Concordia senior Thomas (G12) designed a facial recognition program that greets students as they walk by - much to their surprise! 

Part of his Big Data class, Thomas (G12) explained the project: “For my facial recognition project, I used a pre-built model and implemented it in a way our school could use.  It’s a package that can be used with the Python coding language and can be modified.”

“I created a name and photo database of the students in our school based on their yearbook photos, and then I put the photo into a facial recognition model. When the model detects a face, it will match it with the student's name and face in the database and offer a greeting to that student on the screen.” 

“I also tried to implement more features on the model, for example, when it detects a student, and it’s 9am, it will say ‘Good Morning, Thomas.’ There’s also a hand detection system where it can detect how many fingers you’re displaying, or hand gestures. So if you wave, this usually means hi, and the program will display ‘Hi Thomas’”.

“Learning Python was pretty simple for me, because I already learned AP Computer Science the year before, and in AP Computer Science you learn the Java language. Transitioning from Java to Python was a relatively easy process, since I already have an idea of what coding is."

“The project is for my Big Data class, but to me it also felt like kind of a personal project, because I spent a lot of time outside of the class working on it, including during my holidays when I had free time.”

Learn more about Concordia’s high school program.