‘If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.’ –William Blake
[A]utomated facial recognition is still in its infancy and many countries rely on humans to do the job. But not just any humans—people with a rare ability to accurately recognize faces in CCTV footage regardless of the angle, or how grainy or fleeting the image.
The term “super recognizer” first appeared in 2009 and describes people who can remember more than 80 percent of the faces of people they meet (the average is 20 percent). The neural-mechanism behind super recognition is still largely unknown, but the skill seems to be genetic and possessed by only about one percent of the population. […]
Are you always accurate?
Yes, 100 percent. You don’t have a situation where you go, “I think that might be matey from my old job”. It’s really solid and definite. […]I can recognize people from behind as well, the back of their heads. I think I’m recognizing a shape. There are various elements, different super recognizers might say they can tell who somebody is from their jawline. We’re mostly like that, we don’t need to see the full face. […]
if any of your readers think they’re like me and might be good at it, they should do the test online.
