Scott Jones

Facilitating improved face recognition: What works and what doesn’t.

Photographic identification is a key part of modern society; it is required in a variety of environments, from workplace entry, immigration and security. However, the ability to recognise people on the basis of a single photograph is notoriously poor (Kemp et al., 1997). Limited information can lead to misidentification with serious consequences: in 2005 Jean Charles de Menezes was fatally shot by police, who had incorrectly identified him as matching the photograph of a terrorist suspect. I will use concepts from learning theory and computer science to provide a framework to underpin my research investigating how we might facilitate recognition.