Face Access - a portable face recognition system

There were times when people said, ‘practically not possible’. And here we are, evolved to times where technology had turned many impossible into possible that too in a way; we feel so acquainted to them. Engineer’s Garage via Cornell University features this project called Face Access which is a portable, standalone face recognition system. Though such systems are widely available in commercial markets, making one yourself is what we call engineering.

The Face Access is designed using Atmel ATmega644 8-bit microcontroller, a C3088 camera module with an Omni Vision OV6620 CMOS image sensor, Atmel’s AT45DB321D Serial Dataflash, a Varitronix MDLS16264 LCD module for output, a 9-volt battery, and a small wooden structure for chin support. MATLAB is used to interface the hardware with computer. The designing of Face Access is split into Training, Enrolling and Logging in.

In training process, the system is trained to recognize the key features in a face using Matlab. To do this, a large number of facial images are taken and sent to Matlab to help the system determine the distinguishing features of a face. Once all the images are fed into Matlab, it generates Eigen faces and average faces which is stored in the flash memory.

In enrolling process, the user is required to register his face into the database of the system. Here, whenever the user presses the enroll button, the system first checks for capacity; if the maximum limit for user is reached. If not, the camera captures image of the user and sends it to the system for processing.

In logging process, as soon as the user presses the login button, the camera captures his image and an Eigen template for the image is created. This template is then compared with those already present in the system’s database. If a match is found, access is granted to the user, otherwise a message is displayed which reads: access denied.

The system is also capable of performing several other functions. Visit Cornell university web for more details on the project. Stay updated…!!