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Face Detection API

Category
Multimedia
Type
New or changed feature
Status
In developer trial (Behind a flag) (Chrome 74)
Intent stage
Start prototyping

Summary

The Face Detection API is a subset of the Shape Detection API which provides the ability to detect human faces and facial landmarks in an image provided by script. The image may come from any type of image buffer source such as an <image>, <video> or <canvas> tag.

Motivation

Native platforms such as Android, iOS, macOS and Windows include built-in libraries for performing the detection of faces in images. The availability of these libraries means that developers do not need to design this functionality themselves or include a large third party face detection library in their application download. This API provides these same benefits to the web platform where it is available on native.

Standards & signals

Docs: https://web.dev/shape-detection https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QeCDBOoxkElAB0x7ZpM3VN3TQjS1ub1mejevd2Ik1gQ/edit

Samples: https://paul.kinlan.me/face-detection https://web.dev/shape-detection/#facedetector

Explainers: https://github.com/WICG/shape-detection-api/blob/master/README.md

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