Face recognition for criminal identification: An implementation of principal component analysis for face recognition

In practice, identification of criminal in Malaysia is done through thumbprint identification. However, this type of identification is constrained as most of criminal nowadays getting cleverer not to leave their thumbprint on the scene. With the advent of security technology, cameras especially CCTV have been installed in many public and private areas to provide surveillance activities. The footage of the CCTV can be used to identify suspects on scene. However, because of limited software developed to automatically detect the similarity between photo in the footage and recorded photo of criminals, the law enforce thumbprint identification. In this paper, an automated facial recognition system for criminal database was proposed using known Principal Component Analysis approach. This system will be able to detect face and recognize face automatically. This will help the law enforcements to detect or recognize suspect of the case if no thumbprint present on the scene. The results show that about 80% of input photo can be matched with the template data.