2001–2009
Face detection
Haar cascades · Viola-Jones
Rectangles of light and dark slid across the frame. Cheap, fast, everywhere, and it only ever looked for contrast.
3 references, 6 projects.
Genealogy of Face Surveillance
Which interventions affected earlier systems, where they stopped working, and what is still untested against today’s pipelines.
How to read this
One row per family of face-reading system, oldest first. The heavy segment is the years that family led. Circles on the line are graded entries in the reference archive; the shapes under it are catalogued projects. Each sits at the year it was first shown in public and links to its entry.
Networked readers and wearable readers: no graded reference, no catalogued project.
- References, on the line
- code, artefact or build files published
- paper or documented project
- survey or artwork documentation
- Projects, under the line
- commercial
- art or collective practice
- research prototype
- open method, DIY build or prototype
- Ring
- aimed at a face system
- aimed at another target: a person or object detector, a plate reader, a sensor, a camera flash
- Row
- years this family led
- lit lens: no graded reference against this family
2010–2013
Landmark geometry
Eigenfaces · Fisherfaces · 68-point meshes
Facial geometry described through distances between landmarks.
No reference, 2 projects.
2014–2016
Learned embeddings
DeepFace · FaceNet · ArcFace · deep detectors
Neural networks learn numerical representations for comparison. Related architectures also detect people, objects and number plates.
13 references, 13 projects.
2017–2020
Depth & near-infrared
Dot projectors · NIR sensors · liveness
The face as 3D geometry, read in the dark, with a liveness check a photograph cannot pass. Interventions at this layer address the sensor, not the matcher.
4 references, 12 projects.
2020–now
Networked readers
Pole cameras · shared watchlists
Networked cameras feed shared, searchable indexes.
No reference, no project.
2020–now
Wearable readers
Pervert glasses · body-worn
Wearable cameras record at eye level and can be difficult to notice.
No reference, no project.