Apple’s patent to use body parts to identify people when their face is not visible to a camera is granted
Apple has been granted a patent for “identity recognition utilising face-associated body characteristics,” which combines facial recognition technology with other body characteristics to identify people even when their faces are not visible to the camera.
Apple’s patent, filed in May 2022 and granted on 26 November 2024, describes a system that associates facial recognition with other body characteristics such as clothing, gait or gesture to recognise certain people.
The system works by linking a gallery of “body croppings” such as torso, arms or legs with their face biometrics, then comparing the data with a live video feed, and proceeds in a stepped approach to identify face, body parts and physical characteristics, which include body shape, skin colour, or the texture or colour of clothing.
The resulting data constitutes a cluster of “bodyprints” which can be assigned a confidence score against a person’s faceprint and other characteristics, with storage periods as brief as 24 hours for certain identifiers like clothing.
The system can recognise people based on their body characteristics, even if they are wearing different clothes, and can re-register their clothes periodically to maintain accurate identification.
“It all appears to add up to a smart camera system that knows a person’s face and walk but re-registers his clothes in the morning so that it is able to recognise him on his way home even if it can’t see his face because it knows his Hawaiian shirt,” Biometric Update reported.
Although the patent is primarily directed to performing identity recognition in a home environment setting, Apple notes that it should not be construed as being limited to this setting.
The technology can be used in various environments, including homes, office buildings, warehouses, parking lots, and public parks. And although Apple doesn’t say so, we shouldn’t be surprised if it turns up in applications in law enforcement, border control, intelligence, access management and event security.
As Biometric Update notes, Apple patents many technologies that it never makes but its interest in a smart AI camera that performs broad identity recognition is understandable given the growing markets for AI and facial authentication.
