TERRORISM CONTROL: From Testing Lipstick to Spotting Terrorists

From Testing Lipstick to Spotting Terrorists




Jean-Marc Robin, CEO of startup Vesalis
from Clermont-Ferrand, France, got into the beauty industry, he says,
“because I love women.” (That phrase in quotes should be read with a
French accent if at all possible.) He seems somewhat surprised to find
his company’s facial recognition technology, built to help department
stores sell makeup, drawing interest from governments, French and
otherwise. But he does love that they love the technology and its
possibilities.

Talking with Robin during his visit to Palo Alto, Calif., last week, he
definitely seemed like a man tugged in two directions. While he was
happy to talk about the successes of the technology in security tests,
he kept bringing the conversation back to its applications in department
stores, guiding women to selections of hair color and makeup.

The company, started in 2005, has eight patents for its facial
recognition technology. While it mainly had in mind department store
kiosks, where shoppers use it to virtually test makeup applied to
photographs taken of themselves, that’s not what has the security folks
excited. It’s the video streams that, in the envisioned department store
application, would come from existing security cameras that has them
intrigued. In department stores, Vesalis’ software compares these
relatively low quality images against a database of existing customers:
When the system spots a known customer coming into the store, it sends
an alert to an iPad carried by a salesperson. The salesperson can then
quickly look at the customer’s picture, previous order history, and
other information, greet the customer by name and perhaps suggest sale
or other items she might be interested in.

This fast image recognition from low-quality video, in turns out, is
just what security companies dream of, to compare people against a
database of known “people of concern.” The French government invested €2
million in the company in 2009, and this past October, Vesalis tested
its technology during a soccer game at the Parc des Princes, the largest
soccer stadium in France. The system checked 20 000 people every 20
minutes against a database of 500 problem individuals and had an
accuracy rate of 98 percent; competitive technology, said Michael
Vannier, Vice President of U.S. Sales, has had an accuracy rate of 61
percent in similar tests. The company expects its technology, in the
future, to be used in counterterrorism, border control, ATM access, and a
variety of security applications. And, Robin hopes, at a few makeup
counters.

hahahahahahahahahah!!!!
nice and interesting naseem!