A lot of news sites have reported that Google Glass has forbidden the use of facial recognition apps. That could mean facial recognition apps won’t be downloadable from the official Glassware site. However, Glass is an open platform so anybody can develop apps, which can be shared.

How can we use facial recognition for IDs?

Document security has reached a very high level; therefore it’s not worth forging the surface of the documents. Most of the fraudsters focus on stealing IDs of people with similar features or trying to change the picture on their own documents. If we look at our passport or card-based documents, we can notice holograms and special personalization methods i.e. laser engraving, that could be difficult to forge. The citizen’s passport picture is stored inside the chip, that’s how special devices can verify identity. In most cases, it is verified with the human eye but facial apps are becoming increasingly widespread.

ANY Security Printing PLC already has such a solution. Our “TrueFace” product works off-line without internet connection. Our device verifies the hidden code on the card with the code which the face generates.

In the future the apps which run on the Google Glass platform can verify facial recognition on-line. An average person will respect the privacy rights. However, we are not so far from the intelligent glasses of Star Trek and Judge Dredd as we have seen in the Hollywood films.

Maybe soon such intelligent glasses will be standard for every policeman?