Intel today announced that it will make its RealSense 3D cameras available to customers who want to use the technology for faster facial recognition in the form of RealSense ID. The move comes months after competitor Amazon eschewed its own facial recognition program, which was accused of perpetuating dangerous racial bias and endangering people of color.
Intel’s move is a bit different. Amazon previously sold its Reckognition program to police departments and government organizations. The program was notorious for provoking false positives and endangering minorities. Intel’s RealSense isn’t just an algorithm applied to data recorded with traditional cameras. It is a camera combined with a depth sensor that can record data in three dimensions, and Intel claims that 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 that unique images of you should not leave the boundaries of the device.
RealSense cameras have been around for over half a year and are loved by tinkerers for their ability to scan 3D spaces while capturing video data. The popularity of alternative products, such as Apple’s Face ID, which also combines data from a camera with data collected by infrared lasers, has skyrocketed in popularity, leaving RealSense with little to do.
Intel’s Found Applications. At a CES, the company scanned me in seconds and turned it into a laser-sculpted paperweight. Another year it showed RealSense’s power driving a wheelchair with facial gestures. Still, RealSense is not usually used by laptop manufacturers to open laptops via facial recognition; most rely on other cameras that work with Windows Hello. It is also not commonly found in phones or devices intended for gesture computing.
Now Intel will sell RealSense cameras as RealSense ID, and it will be available on a board or in an all-in-one plug-and-play package. Intel says it has been tested on different skin types and nationalities on every continent and should not elicit false positives or negatives– although I’m sure we’ll hear more about that from privacy advocates once RealSense ID takes off. It also claims it will work around the masks commonly worn to protect against covid-19, with goggles, and even if the subject gets older or gets significant facial hair. In a demo for journalists, Intel showed that the camera positively identified someone regardless of what they wore on or around their face, but failed when a photo of the person was used on a phone. Intel claims it is more spoof-proof than competing facial recognition technology, with a chance of false detections being one in a million – on par with the percentage of Face ID claimed.
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While Intel has repeatedly skewed the RealSense camera compared to consumer devices, the new module and board are not expected to be used in a laptop or phone. Intel was hesitant to talk about possible integration with Windows Hello, saying instead that the camera could be used in addition to a smart lock to open doors, or even an ATM instead of a debit card.
Intel apparently sees RealSense ID as a solution for fast authentication in the real world. That makes me a bit wary. Is a one-in-a-million chance of getting a fake ID enough to make it easy for you to get money out of your bank account or through airport security with your face? Intel does say that the Face ID data is image-free and can only be read by the RealSense ID algorithm and the system-on-chip built into the product, and it doesn’t look like it will be used like Amazon’s Reckognition and another facial recognition technology that has sparked the ire of privacy advocates (although there are not a word yet on whether law enforcement is interested or how they would even use it). Still, Intel and its partners will have a long, long way to go to put consumers at ease with scanning their face to open a door.