Facial Recognition Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

Market Overview

The facial recognition market was valued at USD 4.84 billion in 2020, and it is projected to be valued at USD 12.75 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 17.6% over the forecast period from 2021 to 2026. Facial recognition has been gaining traction in recent times, owing to its benefits over traditional surveillance techniques, like biometrics. Governments worldwide have been investing significant resources in the facial recognition technology, among which the United States and China are the leading adopters. China is one of the major consumers and exporters of the facial recognition technology, as the law and enforcement, along with various government bodies in the country, adopted surveillance technologies. Currently, the country has the most extensive public surveillance system. According to Comparitech, in China, the number of CCTV cameras ranges from 200 million to 626 million by 2020.

• Furthermore, in March 2020, India approved the deployment of its Automated Facial Recognition System (AFRS) across the nation by early 2021, allowing facial biometrics to be extracted from video and CCTV which will be matched with the image of individuals' photos whose identity information are housed in a database by the National Crime Records Bureau under the purview of the Minister of State for Home Affairs. Also, the Indian government's Aadhaar project is one of the largest biometric databases globally, and it is currently held by over 95% of the country's population, which is over 1.3 billion. The UIDAI contains a citizen's fingerprint, facial recognition, and iris. Currently, citizens in the country are actively using the technology for authentication, primarily to avail of various government benefits, processes, and facilities.
• Government initiatives are expected to contribute to the significant growth of such technologies. For instance, the US government is planning to reshape airport security through facial recognition, to register and identify the visitors. Additionally, several North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) member banks mandated the use of facial and voice recognition technologies for online identity verification. Companies have been collaborating with federal governments to implement the technology for their surveillance and identity management. The Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba, invested USD 600 million in SenseTime, a Hong Kong-based company that provides facial recognition software to businesses and governments across China.
• The adoption of facial recognition in the automotive industry is expected to gain traction over the forecast period, as the application of the technology is not only in access control of the vehicle but also for safety, as enterprises in the market are looking to incorporate the solution to track driver and passenger behavior by monitoring their emotions. Recently, Accenture, Affectiva, and Faurecia partnered to develop a car cabin for passenger vehicles. Faurecia and Accenture are using 'Connected Car Lab' in reinventing consumer driving experience. The technology leverages Affectiva's Automotive AI to monitor the driver's emotional and cognitive states and passengers from facial and vocal expressions. In addition to automotive applications, the adoption of technology on personal computers/laptops is expected to augment the demand over the coming years further.
• The increasing use of technology in the different end-user industries is expected to expand the market over the coming years. The applications are increasing in healthcare, automotive, smart home, access control, and many more. Moreover, during the COVID-19 outbreak in China, authorities have used facial recognition, combined with infrared cameras, to recognize infected people. Also, Chinese intelligent interaction company, Hanwang Technology, developed a facial recognition technology that can identify people wearing masks, as the use of masks hindered the operation of the technology in the country. Besides, Moscow, Russia, deployed a facial recognition technology for monitoring quarantined coronavirus patients and citizens with travel history outside the country. Such growing applications are expected to influence the facial recognition market positively.

Scope of the Report

Facial recognition is a biometric software capable of uniquely identifying, recognizing, and authenticating a person by comparing and analyzing patterns based on the facial contours of the subject. The report into consideration deals with facial recognition software in line with technologies like 3D, 2D facial recognition, and facial analytics. The study under consideration provides applications, market trends, influencing factors, and growth data of the software by end-users, such as security and law enforcement, healthcare, retail, and other end users. 

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Key Market Trends

Security and Law Enforcement is Expected to Hold Significant Share

• A wide range of high-end networks embedded with multi-directional cameras, combined with the development of commercial AI systems, allows a full replacement of the traditional facial security system. Panasonic uses its FacePRO facial recognition system for face matching and faces search feature to identify the faces that are difficult to recognize, with the help of standard video surveillance technology. Globally, increasing concerns over security, coupled with the increasing installments of advanced technology cameras in public places, such as schools, malls, etc., is expected to aid the market to grow exponentially, over the forecast period.
• For instance, without having any prior information about the biometric data, the Panasonic facial recognition system, present at the Tokyo International Airport's immigration control, compares the photographic data of the traveler's face into the IC chip, embedded in the person's passport with a photo taken at the facial recognition gate to verify the identity of the person. The optimization in the camera technology has improved the detectability of the video images, coupled with moving objects in real-time. For instance, Panasonic i-PRO EXTREME series network cameras automatically pick the images suitable for facial recognition from the multiple face images captured when a person passes in front of the camera and send only the selected high-quality pictures without putting a load of data processing on the server.
• Even the enhancement of AI cameras' features integrated with unmanned aerial vehicles, such as drone technology, is used to recognize faces and analyze the visitors' behaviors during video surveillance. Furthermore, the surveillance cameras fuel real-time face scanning and identification capabilities, thereby aiding the law enforcement officers to trace and capture face recognition-ready photographs of people. For instance, the UK capital's police force has trialed facial recognition in public by feeding the suspect's photo into a video surveillance network powered by artificial intelligence that is instantly analyzing the faces of everyone it sees. Once the algorithms find a match with someone in the crowd, it will send an alert to the nearby officers who could then rush to the scene and take them into custody.
• Moreover, the growing number of drone applications in various commercial sectors, such as media and entertainment, inspection, and surveying, contributes to the demand for facial recognition. For instance, according to the Federation Aviation Administrator, around 30,000 drones are expected to be introduced by 2020 across various end-user verticals. This provides an immense opportunity for the growth of facial recognition technology. Face recognition has been improved with the use of matching algorithms and neural networks to help in preventing terrorist activities. For instance, Virginia Beach was awarded a grant that will allow cameras to be installed to capture potential criminals to find missing children, as well as Tampa, Florida, is currently making use of the face recognition systems in its popular tourist areas, such as parks and airport arena, for security purposes.

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