Face Recognition Technology: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) is one of the most prestigious institutions in India and is renowned for its academic excellence. However, in the last few years, they have been addressing the problem of suicide.

Last year, between February and March, four students from IIT Madras committed suicide. The institution decided to incorporate a face recognition attendance system into the system to identify and take timely measures. According to a news article published in the Times of India, the solution was implemented after the incident, and a survey of 12,000 students revealed that 2% of the students were stressed. 

So, the option to incorporate a face recognition system in the institute was a measure to curb this problem. 

The institution will use face recognition technology to analyze the frequency of gym, lab, and park visitation, as well as attendance. The information will help to determine the students who have started to miss classes, and a call will be made to ask them for a reason and confirm whether they are depressed or stressed.

If yes, they would be provided with in-house counseling. While the initiative taken by IIT Madras is commendable, implementing face recognition in IITs can have other superior advantages and uncover them in this blog.

Why Should IITs Implement Face Recognition Technology?

Face recognition is a technology that captures an individual’s face biometrics and converts them into a code during the registration process. After onboarding, whenever the individual shows their face in front of a camera, the system matches the new face biometrics after converting them into code with the stored biometric code in the database.

Therefore, it is one of the most secure systems and highly challenging to spoof or tamper. However, the reasons for implementing this technology in one of the most prestigious institutes in India are as follows:

Face Expression Detection

One of the key missing pointers that IITs aren’t yet focusing on is using face biometrics to its optimal advantage. However, many B-schools and even primary education schools have understood the usage of video analytics in classrooms. 

Analyzing the facial expressions of the individual can help to know whether the person is paying attention in the classroom or disengaged. Many times, students use their mobile phones while the lecture is ongoing. At this point, they are present in the class but aren’t really learning what they are being taught. However, they could blame the teacher for boring teaching practices.

Simultaneously, face biometrics can help to identify whether the student is stressed and trying to focus on the lecture but can’t. Such analysis can help to recognize students who might require extra attention and classes. The institution can take the necessary steps to reach out to them and confirm whether or not the same is true. If they say they are, then the solution can be handed over to them.

Proxy Attendance Calls

Another malpractice in IITs with a roll-calling system is proxy attendance. So, a face biometric system, especially one integrated with CCTV or surveillance cameras, can significantly help to avoid this.

Moreover, the CCTV-based face recognition system can help to recognize students present in the classroom without requiring the teacher to make roll calls, which is not only a hassle for the teacher but also reduces the lecture time of the students, especially if the classroom size is 100 or more.

Additionally, face biometric systems with liveness detection are tamperproof and spoofproof. Therefore, the student would require on-premise presence and can ask their batchmates to mark their proxies.

Face & Body Posture Detection

Accompanying face recognition detection with body posture detection can have numerous advantages. Primarily, it can help recognize the movements or gestures of students during lectures.

By doing so, the video analytics system can analyze the lecture to which most students pay the most or least attention. Moreover, the solution can even identify whether a student is looking at an object, such as a mobile phone or tablet, during the lecture.

Simultaneously, it can analyze the students who are sleeping during the lecture. The report could also generate information about the most or least attentive students in a batch. This information can help reach out to students who continuously need to pay more attention during classes and ask why.

Incident Detection

IIT, Madras, and other prestigious colleges of India often have incidences that create tremendous panic among students and teachers alike. Even schools in the US have frequently reported incidents of gun violence.

At this point, the face identification system can help to identify the scared expressions of the students. The system can also trigger alerts for administrators, who can inform the necessary authorities on time and take action without delay.

Moreover, the system can even curate information about incidents that happen due to unprecedented activity in the classroom, such as panic attacks, by identifying people lying on the floor or sitting in a ducked posture. The face biometric system can also analyze the students most affected during the event and provide them with post-traumatic counseling.

Read Also: Why Organizations Should Use Contactless Attendance System?

Conclusion

Face recognition attendance technology is important for IITs and other institutes in India and abroad because it offers various advantages that are often overlooked. The primary reason for implementing the system is to detect the classroom presence of the students and the teachers.

However, secondary reasons could include determining the lecture in which the students were most or least attentive or the posture of the students during the class. Additionally, analyzing facial expressions can also identify students who are having difficulty staying attentive during class.

Must Read: Future of Face Recognition Technology

Furthermore, it can also trigger warning signals to the administrators if the system identifies scared students during class violence or unprecedented events.

Biocube’s face recognition system can also integrate with existing CCTV cameras and achieve the goals that IIT, Madras, and similar institutions are trying to achieve, i.e., analyzing the mental health of the students by analyzing their attendance and duration spent across the facilities provided by the institution.