How a Global Pandemic Altered the Trajectory of Automated Face Recognition Technologies

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of nearly everyone on the planet. As it relates to automated face recognition, the most direct consequence has been the near ubiquitous facial masks in public spaces and the need for contactless systems. At the same time, several indirect consequences have emerged including a shift from brick-and-mortar businesses to digital services, massive-scale peaceful protests to highlight social injustices, and violent riots across the globe. This talk will highlight how face recognition technologies have played a role in all of these consequences of the pandemic, and focus on areas of improvement needed from academic research and businesses in the years ahead.

Biography

Brendan is the co-founder and CEO of Rank One Computing, a leading provider of facial recognition algorithms to the U.S. Government, state and local law enforcement agencies, the financial sector, and a wide range of embedded applications and enterprise systems. Rank One is employee-owned and located in Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.

Brendan received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Michigan State University. He has been involved in IEEE for over a decade, and has published over 25 peer reviewed articles on the topic of automated face recognition algorithms. Brendan was the recipient of the best student paper award at the 2010 IEEE Biometrics: Theory, Applications, and Systems (BTAS), and has a Google Scholar h-index of 24.

Prior to his academic studies Brendan served as an infantryman in the 75th Ranger Regiment, U.S. Army. Prior to co-founding Rank One, Brendan served as a subject matter expert consultant on the use of automatic face recognition algorithms for the U.S. Dept. of State, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Department of Defense, and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).

Brendan Klare
Rank One Computing