they tend not to change or distort much with various facial expressions.
With the help of a photo-capture program called PhotoFace, a team in Bath scanned the faces of about 40 volunteers over a period of six weeks. Each face was organized into six common types of nose: Greek, Roman, Nubian, “hawk”, “turned-up”, and “snub.” After coming up with a formula to compare the different noses by slope, location of the nose ridge and regard to the tip, and nasion (the concave area between the eyebrows), the researchers wrote code to measure the curve down the center of each nose, creating a “nose number” for each participant.
Some noses, the article writes, were more like Michelangelo’s David, some more like Barack Obama’s. And in the end, Dr. Evans and his team were quite pleased with the results, suggesting that nose measurements had a “definite potential for use as a biometric.”
“There was a good rate of individual recognition,” says Dr. Evans in the Guardian’s article, “whilst it took much less time to process the image than it does with conventional biometric techniques like whole-face recognition.
While the accuracy level at this point is not quite as high as it is with other biometric measurements like iris scanning, Dr. Evans says it’s an easy feature to capture using cameras. And unlike iris scanning and fingerprinting, where a subject has to place their fingers on a pad, you can check a subject’s nose when they are being uncooperative or, as mentioned before, on camera.
Pretty interesting stuff really. To read more, check out the link below. And don’t worry, at Eye Tracking Update doesn’t plan to change its name to Nose Tracking Update anytime soon.
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