Managing Facial Recognition

Topics included in this article:

• Camera Positioning and Zooming
• Recent Faces
• Saving and Un-Saving a Face
  
  • Steps to Save a Face
  • Steps to Un-Save a Face
• Recent Sightings
• Face Details
• Face Alerts
• Fixing an Incorrect Match
• Not a Face Feedback
• Downloading Face Events
• Uploading Faces
  • Steps to Upload Faces 
  • Things to keep in mind while uploading faces
• Helpful Links
• Contact Support or Sales

Note: The very first steps in managing your facial recognition will be to make sure you have an enterprise license applied to the camera and then you will need to enable the "Face Recognition" feature.

Camera Positioning and Zooming

Best Practices: 

• Mount the camera as close to face level as possible.
  • The angle from the face to the camera (from all sides: up, down, right, and left) should be under 30 degrees for optimal setup.
  • If the camera is mounted with too harsh of an angle to the face (from any direction), then the feature will not work properly.
• Mount the camera at a distance that will have approximately 100 PPF (pixels per foot) to the person's face at the desired point of capture. 
  • This article will give you more details on what that PPF translation is to the maximum distance for mounting.
    • Note: The maximum distances listed in the linked article above are with maximum resolution and bitrate usage. In most use cases, the distance will need to be smaller than what is listed to reduce bandwidth consumption. 
• Mount the camera facing inwards to avoid bad back-lighting.
• Mount the camera in a well-lit region. 
  • For best results, the whole face should be well-lit with minimal shadows or glaring. 
• Make sure to adjust the zoom level of the camera to ensure focus on the intended facial capture region.
• Mount the camera in a region that motivates people passing through to look at the camera for a few seconds. 
  • A great way to do this is by placing a graphic, sign, etc. near the device to draw the eye. This will allow the device the best vantage point for straight views of the face.
    • Note: Many use cases for facial recognition in the field are "uncooperative," meaning the individual is not forced to look at the camera for a length of time in order to perform an action. In cases like these, it is more likely to have suboptimal facial positioning (such as: looking down, off to the side, etc.). Anything that can be done to try to get a straight shot of the face, will enhance the feature's results. 

Note: If you're using this for unique people counting, we generally recommend mounting above an exit door to capture people as they leave a building. 

Recent Faces

Once facial recognition is enabled, you'll notice a "Recent Faces" section on the dashboard. This section will show you faces that any camera with facial recognition enabled has captured.  If faces are not showing up, ensure the camera positioning is good, that an enterprise license has been applied, and that the feature has been enabled.

Saving and Un-Saving a Face

Steps to Save a Face

Saving a face means you are building a face profile for that person. To save a face, you simply have to name it. 

1. Click on the "Investigations Tab."

2. Navigate to the "Faces" tab.

3. Click on the "Recent Sightings" section.

4. Find the person you want to name.

5. Click on the "Unnamed" link below the face.

6. Enter the desired name for the profile you would like to build.

Note: Once named, the face will appear in the 'Saved Faces' area within the investigations tab and this name can be used for future "Recent Sightings" naming. 

Steps to Un-Save a Face

1. Click on the "Investigations Tab."

2. Navigate to the "Faces" tab.

3. Click on the "Recent Sightings" section.

4. Find the capture you want to un-save.

5. Erase the name, leave it blank, and click "Remove Name". 

Note: This will now have the recent sighting thumbnail be unnamed and able to be renamed if needed.

You can also remove the name under the "Saved Faces" Tab

1. Click on the name of the profile.

2. Either "Rename" the profile by typing in a new name and clicking "Rename"

-OR-

3. Click "Remove Name" to fully remove the name and fully remove the saved profile. 

Note: Once you remove the saved profile, you will need to rebuild it.

Recent Sightings

If you go into Investigations -> Faces, you'll be able to manage the Face Profiles that are saved for your organization. 

The recent sightings tab in this section will show you a timeline of thumbnails for all the faces that were recently seen by any camera with a People License enabled. In this section, you can also utilize the search filters to assist with investigations.

If a face was recognized and added to an existing profile, you will see the name attached to the face. If a face is unidentified, in other words not recognized by the system, it will be named 'Unnamed'. 

Face Details

• By hovering over a face thumbnail you can view details of the captured face (below):

• By clicking on "Details", a popup will appear where you can view where the event took place, at what time, and what camera tagged the event. Additionally, you can quickly view the footage by clicking the "View Footage" button:

Face Alerts

To learn how to set this up, please reference Face Alerts with Labels. 

Fixing an Incorrect Match

Lighting, positioning, and angle can all affect the initial accuracy of the Facial Recognition software in making a match. In some cases, an incorrect match may be made. In order to continue to train the model to improve accuracy, it is important to go through the "Recent Sightings" page and correct any misidentifications. 

1. If a misidentification has occurred, first hover over the thumbnail of the person. 
2. Select the "Not a Match" button
3. The face will now be "Unnamed"
4. Click "Unnamed" and begin typing in the correct name. If the name is already a "Saved Face" in the system, it will auto-populate and you can select it. 
5. Confirm that the image of the saved face is the same person and select "Yes" to merge the profiles. The name will now be correct with the image connected to the correct profile. 

Not a Face Feedback

AI models are based on continuous learning. To assist with training the AI, we have exposed a way for you to let us know that the captured face is not actually a face. Doing this improves our AI algorithm and thus offers better performance for you. To do this, hover over a face that is not a face and select the "Not a face" button:

Downloading Face Events

In the top right of the "Faces" page in the "Investigations" tab, you will find a download button. With this button, you can download face events to a CSV to then play around with the data at your leisure.

Uploading Faces

Steps to Upload Faces

1. On the "Faces" page of the "Investigations" tab, you will see an “Upload Faces” button on the top right of the screen.

2. To get the best results, please upload 3-10 photos of each person: driver’s license, agency photo, etc.

3. Ensure that images are sufficiently large in terms of resolution. Faces will be recognized as small as 50 x 50 pixels in image resolutions up to 1920 x 1080. Higher-resolution images require a larger minimum face size. Faces larger than the minimum size provide a more accurate set of facial comparison results.

3. Ensure that each image file follows the following format: First-Last_1.jpg; for example: John-Smith_1.jpg

• The dash between the first and last name will be read as a space by the console.
• The 1 after the underscore is the identifier – so 1 is the first photo, 2 would be the second, and so on… they will all index as John Smith.

4. Once John Smith's photos are uploaded, his face will be recognized as John Smith once seen by the camera. 

Note: If John Smith has already been seen by the camera and identified as John Smith, and you would also like to upload images, you can use the image uploader to do so. Capitalization must match – uploading images as John-Smith_1.jpg will index into the pre-named face of John Smith already seen by the camera. Uploading images as john-smith_1.jpg will create another face record for john smith.

Things to keep in mind while uploading faces