Conclusion

Face recognition technology has come a long way in the last twenty years. Today, machines are able to automatically verify identity information for secure transactions, for surveillance and security tasks, and for access control to buildings etc. These applications usually work in controlled environments and recognition algorithms can take advantage of the environmental constraints to obtain high recognition accuracy. However, next generation face recognition systems are going to have widespread application in smart environments -- where computers and machines are more like helpful assistants.

To achieve this goal computers must be able to reliably identify nearby people in a manner that fits naturally within the pattern of normal human interactions. They must not require special interactions and must conform to human intuitions about when recognition is likely. This implies that future smart environments should use the same modalities as humans, and have approximately the same limitations. These goals now appear in reach -- however, substantial research remains to be done in making person recognition technology work reliably, in widely varying conditions using information from single or multiple modalities.