Advanced Tactical Facial Recognition at a Distance Technology

Technical Abstract: There has long been a need to quickly identify people at long range with high accuracy. For tactical applications, solutions must be compact, lightweight, and frugal with power. Solutions must also be fully functional in environments where communications are limited or non-existent. Challenges to meeting these requirements are: 1) obtaining sufficient face image resolution at long range, 2) removal of image distortion caused by atmospheric effects, and 3) accurately matching facial images obtained from unconstrained, non-ideal poses.   We will conduct a feasibility study to determine if current technologies are adequate to provide high-accuracy biometric identification of persons at ranges between 300 and 500m. We will identify optical components and compact computing hardware likely to satisfy requirements. These will be integrated with top-performing image correction and facial matching algorithms to produce three prototype systems tested in realistic operating conditions. Facial matching performance accuracy will be assessed for various system configurations tested for several operating scenarios. The feasibility study will identify the best performing system architecture using best-of-breed technologies. Test results and a preliminary prototype design to be developed as part of Phase II will also be included.