Intel announced today that it will make its RealSense 3D cameras available to customers hoping to use the technology for faster face recognition in the form of RealSense ID. The move comes months after rival Amazon shunned its own face recognition program, which is accused of enduring dangerous racial prejudices and endangering people of color.
Intel’s move is a little different. Amazon previously sold its Reckognition program to police departments and government organizations. The program was notorious for false positive provocation and endangers minorities. Intel’s RealSense is not just an algorithm applied to data recorded from traditional cameras. It is a camera combined with a depth sensor that can record data in three dimensions, and Intel claims that much of the data pertaining to privacy advocates is stored directly on the device, using algorithms to positively identify users. It means that unique images of you do not have to leave the confines of the device.
RealSense cameras have been around for over half a decade and they like tinkerers because they can scan 3D spaces while recording video data. The popularity of alternative products, such as Apple’s Face ID, which also combines the data of a camera with data collected by infrared lasers, has become popular and allows RealSense to do much.
Intel’s used use. At one CES, the company made a scan of me within seconds that turned into a laser engraved paperweight. Another year it showed the ability of RealSense to control a wheelchair with visible gestures. However, RealSense is not usually used by laptop makers to open laptops via face recognition – most rely on other cameras that work with Windows Hello. It is also not frequently found in telephones or devices intended for gesture-based computers.
Intel will now sell RealSense cameras as RealSense ID, and it will be available on a board or in an all-in-one plug-and-play package. Intel says it has been tested on a variety of skin types and nationalities on each continent and should not provoke false positives or negatives– Although I’m sure we’ll hear more about this from advocates for privacy as RealSense ID starts to rise. It also claims that it will work around the masks usually worn to protect against covid-19, with glasses, and even if the subject gets older or gets substantial facial hair. In a demo for journalists, Intel showed that the camera positively identifies someone, regardless of what they were wearing on or around their face, but it fails when a photo of the person is used on a phone. Intel claims to be more spoof-resistant than competing face recognition technology, with the chance of false detection being one in a million – equivalent to the alleged rate of Face ID.
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Although Intel has repeatedly compared the RealSense camera to those found in consumer devices, the new module and card are not expected to be used in a laptop or phone. Intel was reluctant to talk about possible integration with Windows Hello and said instead that the camera could be used next to a smart lock to open doors, or even with an ATM instead of a debit card.
Intel apparently provides RealSense ID as a real-world fast authentication solution. Which to me is a little cautious. Is a one-in-a-million chance of a fake ID enough security to get your comfortable money out of your bank account with just your face, or to get security at the airport? Intel does say that the face ID data is image-free and can only be read by the RealSense ID algorithm and that the system-on-disk is built into the product, and it does not look like it will be used like Amazon’s recognition and other face recognition techniques that caused the womb of privacy advocates (although there not yet interested in a word as law enforcement or how it will even be used). Intel, and its partners, still have a long, long way to go to make consumers comfortable scanning their face to open a door.