A new 3D imaging technique developed by the University of the West of England (UWE) and Imperial College London could lead to cameras that can ‘see through’ disguises and poor lighting conditions.
The research, which is being made possible by £672,000 in funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), will form part of the EPRSC Fighting Crime programme.
Biometric technologies have enjoyed increased interest due to recent concerns over terrorism and crime rates. Likely customers for the new 3D technology would be airports, ATMs and crowd control units.
Photoface
The technique – called PhotoFace - works by utilising photometric stereo, a method whereby subtleties in image shading are used to separate and identify the detail in 3D shapes.
Dr Melvyn Smith of UWE commented: “As humans we have an amazing capacity to recognise faces. But automated face recognition is one of the most challenging research topics in the field of computer vision. The PhotoFace project aims to develop new forms of capturing 3D images of faces that allow them to be identified despite changes in pose, lighting or facial expression.”
Photometrics were originally explored by MIT in the 1970s, but only became a practical possibility following work at UWE in the 1990s.
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Date Published: December 12, 2007
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