While privacy concerns have been a factor for years, it turns out that if you put a useful application in front of the machine vision algorithm -i.e., you make it fun – everyone’s happy. For example, a Russian music festival used a facial recognition algorithm to supply attendees with photos of themselves from the event, while a firm in Singapore is developing a transport ticketing system that uses voluntary facial recognition to charge commuters as they pass through fare gates.
It helps that consumers have face detection technology in the palm of their hands. Mobile applications such as FaceLock scan a user’s face in order to unlock apps on their smartphone or tablet. Furthermore, a recent patent filed by Apple suggests that the next generation iPhone will have “enhanced face detection using depth information.” Users also are relying on facial recognition for critical tasks such as mobile banking and commerce.