What is Amazon Rekognition?
Amazon, which is the world’s leading retail and multinational technology company, is currently making efforts to supply its version of facial recognition technology to help police forces in fighting crime. Amazon Rekognition – the business giant’s facial identification software – can identity anything that it scans, this mostly includes faces.
Business giants and law enforcement agencies are already making use of Amazon Rekognition for their own use. Mainly because purchasing this software means that you no longer have to utilize Facebook or any other face-scanning applications.
Even so, it’s undeniable that many agencies are unhappy with this development. Mainly because if given to the wrong hands, they can be used for potential abuse, mainly against people of color or different ethnicities. However, there’s sufficient evidence that Rekognition can be quite useful for crime fighting. But before we get into that, it’s essential to know how the software actually works.
How does Amazon Rekognition work?
Unlike other facial software, Amazon Rekognition makes it easy to include videos and images for scanning. Just add an image or video to the software to scan and identify objects, text, people, activities and even inappropriate content as well.
Amazon Rekognition offers clear facial analysis. Police forces can scan, detect, and verify faces for public safety by using the software. Furthermore, the software itself is divided into two separate tools – Amazon Rekognition Image, which examines image, and Amazon Rekognition Video, which scans video.
Possibly the best part about this software is that it identifies objects in a smart way. For example, when it analysis an apple, it will scan its shape, color and its characteristics, such as the stem. When it scans faces, it identifies the shape and features. This can be used to compare faces, any results that are above 75% can be labeled as a positive match.
What's Amazon Rekognition being used for?
Although it really depends on who’s using the software, according to Amazon, it can be used for the following uses:
- Finding objects
- User identification
- Text scanning
- Video and image search
- Inappropriate content detection
- Facial recognition
Other uses include checking the emotional state of a person and scanning the demographic makeup. Not only that, but it can also help in calculating the population in a certain location which can be very helpful as well. While some claim that this new technology can be a major threat, if certain organizations misuse it, there are plenty cases where Amazon Rekognition can be a huge success and also help solve various crimes. After all, if we keep a clear view of the positive sides of using the software, it can become an excellent tool for reducing crime rate.
