Eastfist

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fbi-billion-dollar-facial-recognition-091500415.html

By Chongchen Saelee

According to this article, FBI can match faces at 85% accuracy. Facebook, on the other hand, can do it at 97%. But let me paint a picture why that is. The fact that FBI can be that accurate is still quite impressive, but the reason Facebook’s is way better is because of their funding, the lifeblood of Facebook is CIA. FBI is like the police. They only enforce laws. CIA, however, don’t follow any laws and that’s why they seem to be more innovative, at the cost of invading billions of people’s privacy. CIA creates the weapons and tools, FBI uses them. CIA is Whistler, FBI is Blade. It’s a need-to-know basis.

The impressive thing will be which one’s algorithm can pick out a face from low-resolution images. Facebook has the advantage only because the samples are high-resolution. But FBI’s might have the edge and is more useful because it can detect faces from low-resolution. So, it’s a matter of what purpose it’s used for. One is actually smarter than the other. If FBI’s facial software can detect a face out of finite amount of pixels that don’t resemble a face, then I’d say FBI’s software is actually better.