Live Science Bar: “Facial Recognition: From Human to Digital! Psychology and Artificial Intelligence”

Available online on the UM YouTube channel.

Our first interactions with the visual world begin at birth. The ability to perceive faces improves during the first few weeks of life, and by two months of age, a baby is able to recognize the people around them and show a preference for their mother’s face. Thanks to brain mechanisms, humans quickly become able to automatically recognize familiar faces, even in a crowd.

In the 1960s, American researchers began studying computer programming aimed at recognizing faces. In the early 2000s, progress accelerated with the development of deep learning and big data. Today, facial recognition technologies—driven by the exponential growth of artificial intelligence—are becoming increasingly widespread. Facial recognition is becoming an integral part of our daily lives, particularly for securing certain access points and in numerous common applications such as video surveillance, biometrics, robotics, home automation, and image search…

In an increasingly digital society, the emergence of facial recognition technologies is far from neutral. While they may fascinate with their science-fiction-like capabilities and futuristic nature, they raise significant legal, ethical, and social concerns. Governed by the General Data Protection Regulation, these applications—some more sensitive than others—raise a number of questions.

To discuss this topic, four experts from various fields will come together and answer questions from the online audience in real time

• Gina Devau, neurobiologist, researcher at the Molecular Mechanisms in Neurodegenerative Diseases (MMDN) laboratory, and professor of neuroscience in the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Montpellier.
• Adel Jomni, Professor the Center for Research Studies on Information Security and Cybercrime (CRESIC) at the University of Montpellier. Director of the university certificate program in Cybercrime: Law, Information Security, and Digital Forensics.
• Abderrahmane Kheddar, Ph.D. in Robotics, researcher at the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics (LIRMM).
• William Puech, researcher at the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics (LIRMM), head of the Image and Interaction Department (ICAR), and professor at the University of Montpellier.
  

• You can watch this Science Bar live or catch the replay by clicking here.

  It is part of the annual "Brain Awareness Week" event; click here to view the program.

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