"Super recogniser" is a term coined in 2009 by
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
and
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
researchers for people with significantly better-than-average
face recognition
A facial recognition system is a technology capable of matching a human face from a digital image or a video frame against a database of faces. Such a system is typically employed to authenticate users through ID verification services, and wo ...
ability. Super recognisers are able to memorise and recall thousands of faces, often having seen them only once.
Skill
It is the extreme opposite of
prosopagnosia
Prosopagnosia (from Greek ''prósōpon'', meaning "face", and ''agnōsía'', meaning "non-knowledge"), also called face blindness, ("illChoisser had even begun tpopularizea name for the condition: face blindness.") is a cognitive disorder of fac ...
. It is estimated that 1 to 2% of the population are super recognisers
who can remember 80% of faces they have seen compared to 20% of the general population, but these figures are disputed. Super recognizers can match faces better than
computer recognition systems in some circumstances.
The science behind this is poorly understood but may be related to the
fusiform face area
The fusiform face area (FFA, meaning spindle-shaped face area) is a part of the human visual system (while also activated in people blind from birth) that is specialized for facial recognition. It is located in the inferior temporal cortex ( ...
part of the brain.
Practical applications
The skill is recognised and employed among the British intelligence community.
In May 2015, the
London Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
officially formed a team made up of people with this heightened capability for recognising people and put them to work identifying individuals whose faces are captured on
CCTV
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
.
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...
has a squad of over 200 super recognisers. In August 2018, it was reported that the Metropolitan Police had used two super recognisers to identify the suspects of the attack on
Sergei and Yulia Skripal, after trawling through up to 5,000 hours of CCTV footage from
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...
and numerous airports across the country.
German police forces have made increasing use of super recognisers for suspect identification, such as in the wake of the
2020 Stuttgart riot
The 2020 Stuttgart riot took place during the night of 21 June 2020 when hundreds fought street battles with police in Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. During the riots numerous shops were looted.
On 20 June at 23:30, police ...
.
Glasgow Face Matching Test
Super recognisers performed well in the
Glasgow Face Matching Test
The Glasgow Face Matching Test (GFMT) was created by researchers at the University of Glasgow and at Glasgow Caledonian University.The Glasgow face matching test.
Burton, A. M., White,D. & McNeill, A. (2010). Behavior Research Methods, 42, pp 286 ...
in comparison with a control group.
References
Further reading
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External links
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* {{cite news , url=https://www.itv.com/news/london/2016-08-26/police-to-deploy-super-recognisers-to-scan-cctv-to-pick-out-offenders-and-trouble-makers-at-notting-hill-carnival/ , title=Police to deploy 'super-recognisers' to scan CCTV to pick out offenders and trouble makers at Notting Hill Carnival , work=
ITV News
ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since conti ...
, date=26 August 2016
*Greenwich University
Could You be A Super Recognizer
Face perception
Giftedness
Video surveillance
Surveillance