Kakao Enterprise, an AI technology-based unit of Kakao Corp., has become the top performer in a global facial recognition test, beating out other renowned AI companies from the United States, China, and India.

Kakao Enterprise announced on Wednesday that it topped the kiosk category and ranked within the top 5 in four categories in the Face Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The NIST FRVT is the most highly-regarded standard for facial recognition algorithms and evaluates facial imagery technology used for private, legal, and national security matters. NIST performs large-scale empirical evaluations based on a large dataset with Kakao Enterprise submitting its technology a total of eight times.

Kakao Enterprise took the top spot for 1:1 verification in unsupervised (kiosk) scenarios. In the kiosk category, the facial imagery technology needs to be able to decipher images where the bottom half of the face is warped or images that cannot be seen clearly.

In the border category where two webcam photos from airport border controls are compared, Kakao Enterprise ranked second, missing the first place spot by only 0.0001 points.

Kakao Enterprise ranked fourth in both the visa border category where the comparisons are of webcam photos from airport border controls and visa frontals and the mugshot category where two mugshot photos are compared.

The facial recognition technology that was submitted for the FRVT is being used in the “walk-through” entry system at the Kakao Enterprise headquarters.

Kakao Enterprise plans to provide AI facial recognition services that can be applied to smart city entry systems, intelligent closed circuit (CC) television, and smart space businesses in the future.

Shares of Kakao traded up 0.15 percent to 68,600 won during Thursday morning trade.

By Oh Dae-suk and Susan Lee

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