Facial Recognition: Now More Than Skin Deep

What secrets are held by the temperature of your visage?

My oldest daughter is at sleepaway camp for a couple of weeks, and the camp has a photographer that goes around all day taking pictures of the kids which get uploaded to a private Facebook group. In the past, I would go online every day (or, ok, several times a day) and scroll through all those pictures looking for one that features my kid.

I don’t have to do that anymore. This year, I simply uploaded a picture of my daughter to an app, and AI takes care of the rest, recognizing her face amidst the sea of smiling children, and flagging just those photos for me to peruse. It’s amazing, really. And a bit scary.

The fact that facial recognition has penetrated the summer camp market should tell you that the tech is truly ubiquitous. But today we’re going to think a bit more about what AI can do with a picture of your face, because the power of facial recognition is not just skin deep.

What’s got me hot and bothered about facial images is this paper, appearing in Cell Metabolism, which adds a new layer to the standard facial-analysis playbook — facial temperature.