2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Research on Preventing Unauthorized Face Image Detection

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24650044
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Media informatics/Database
Research Institution	National Institute of Informatics
Principal Investigator	ECHIZEN Isao 国立情報学研究所, コンテンツ科学研究系, 教授 (30462188)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	プライバシー保護 / 顔認識 / 顔検出
Research Abstract	A method is proposed for preventing privacy invasion through unintentional capture of facial images. Prevention methods such as covering the face and painting particular patterns on the face are effective but hinder face-to-face communication. The proposed method overcomes this problem through the use of a device worn on the face that transmits near-infrared signals that are picked up by camera image sensors, which makes the face in captured images undetectable. The device is similar in appearance to a pair of eyeglasses, and the signals cannot be seen by the human eye, so face-to-face communication is not hindered. Testing of a prototype "privacy visor" showed that it can effectively prevent privacy invasion via face detection by corrupting the facial images.