Reuniting families using data and facial recognition

The challenge

In times of displacement due to wars or natural disasters, it is common that families become separated. When a person goes missing from a refugee camp or war zone, their family will often put up photos of them, hoping that someone will recognize them. Time is critical in such searches, as families are often, for various reasons, forced to move from the area where someone on the family went missing. When the family is no longer in the same country or area, it becomes much more difficult to reunite with missing family members.

Knowit saw this as an opportunity to develop a solution that could be used to assist the search for missing persons. The solution was also Knowit’s entry in the competition in the Nordic SAS Hackathon.

The result

With geotagging of data and facial recognition, a solution was created that could simplify the work of aid organizations and increases the likelihood that families are reunited.

The solution was Knowit’s entry in the competition Nordic SAS Hackathon, where the challenge was to use data to do good with the aid of the SAS VIYA platform. The solution was well-received and voted visitor favorite. Knowit was also awarded shared first place in the competition.

Knowit has presented the solution to several international aid organizations to provide inspiration as to what is possible.