Thank you for visiting nature. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer. In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Joy Buolamwini from the MIT Media Lab says facial-recognition software has the highest error rates for darker-skinned females. New applications powered by artificial intelligence AI are being embraced by the public and private sectors. In June , IBM, Amazon and Microsoft announced that they were stepping back from facial-recognition software development amid concerns that it reinforces racial and gender bias.

Face recognition is a method of identifying or verifying the identity of an individual using their face. Face recognition systems can be used to identify people in photos, video, or in real-time. Law enforcement may also use mobile devices to identify people during police stops.

A facial recognition system is a technology capable of matching a human face from a digital image or a video frame against a database of faces, typically employed to authenticate users through ID verification services , works by pinpointing and measuring facial features from a given image. While initially a form of computer application , facial recognition systems have seen wider uses in recent times on smartphones and in other forms of technology, such as robotics. Because computerized facial recognition involves the measurement of a human's physiological characteristics facial recognition systems are categorised as biometrics. Although the accuracy of facial recognition systems as a biometric technology is lower than iris recognition and fingerprint recognition , it is widely adopted due to its contactless process. Automated facial recognition was pioneered in the s.