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Face Recognition: search for people by names or photograph

Option 1. Search by name (“Search by faces” option)
1.1. Search for recognized people
1.2. Search for unrecognized people
Option 2. Search by uploadable picture (“Search person by photo” option)

Xeoma’s Face Recognition is not just recognition of people’s faces in realtime. Naturally, some systems require incident investigation to track selected individuals. Xeoma offers this option as well.

In Xeoma you can search archive recording of all cameras made with the Face Recognition module in chain, to look for recognized people by their name, to look through all unrecognized people, or to find someone using only their photograph (usually in search for criminals or missing people in police).

 

Option 1. Search by name

This option is available for recordings made with the Face Recognition’s both recognition methods: Statistical analysis of the image, and Artificial Intelligence.

1.1. Search for known people
Step 1. Make sure to connect Face Recognition to the camera chain, set it up and train it for people to recognize (family members, staff, etc.)
(For instructions and more information about Face Recognition please visit this page)

Face Recognition should be trained for some people before search

Step 2. Go to the Xeoma’s built-in Archive viewer. If your Xeoma version is Xeoma 19.4.22 or less, select the option “Search by faces” in the Archive menu:
(for newer versions of Xeoma this option will be under Archive’s Main menu -> Archive search -> Search by faces)

Face Recognition offers search by names or IDs

Step 3. Select a person for whom you want to see episodes they appeared in, from the list. You will see that this list will have all the names that your Face Recognition modules on this server have been trained for.
You can select one from the list, or type the names (or IDs, whatever “name” you used when you trained Face Recognition) manually. If you need to look for episodes with several people, type in their names with comma as a separator.

In our example we are looking for all events captured by this one camera that “Anne” appeared in:

Search by faces made with Face Recognition module will help you view all episodes where such person appeared in camera view and was recognized

Step 4. After you select a name from the list you will see your regular archive recordings still colored blue in the viewer’s timeline, and apart from them you will see green pieces there. Like in search for other events, in search by face/name the green pieces are episodes where the sought object or person appeared in.
There is also a green “Play” button now next to the Calendar button – it will help you switch between viewing all archive recordings from this camera, or only episodes where the sought object appeared.

The camera image will also have a frame around the face, and a transparent model photo that the Face Recognition has for this person.

View results of search by faces/names

 

1.2. Search for unrecognized people
Let’s go back to Step 3. You will notice that apart from the faces you have trained your Face Recognition modules on this server, you will also have an option “other” in the list. This is faces that have been detected but not recognized (you will only have it if your settings for Face Recognition allow recording of ALL FACES):

You can view episodes with recognized people in camera's recordings

You can review the episodes with “other” faces to see unauthorized or unrecognized people detected in camera view:

Viewing all unrecognized people in camera's recordings

 
Additionally: Search through all cameras in this server
Another additional option here is the search by name through all cameras. Go back to Step 3, and when you select the name to look for, also tick the “Search by all cameras” checkbox:

You can track known individuals across several cameras with the Search by all cameras option

You will get a list of cameras that satisfy the condition (have episodes with the person/persons with the names you selected). Choose the one you’d like to view recordings for. After you watch episodes from this camera, you can view recordings of another camera that saw the selected person or persons.

Tracking people across all cameras in the server

 

Option 2. Advanced: search by photo

There is an advanced type of search available for recordings made with the Artificial Intelligence option in Face Recognition module. It allows searching for people detected in camera view by uploading a photograph of them.

This is an Additional option that requires a separate special license.

Step 1. Make sure that your Face Recognition is functioning in the Artificial Intelligence mode.

Go to Archive viewer. In its Main menu select “Search person by photo” (for Xeoma versions 19.4.22 or lower) or in “Archive search” -> “Search person by photo” (for Xeoma versions newer than 19.4.22).

Advanced search that lets you upload a photo of a person

Step 2. Enter the path to the photograph you want to use for the search. You can use the Browse option to find it in disc, or you can enter it manually.

Select a photo of a person to look for manually or through the Browse button

Recognition Accuracy will help define whether you want to discard episodes where AI is not sure about similarity.

Step 3. After you select a person you will see your regular archive recordings still colored blue in the viewer’s timeline, and apart from them you will see green pieces there for the episodes where the sought person appeared in.
There is also a green “Play” button now next to the Calendar button – it will help you switch between viewing all archive recordings from this camera, or only episodes where the sought person appeared in.

Viewing the search results

If you don’t have a license, you will get such message:

Testing the advanced search by photo in the trial mode

Even without the license, you can test the feature in trial mode where you will only always see the latest episode where this person has been detected:

You will see only the latest episode with this person if you don't have a license for Search by photo Additional feature

In newer versions of Xeoma you will also have the opportunity to search for person through recordings from all cameras. Go back to Step 2, and when you select the path to a photo, also tick the “Search by all cameras” checkbox:

Face Recognition, Artificial Intelligence, Search by photo through all cameras

You will get a list of cameras that satisfy the condition (have episodes with the person/persons that look similar to the one in photo). Choose the camera you’d like to view recordings for first. After you watch episodes from this camera, you can go to view of another camera that thinks it saw the selected person or persons.

You will see a list of cameras that the person you're looking for was found in

Depending on the desired result, the environment and the system’s budget, you can select either the “Search by faces” or “Search by photo” to look for a known or unknown person through recordings made with Xeoma’s Face Recognition module.

Watch the video about the Search in archives by photo in Xeoma

19 July 2019

Read also:
Xeoma’s Face Detection And Face Recognition
Purchase additional features
Archive in Xeoma