“It is not easy to develop domestic AI facial recognition technology and run a business. It takes a long time to develop, and data acquisition is necessary to increase facial recognition accuracy, but there is a lack of samples, and it is difficult to acquire data due to privacy violations and other issues. If you are thinking of making money using facial recognition technology, it would be faster and more profitable to introduce Chinese technology and operate a service.”

A facial recognition developer interviewed by our newspaper cited the difficulty in securing data as a problem in developing domestic facial recognition technology. It is known that all those in the domestic facial recognition industry have this kind of thinking.

This is because domestic facial recognition AI services are slow to be introduced due to the perception that there are many privacy-invading elements, and as a result, it is difficult to secure related data, making it difficult to increase recognition accuracy.

Face recognition is a technology that uses the shape of a person's face and facial thermal images to extract facial data such as eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and chin through thermal infrared photography, three-component measurement, and bone analysis using a camera, and then compares the extracted data with facial feature data stored in a database to perform recognition.

Since it does not come into direct contact with recognition equipment, it is hygienic and convenient, and is expected to be utilized in various fields.

Recently, system accuracy is improving due to the development of 3D recognition technology and application of AI.

In particular, as the need for contactless identification increases due to the coronavirus pandemic, the market is becoming more active due to its non-contact advantage.

According to MarketsandMarkets, the global facial recognition market is expected to grow from USD 3.872 billion in 2020 to USD 8.575 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 17.2%.

By region, North America accounts for 33% of the market, Europe 29%, Asia Pacific 24%, Middle East and Africa 8%, and Latin America 5%.

Representative companies include Amazon in the US, Ayonix, NEC, and Nuance in Japan, and Idemia and Thales in France, and these six companies are reported to occupy half of the entire market.

The main applications of facial recognition are: △Identity verification △Digital ID wallet for smartphones △Identity theft prevention △Passenger processing at airports And it is being used in various places such as △traffic analysis, △devices that can access cloud apps, domains, etc. without passwords, and △AI Cam platform for facial recognition.

Facial recognition technology is growing fastest in China worldwide.

In the Face Recognition Algorithm Test (FRVT) competition conducted by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Chinese companies always rank at the top.

It is known that while major countries such as the US and Korea are hesitant to introduce the technology due to factors such as privacy violations, China is easily able to secure data through government-wide support, and is accumulating a large amount of data that is incomparable to that of other countries.

In particular, the Chinese government is investing massive amounts of money to introduce facial recognition technology in the public sector.

Here are some examples of its introduction in China: △financial services such as payments and remittances using facial recognition without a bankbook or card, △displaying the driver's face on an electronic display when traffic laws are violated, △cracking down on violators at crosswalks, △catching criminals through CCTV, △ID verification at immigration, △a system that allows you to ride the subway without a wallet, and △school attendance, among other things.

On the other hand, in Korea, it is still in its initial stages, limited to some services such as smartphone unlocking.

A facial recognition system was piloted at the entrance to the Sejong Government Complex in 2017, and Shinhan Card's facial recognition payment service was launched as a regulatory sandbox demonstration exception in 2021, but it has not become widespread.

The industry said that the most urgent task for the development of domestic facial recognition technology and expansion of the industry is to allay concerns about privacy violations.

To this end, a thorough security system needs to be established and awareness needs to be improved, and based on this, active investment is needed to expand the market.
/> In particular, since the domestic market is still in its early stages, everyone agrees that the government's expansion of the public sector is an urgent task for market growth.

The industry believes that if the government expands the public sector to allay concerns about privacy infringement among consumers and expands to various areas, it will be possible to secure an incomparable amount of related data compared to now, and technological advancements will be possible through trial and error improvements.