Super recognizer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Super-Recognizer is a term for people who can memorize and recognize faces exceptionally well.

science

Although science has been dealing with facial recognition for a long time, research into this ability is still in its infancy as it was only discovered in 2009. As part of their research into the pathological facial recognition weakness prosopagnosia , scientists from Harvard University also examined four people who claimed they could recognize faces better. The “super-recognizers”, as they were called by the scientists, achieved results that were well above average. It is currently believed that 1–2 percent of the world's population has this ability.

Application in criminology

Since super-recognizers can often recognize people years later even after a casual encounter, even if their appearance has changed significantly, they are also of interest to law enforcement authorities . In this respect, they are also far ahead of technical face recognition.

After riots broke out in England in 2011 , a number of surveillance images had to be viewed. It turned out that the police officers, who recognized faces above average, were also able to identify an above average number of suspects; one policeman alone recognized 180.

In 2015, the Metropolitan Police Service established a unit of super-recognizers that “identified more than 500 suspects in previously unsolved criminal cases using surveillance videos within four months”, a tripling of the previous figure. They also helped with the investigation into the attacks on New Year's Eve 2015/16 in Cologne .

In mid-2018, the Munich Police Headquarters put together a group of super-recognizers as part of a pilot project, which solved around 200 criminal cases in the second half of the year.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Amy Lavoie: 'Super-recognizers' never forget a face: Face recognition may vary more than previously thought. In: The Harvard Gazette. Harvard University , May 22, 2009, accessed July 11, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c Gioia Forster: Super Recognizer: Some people remember all faces. In: Welt online . October 27, 2016, accessed July 11, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Katrin Bennhold: London Police 'Super Recognizer' Walks Beat With a Facebook of the Mind. In: New York Times . October 9, 2015, accessed July 11, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Irmengard Gnau: Face recognition: Munich police are now using "Super Recognizer". In: Welt online . June 20, 2018, accessed July 11, 2020 .
  5. ↑ "Super Recognizers" help in 200 cases. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . January 24, 2019, accessed July 11, 2020 .