Facial recognition works better in the lab than on the street, researchers show

Facial recognition technology has been deployed publicly on the basis of benchmark tests that reflect performance in laboratory settings, but some academics are saying that real-world performance doesn’t match up.

In a post to the Tech Policy Press website, University of Oxford academics Teo Canmetin, Juliette Zaccour, and Luc Rocher point to public failures of facial recognition as evidence that these systems don’t perform as well as evaluation statistics suggest.

The academics say the US National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Facial Recognition Technology Evaluation (FRTE), a performance benchmark, has been used to justify the deployment of AI systems including technology deployed by the UK’s Metropolitan Police Service, the subject of ongoing controversy.

Facial recognition technology has been deployed publicly on the basis of benchmark tests that reflect performance in laboratory settings, but some academics are saying that real-world performance doesn’t match up.…