Intel rotates RealSense cameras to facial recognition technology

Intel today announced that it will make its RealSense 3D cameras available to customers who want to use this technology for faster facial recognition in the form of a RealSense ID. The move comes months after competitor Amazon shunned its own facial recognition program, accused of perpetuating dangerous racial prejudice and endangering people of color.

Intel’s decision is a little different. Amazon previously sold its Reckognition program to law enforcement agencies and government organizations. The program was known for generate false positives and endanger minorities. Intel’s RealSense is not just an algorithm applied to data recorded from traditional cameras. It is a camera associated with a depth sensor capable of recording data in three dimensions, and Intel says much of the data that could relate to privacy advocates will be stored directly on the device, which uses algorithms to positively identify users. This means unique images of you shouldn’t leave the device limits.

RealSense cameras have been around for over half a decade and are loved by DIY enthusiasts for their ability to scan 3D spaces while capturing video data. However, the popularity of alternative products, such as Apple Face ID, which also combines data from a camera with data collected by infrared lasers, has grown in popularity, leaving RealSense with little to do.

The found uses of Intel. At a CES, the company did a scan of me in seconds that was converted to a laser-carved paperweight. Another year he showed the ability of RealSense controlling a wheelchair with facial gestures. However, RealSense is not generally used by laptop manufacturers to open laptops using facial recognition. Most rely on other cameras that work with Windows Hello. It is also not often found in phones or in devices intended for gesture computing.

Now Intel will sell RealSense cameras as RealSense IDs, and it will be available on a card 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 all continents and is not expected to elicit false positives or negatives– although I’m sure we’ll know more about it from privacy advocates if RealSense ID starts to take off. He also claims that it will work around masks typically worn to protect against covid-19, with glasses, and even if the subject ages or grows large facial hair. In a demo for journalists, Intel showed that the camera positively identifies a person regardless of what they are wearing on or around their face, but fails when a photo of the person is used on a phone. Intel says it is more resistant to spoofing than competing facial recognition technology, with a risk of false detections in a million, on par with the claimed rate of Face ID.

While Intel has repeatedly compared the RealSense camera obliquely to those in consumer devices, the new module and card shouldn’t be used in a laptop or phone. Intel was hesitant to talk about a possible integration with Windows Hello and instead said the camera could be used alongside a smart lock to open doors, or even with an ATM instead of a debit card.

Intel apparently envisions RealSense ID as a fast real-world authentication solution. Which distrusts me a little. Is the one in a million chance of having a fake ID secure enough for you to withdraw money from your bank account just with your face or go through security at the airport? Intel claims that facial ID data is image-free and can only be read by the RealSense ID algorithm and the system on a chip built into the product, and it doesn’t look like it will be used quite like Amazon’s Reckognition and another facial recognition technology that has raised the ire of privacy advocates (although there is it is not yet known if the police are interested or how they could even use it). Nevertheless, Intel and its partners will still have a very long way to go for consumers to feel comfortable scanning their faces to open a door.