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By: Amanda Wright, Communications Assistant, UConn School of Engineering<\/strong><\/p>\n A UConn Computer Science & Engineering senior, Trevor Phillips, has recently developed a way to create facial recognition security for under $80, using the technology found in a handicap door opening button.<\/span><\/p>\n A facial recognition system is a computer application capable of identifying or verifying a person from a digital image or a video frame from a videosource. One of the ways to do this is by comparing selected facial features from the image and a face database.<\/span><\/p>\n It is typically used in security systems and can be compared to other biometrics such as fingerprint or eye iris recognition systems. Recently, it has also become popular as a commercial identification and marketing tool. A perfect real world example is the facial recognition used on the iPhone X, which is used to unlock the user\u2019s phone. <\/span><\/p>\n The idea to integrate a facial recognition system into handicap buttons began, according to Phillips, when his friend found a wireless handicap door button and the first thought that popped into his head was, \u201cwhat can I do with this?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n On his website Phillips walks through the process stating that using software-defined radio can help detect the signal from the button, which comes out at\u00a0<\/span>300-390 MHz. The device signal then triggers a facial recognition system on a Raspberry Pi, a popular and affordable microprocessor commonly used by college students, and takes a picture. The photo of the user is then sent to a database, which analyzes 128 data points. If the person is in the database, then the door opens, and the user can enter the room.<\/p>\n Phillips said that this project could be extended and applied in multiple useful real-world scenarios, like, for example, a custom home security system which uses facial recognition to either grant or deny access to the home.<\/span><\/p>\n When asked about his keys to success, Phillips cited his education and theoretical knowledge from the UConn School of Engineering, combined with his natural curiosity when approaching projects like this: <\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>UConn has given me more theoretical knowledge and it is helping to inspire me creatively. But, <\/span>this project was the first time I felt like an engineer, \u00a0able to combine existing technologies from multiple subject areas into something new.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n