Automated, long-range, night/day, active-SWIR face recognition system

Abstract

Covert, long-range, night/day identification of stationary human subjects using face recognition has been previously demonstrated using the active-SWIR Tactical Imager for Night/Day Extended-Range Surveillance (TINDERS) system. TINDERS uses an invisible, eye-safe, SWIR laser illuminator to produce high-quality facial imagery under conditions ranging from bright sunlight to total darkness. The recent addition of automation software to TINDERS has enabled the autonomous identification of moving subjects at distances greater than 100 m. Unlike typical cooperative, short range face recognition scenarios, where positive identification requires only a single face image, the SWIR wavelength, long distance, and uncontrolled conditions mean that positive identification requires fusing the face matching results from multiple captured images of a single subject. Automation software is required to initially detect a person, lock on and track the person as they move, and select video frames containing high-quality frontal face images for processing. Fusion algorithms are required to combine the matching results from multiple frames to produce a high-confidence match. These automation functions will be described, and results showing automated identification of moving subjects, night and day, at multiple distances will be presented.