Assessment of a proprietary online smart-family-matching tool to reunite lost families

The presence of wars, civil strife, and natural disasters inevitably separate many families from their loved ones. Existing tools to help divided families find loved ones consist of basic meta-data searches that are often unable to return a match in the face of incomplete or inaccurate information. This paper presents a first-order analysis of a proprietary online system that used correlated meta-data, genealogical information, and single images to search and match lost relatives more effectively. Experimental results showed that the system reliably guaranteed the right match in the presence of complete and accurate information. The results also showed that when incomplete meta-data information is present along with genealogical information, false-positive matches occur within one's own family tree. Furthermore, with increased genealogical data, the likelihood of false-positives can decrease by almost 44%. Image processing tools did not improve the results of the match when only one image is used. A larger database of family pictures could improve the likelihood of finding the right match. This paper assessed the viability of the system as a tool for humanitarian organization that help refugees located loved ones. Based on the results, we recommend the integration of genealogical data into existing search systems used by humanitarian organizations.