IARPA to hold Janus Program proposers’ day, focused on facial recognition

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) will host a Proposers’ Day Conference for its Janus program, next week, on June 13, 2013, in anticipation of the release of a new solicitation in support of the program. The deadline to register to attend this event is today, June 6, at 5 p.m. EST.

The IARPA , which invests in high-risk research programs that have the potential to provide the United States with an intelligence advantage , will hold the conference in the Washington, DC area. Its Janus program — named after the Roman god of gates, doors and passages, often depicted with two faces — aims to dramatically improve the current performance of face recognition tools by fusing the rich spatial, temporal and contextual information available from the multiple views captured by today’s ‘media in the wild.’

According to the group, the purpose of the conference will be to provide information on the Janus program and the research problems that the program aims to address, to address questions from potential proposers and to provide a forum for potential proposers to present their capabilities for teaming opportunities.

Attendees interested in attending need to register by today, June 6, 2013 at 5 p.m. EST as space is limited to 150 registrants and to no more than 2 representatives per organization. Government-issued photo identification is mandatory to gain access to the conference. More information is available on the IARPA website.

Facial recognition is a growing focus, as the technology required is increasingly accessible and reliable. In addition, adoption is growing rapidly.

According to a recent CNN/Time/Orc poll, 79% of Americans are in favor of using facial recognition at various locations and public events, and 81% support expanded camera surveillance on streets and in public places.

Facial recognition was also a hot topic a few months ago, as the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombers took off, and the FBI appealed to the public for help in identifying two suspects.

As soon as the story of the marathon bombings broke,  BiometricUpdate published a feature which explored the use of facial recognition to identify the Boston bombers and discussed the technology’s benefits and limitations in identifying a suspect.

Reported previously, MorphoTrust USA recently published an infographic outlining how facial recognition technology helps law enforcement agencies bring criminals to justice. https://www.biometricupdate.com/201305/morphotrust-usa-publishes-infographic-to-shed-light-on-facial-recognition-for-law-enforcement/

Article Topics

facial recognition  |  government  |  IARPA  |  Janus