Israeli anti-terror tech to facially recognize mask-wearing health staff

Cortica, founded in 2007 by researchers from Haifa's renowned Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, boasts over 250 registered patents in artificial intelligence.

By EYTAN HALON
Israeli anti-terror tech to facially recognize mask-wearing health staff
Commonly deployed by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, advanced facial recognition technology developed by Tel Aviv-based Corsight primarily targets individuals seeking to avoid capture by any means possible.
Now, faced with new realities emerging from the coronavirus pandemic, the artificial intelligence-powered solution of Corsight is being deployed for another purpose: to recognize and protect individuals wearing medical face masks, including key hospital staff.
"The strong capabilities that we built for government use and to fight terror, enabling us to recognize a person from just part of their face, now provides a solution to recognize people during the coronavirus crisis," said Ofer Ronen, head of homeland security at Corsight's parent company Cortica.
"The idea is that face recognition will replace many surfaces that require physical touch. For example, opening doors in offices, fingerprint timestamps, or for doctors wearing masks who touch door handles when they need to go from room to room, which we now understand is one of the main ways to transfer disease."
The technology developed by the company requires less than 50% of the face to be exposed to ensure accurate recognition, solving issues posed by increasing preferences and even requirements for citizens to wear face masks.
The solution, Ronen said, is capable of recognizing an individual's face from an elevation of up to 60 degrees, and up to a 100 degree profile. Individuals can also be recognized in very low-level light - just two to three lumens.
"I believe that even after the coronavirus crisis will end, being prepared for the next wave of illness or pandemic will force government entities, international airports and law enforcement bodies to be able to recognize people wearing masks," said Ronen.
"People will try to avoid touch technology on the same surface that other people use, even after the crisis will be over. If implemented in the medical space, facial recognition will replace a lot of the things that we do today."
Cortica, founded in 2007 by researchers from Haifa's renowned Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, boasts over 250 registered patents in artificial intelligence.
Through the parent company and subsidiaries, including Corsight, the pioneering autonomous technology has been applied in a range of industries, including homeland security, preventing fraud, and automotive visual intelligence. The automotive visual platform was launched in September 2019 in partnership with Continental, Toyota and BMW.
"There are so many face recognition companies worldwide and everyone is trying to get further ahead and push the technology limits more and more. It is like the Cold War," Ronen said. "The core technology is ready to be rolled out through global partners. The idea is that our face recognition engine will be a component in as many platforms as possible worldwide."


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