When TrueFace.ai began using face recognition technology in its “smart doorbell,” it quickly found itself branching out to different use cases. First came expanded use in-home and then commercial security, said Shaun Moore (pictured), the startup’s founder and chief executive officer.

Suspecting an even wider range of possibilities, TrueFace.ai tapped developers to help suss them out. “We’re finding the developer community really likes to tinker and to play, and because they’re doing it out of passion, it helps us drive our product,” Moore said.

TrueFace.ai provides a face recognition application program interface as a service, Moore told Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during this year’s When IoT Met AI: The Intelligence of Things event in San Jose, California. (* Disclosure below.)

The API identifies, matches and detects faces using deep learning; a fourth function — spoof detection — can distinguish a photo from a live face. This last feature is lacking in most face-detection software, according to Moore.

Making the API available for free to developers has spawned novel ideas that the company’s customers are now implementing. For example, Los Angeles probation monitors using TrueFace.ai are finding the software tells the truth more reliably than drunk drivers, Moore stated.

“We can actually measure, based on historical data, if your face appears to be drunk,” Moore said. This is possible through cloud-based deep learning models that are continually retrained with new data.

ATM login and cruise ship re-boarding are additional instances where face-recognition could reduce wait-time and increase security, he explained.

Spoilt for choice

All of the novel use-cases developers bring to the company’s attention can also be distracting, Moore stated.

“We’ve got to be very, very conscious of not getting sidetracked because we get to hear cool ideas about what we could do. But we’ve got our core focus of building this API for more people to use,” he said.

TrueFace.ai is planning a bigger roll out with a couple of key partners later this year, Moore stated.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of When IoT Met AI: The Intelligence of Things. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for When IoT Met AI. Neither Western Digital Corp., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial influence on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE