Very recently, we came across an application of facial recognition technology where it was being incorporated at different airports in order to automatically register U.S. citizens when they leave or return to the port. However, the same technology is exhibiting other uses as well, as was recently shown with Baidu’s facial recognition tech.
For instance, in China, a couple managed to reunite with their son 27 years after his abduction. Fu Gui had some strange and vague memories of his childhood and intrigued by the fact, he uploaded one of his photograph, taken when he was 10 years old, to a website named Baobeihuijia, meaning “Baby Come Home” in English.
The man was least aware of his fortunes when just a few months later his parents too uploaded his childhood photos on the website and Baidu’s facial recognition tech helped them reconnect once again.
Every years, tens of thousands of kids are abducted in China to be sold either to infertile couples, or to some mischievous entities who push those kid into prostitution or child-slavery. Baobeihuijia was created with the intent of aiding the families left apart by such abductions.
The volunteers work assiduously by comparing the photographs of the people uploaded by the families against the people looking for their near and dear ones, or by concerned citizens in the locality. But finally Baidu stepped forward for help this March, and offered to help them with its cross-age facial recognition technology — which was being tested since November.
The match of Gui was made in the initial days of the installment of the technology, and the results were later confirmed by the DNA test which favored Baidu’s tech. This is an incredible breakthrough, but still, the system has a long way to go as it is only able to match photos taken six years apart.
The tool claims to be 99.77 percent accurate, and is capable of analyzing photographs faster than any human being.
