PRESS: Russia’s NtechLab found best by US for face recognition tech

MOSCOW, Nov 8 (PRIME) -- Russian company NtechLab, whose investors include tycoon Roman Abramovich, has won a contest for face recognition algorithms, held by the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), business daily Vedomosti reported on Wednesday.

NtechLab won two of three nominations: speed of identification and accuracy of verification.

An NtechLab representative said the victory is a benchmark in the security industry, which is a guide for many customers and potential investors. It is still too early to speak about any deals, the spokesperson said.

VisionLabs General Director Alexander Khanin said that customers do take guidance from such tests, and the most influential check is the one held by the NIST. The testing is aimed not at choosing the best company to sign contracts with, but at determining the level of technological progress in the world.

Established in 2015, NtechLab’s algorithm became a basis for FindFace, an application searching for people in social network VKontakte by their photos. It can find a person among 1 billion faces within half a second.

IARPA is governed by the director of National Intelligence, who also heads the U.S. intelligence community, comprising 17 entities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

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