Seeing More Clearly with Glasses?: The Impact of Glasses and Technology on Unfamiliar Face Matching and Identification of Facial Composites

The development of facial identification technologies is of vital importance for security. We demonstrate that psychology can ensure innovation produces applications with effective human outcomes. Experiments 1a-c show spectacle removal imaging techniques that enhance automated face matching, can seriously impair accuracy if employed within a human interface. Experiment 2 shows how understanding and working with human perceptual strategies can optimize identification of facial composites.