Appreciating the key factors in deploying video analytics and facial surveillance are critical for setting the right expectations and achieving successful projects -- a key theme from our recent survey and recommendations on video analytic performance. 

Over the past few months, we have had an ongoing discussion about 3VR's facial recongition performance based on a field test of real-time facial alerts. In this dialogue, manufacturers, integrators and consultants asked various questions and exchanged ideas on deployment issues. Most notably, the manufacturer itself posted a variety of details. I recommend reading the thread.

Summary of Facial Recognition Deployment Complexity

The following list of items are important factors discussed in our thread about making facial recognition work for real time alerting:

• Maximum width the camera can cover
• Restrictions on where cameras can be placed
• Impact of different levels of lighting
• Ensuring faces are actually detected
• Issues with obscured faces
• Changes in appearance over time
• Total cost of systems

While this discussion is not definitive, it should significantly increase the level of detail provided on facial recognition and appreciating the complexity involved.