Cognitec develops market-leading face recognition technologies and applications for enterprise and government customers around the world. Various independent evaluation tests have proven the premier performance of our FaceVACS® software.
Cognitec’s scientists and software experts have been developing face recognition technology since 1995. Industry and government customers have been using FaceVACS for physical access control since 1996. The 2002 installation of the SmartGate system at Sydney International Airport, using Cognitec’s software, was a major step toward an automated border control solution. In 2013, Cognitec once again released pioneering technology for eGate integration.
Facial image database search has become an efficient tool for government agencies to prevent fraud during ID document issuing. In addition, Cognitec’s database search technology has successfully assisted law enforcement agencies worldwide to quickly find offenders and solve crimes. Cognitec also offers a leading-edge video screening and analytics technology that allows users to detect and identify persons of interest in video streams while computing demographic and behavioral data.
Market focus
Cognitec’s development and business activities are completely dedicated to face recognition technology and applications. The majority of current product deployments serve government and general security applications:
- ID management (passport, visa, driver’s license, social services)
- law enforcement (police, intelligence)
- surveillance (airports, casinos, stadiums; police, intelligence)
- border control (immigration, customs, police)
- physical access control (security, facility operators).
Cognitec is also addressing the need of face recognition in consumer and operational applications:
- internet or PC photo album indexing
- login processes for PCs, phones and banking machines
- analysing real-time people flow and waiting times for traffic control and operational planning
- analysing customer demographics (age, gender) for business analytics and marketing.
Products
Building on the FaceVACS engine, Cognitec has developed various products that address different use cases for face recognition.
FaceVACS-DBScan quickly compares facial images from different sources to images of faces in a database. The software can perform searches in multi-million image databases and instantly create a match list of the most similar faces. The Examiner toolset offers a powerful user interface for law enforcement customers to perform image enhancement and inspection. Drivers’ license, passport, national ID, and visa offices, as well as law enforcement agencies use FaceVACS-DBScan for fraud prevention and investigations.
FaceVACS-VideoScan detects and identifies persons of interest in real time while computing demographic and behavioral data, supporting security staff, marketing departments and operations management in one application. Anonymous analysis of all face streams over time allows the software to compute people count, demographical information, people movement in time and space, and to detect frequent visitors and crowds. FaceVACS-VideoScan also performs real-time identity checks against image databases to find known persons and alert appropriate staff.
FaceVACS-Entry combines smart hardware for image acquisition with market-leading software for verification processes, and is ready for integration into electronic gates (eGates) at border control checkpoints. The software instantly verifies the live images against biometric photos stored in passports, other ID documents and/or facial image databases. A proprietary sensor, able to distinguish between human faces and artifacts like printed images and masks, detects presentation attacks.
Cognitec’s FaceVACS Technology delivers face recognition to a broad range of applications and allows using this innovative technology for new applications. Cognitec provides the FaceVACS Technology through use-case and platform-specific software development kits, with modern programming techniques and consistent, logically clear programming interfaces.
Consulting
Cognitec’s technology and products build upon the extensive knowledge of our scientists and software engineers. The company aims to make this knowledge available to customers and partners, address their use cases and problems, and customize all products to meet special needs.
Customer base
Cognitec has delivered products to approximately 200 customers in more than 50 countries, and implemented face recognition software with:
- more than 20 drivers’ license authorities (DMVs) in the USA, Canada and Australia
- passport and visa issuing authorities in Australia, Europe and South-East Asia
- law enforcement agencies in the USA, Europe, South-East Asia and Australia
- border control authorities in Australia, Europe, South-East Asia and Africa
- internet service providers in the USA and Europe
- major casino operators in Europe and Asia.