15 Nov Industry Interview: Eugenia Marina from RecFaces
Ahead of a new webinar with RecFaces, we caught up with the Business Development Director, MENA Region – Eugenia Marina, who has been making a splash in the industry, from Intersec to other events around Dubai. The Biometrics company are surging in growth, currently operating in 15 countries across the Middle East and North Africa. Eugenia Marina talks about this growth, the MENA region and the unique position RecFaces find themselves in, within an ever-growing marketplace.
Could you give us a brief introduction to RecFaces and your role within the team?
RecFaces is a Biometric Technology Company with ready-made facial recognition software products. RecFaces develops ready-made solutions that swiftly increase the efficiency of Video Management Systems (VMS), Access Control Systems (ACS), as well as Enterprise Resource Systems (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and time attendance systems.
We operate in more than 15 countries across the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and South Asia.
I’m the business development director, MENA region, RecFaces. Biometric Technology is my key domain, and I have extensive experience in the practical application of facial recognition.
How do you see the growth of the Facial Recognition Technology Market in the MENA region?
The Middle East & Africa facial recognition market is anticipated to experience a robust compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.04% from 2019 to 2028. This growth is primarily fuelled by investments in cutting-edge technologies and the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the region, offering promising opportunities for market expansion.
There is a large presence of cameras across public spaces, buses, the autonomous Metro system, highways, gas stations, and even the emirate’s sizable fleet of over 10,000 taxi cabs empowers authorities to seamlessly monitor individuals in real-time throughout the entire city. Moreover, law enforcement effortlessly acquires surveillance footage from affiliated state developers and various other establishments, further enhancing their capabilities.
Can you describe the unique opportunities and challenges facing RecFaces?
One of the main challenges is privacy concerns. Facial recognition technology raises privacy concerns as it involves capturing and storing personal data, which can be misused or hacked. For example, in RecFaces, we take this into account and always inform the end customer that the data security of the facial recognition system must be protected in the same way as all other internal systems already in operation at the site.
A second issue is technical limitations. Facial recognition technology requires high-quality images and lighting conditions, which may not always be available. Additionally, the technology may not work well with certain facial features or expressions.
Last but not least, these solutions require money and effort. To counter this, RecFaces provide free training for customers and partners to show how facial recognition technology works in reality. At RecFaces, we are fully confident in the products and approaches that we provide. Our key goal is to show people that they don’t have to be afraid of face recognition, they just have to learn to use it properly.
Could you share success stories or case studies of businesses that have implemented your face recognition solutions in the MENA region?
We have a wide range of solutions all over the world. MENA is no exception. I could talk about this for hours!
Our partner Audio Technology installed RecFaces’ Id-Guard face biometrics system at a Telecom Egypt data centre last year. The data centre had already been operating security firm Pelco’s VideoXpert video management system. Id-Guard already had an integration with it, meaning that security staff could continue using the familiar interface, but with more opportunities, once the system was equipped with facial recognition.
The face biometrics identify faces in a video stream, so the solutions were implemented at the data centre perimeter as well as to control access and detect possible staff violations. Id-Guard software identifies both employees and site visitors. If an unauthorized person or someone on the stop list is detected, the site security team is notified in under a second for immediate response.
Access Control at iSpace Smart Office has been improved and streamlined as a result of RecFaces Id-Gate facial recognition technology. Authorized personnel and guests have their faces scanned and checked against a record, allowing swift access when required without the need for keys or cards. The project was easy to install for the partner. It was quickly incorporated into existing systems around the smart office, unifying security and pushing the office further into its high-tech environment.
Of course, these are not all the projects. This year we equipped a governmental institution in Saudi Arabia and our partners conducted several pilots with governmental customers in Dubai. And we certainly will share our practical experience in our webinar.
How does your facial recognition software stand out from other face recognition companies on the market?
10 years of hands-on experience with facial recognition technology have given our R&D team an idea of the customer’s pains and user-friendly approaches to implementing biometrics. Based on this knowledge, we provide ready-made face recognition solutions that are applicable in the here and now.
What does this mean for our end customer?
It means that the customer receives a full set of business functions, one of the TOP face recognition algorithms, a wide range of seamless integrations with technological leaders of the global security market, different reports, and notification systems in ONE platform, in ONE software, without additional development and investments.
Moreover, our products are not tied to specific equipment. Our solutions can operate on any hardware and with any IP video camera. All this makes our solutions different from the mass market face recognition segment and shifts the focus to the enterprise-level field, which means looking for technologically proven & qualified facial biometric solutions.
How do RecFaces’ facial recognition algorithm solutions work?
In our solutions, we use a highly accurate face recognition algorithm ranked in the TOP 10 according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology report. Due to the constant development of neural networks and the emergence of various environmental challenges such as COVID-19, the algorithm developers train the neural network on special datasets.
With some system operation and some fine-tuning from our side, the recognition accuracy is now up to 99%!
When you add a reference photo to a biometric profile, the percentage of accuracy increases. Moreover, if you add a photo of yourself wearing glasses or a mask to the profile, the system will recognize you even under very poor conditions for recognition.
What kind of training do you offer to resellers?
RecFaces provides free training for its partners and clients. First of all, we are interested in improving the competencies of our partners’ engineers and end-user systems operators, that’s why we talk not only about our software but also about biometrics in general and about the types of it.
We also give particular attention to studying the advantages and peculiarities of facial recognition. We provide training in the form of a course for each product. The entire course takes approximately 2 hours and can be completed online. During the education process, you will have an opportunity to ask questions to our experts and they will always be happy to answer. Moreover, we issue certificates to those who have finished the training course. In 2022, more than 350 specialists of our partners have been trained by RecFaces experts on different products.
Facial recognition software has its particularities as well as any other professional software. We developed products that are as simple and understandable as possible, but for the client to receive a high-quality product and service that we could be sure of, we willingly share our competencies. That is the reason why we provide training for partners and assign them the status of “Qualified Partner”. The qualification process is carried out for each product separately. We expect that the partner will train at least 2 specialists and install a demo version on their territory. This will give the partner not only the opportunity to work with products and show them to the client but will also provide them with additional benefits on projects in the form of a greater discount.
Find out more from Eugenia Marina, and the entire RecFaces team in an explanatory webinar in January with Security Middle East.