• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, December 30, 2019

Identifying people by their faces is growing.

The facial recognition market is projected to be valued at $9 billion by 2024, growing from $4.5 billion in 2018, according to a new forecast.

While governments around the world have been investing significant resources in facial recognition technology, the United States and China are the leading adopters, based on the study by Mordor Intelligence.

The study defined facial recognition as a method of recognizing a human face through hardware like video cameras and calculated the standalone facial recognition solutions and services offered by various suppliers, excluding the hardware components.

Smartphones with fingerprint sensors are projected to drop from 94% to 90%, with technologies like 3D facial recognition becoming a standard approach to user authentication.

The biggest facial recognition surveillance in North America is operated by the FBI, which maintains a facial recognition database with images of more than 117 million Americans, according to the study.

In addition to security, facial recognition is being used to withdraw money, such as was done by Fujitsu at Caixia Bank in Spain earlier this year.

While consumers may not notice the growing number of cameras being installed in places ranging from stores to streets, the cameras are noticing them.