Face recognition technology that works in the dark

Thermal cameras like FLIR, or Forward Looking Infrared, sensors are actively deployed on aerial and ground vehicles, in watch towers and at check points for surveillance purposes. More recently, thermal cameras are becoming available for use as body-worn cameras. The ability to perform automatic face recognition at nighttime using such thermal cameras is beneficial for informing a Soldier that an individual is someone of interest, like someone who may be on a watch list. The motivations for this technology -- developed by Drs. Benjamin S. Riggan, Nathaniel J. Short and Shuowen "Sean" Hu, from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory -- are to enhance both automatic and human-matching capabilities.