China has begun testing surveillance technology in its northwestern Xinjiang region that aims to predict an individuals’ behavior by reading their emotional state. The technology uses cameras to scan people’s faces and ‘read’ their facial expressions in order to “identify criminal suspects by analyzing their mental state… to prevent illegal acts including terrorism and smuggling,”…
Biometrics News – Facial Recognition An Israeli artificial intelligence startup with investments from a number of American companies including Microsoft has been linked to the biometric surveillance of Palestinians. AnyVision is an international tech company based in Israel that raised $78 million in June from an investment group including American tech giant Microsoft. One of…
The biometrics industry is broad, with plenty of room for niche players focusing on specific areas like facial recognition for smartphone unlocking or fitness-tracking earbuds. But there are some major players who have managed over the years to become successful solutions providers across a diverse range of solutions and applications, and ZKTeco has been a…
“A key component of the GMCNgine is Rekognition, Amazon’s controversial computer vision platform.” Facial recognition technology’s growing role in the fight against child exploitation could see a substantial expansion after the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children’s launch of a new AI-driven system this week. Called the GMCNgine, the system leverages machine learning and artificial…
Prompted by an outcry from the New York Civil Liberties Union, officials with New York State Department of Education and the Lockport City School District are trying to hammer out the protocols for a new school security system based on facial and object recognition. The system, called “Aegis”, is being provided by Canadian firm SN…
“Amazon offers the example of Rekognition technology being used to crack a sex trafficking case by identifying 20 victims and helping to send the perpetrator to prison…” Amazon is trying to put its own spin on its sale of facial recognition technology to police with a new case study put together by Marinus Analytics. It…
“Visitors are now required to use the social media platform WeChat to scan their faces by reading out a string of numbers with their selfie camera on, offering their national identity card details as well.” Tsinghua University, a prestigious academic institution in Beijing, is now requiring visitors to submit their facial biometrics. As the South…
“In its memo, the OPD said that the next trial would operate similarly to the first, in which seven police officers volunteered to have their faces scanned by the system.” The Orlando Police Department will continue to test facial recognition technology from Amazon despite the recent outcry from privacy and civil rights advocates over the…
Interpol is currently in the final stages of the development of an international voice biometrics database to be shared with member police agencies. Called the Speaker Identification Integrated Project, it includes voice samples from 192 law enforcement agencies, and is designed to let Interpol members and affiliates use voice recognition technology to match suspects against…
Amazon’s own employees have now joined the chorus of voices calling for the company to halt its sale of biometric surveillance technology to law enforcement and other government agencies. Their demand has surfaced in an open letter to Jeff Bezos with an undisclosed number of signatories. The letter has arrived immediately after another open letter,…
Just a month after the ACLU made Amazon’s sale of facial recognition technology to government authorities a matter of public debate, a group of prominent Amazon shareholders are calling on the company to halt such business activities, at least until the proper oversight is put in place. The controversy concerns Rekognition, Amazon’s machine vision solution,…
Los Angeles-based FaceFirst has launched a new facial recognition solution for security surveillance aimed at the retail market. Dubbed “Sentinel-IQ”, the platform is designed to identify known shoplifters and criminals, and to send an alert to administrators the moment such individuals are detected by the surveillance system. And it’s available in multiple deployment configurations including…
The Department of Homeland Security is working on a secretive project aimed at dramatically expanding its biometric surveillance powers – and the Electronic Frontier Foundation is arguing it it must be stopped. The project is dubbed HART, for Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology, and it entails the collection of a wide range of data – not…
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation is pushing back against the ACLU’s efforts to get Amazon to stop selling its facial recognition technology to government organizations. The outcry began about a week ago, when the ACLU published information concerning multiple police agencies’ use of Rekognition, a machine learning, computer vision system that runs on Amazon…
NEC‘s facial recognition technology is being used to secure major cities in the country of Georgia, the company has announced. More specifically, its NeoFace Watch system has been adopted by the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. Having been installed last month, the system is now scanning the CCTV feeds of about 400 cameras in major…
Neurotechnology has announced SentiVeillance Server, a new facial recognition solution designed for easy deployment on video surveillance systems. It’s compatible with the video management systems Evo Global, Evo S, Luxriot Evo, and Milestone XProtect VMS, enabling user to quickly identify faces in video streams, and to configure automatic alert notifications when certain faces – or…
FindBiometrics is in Washington this week for the inaugural K(NO)W Identity Conference. Day one started off with an incredibly high profile opening presentation, a conversation between Manoush Zomorodi, host and managing editor of the Note to Self podcast, and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who joined the stage remotely from Russia. Zomorodi interviewed Snowden for nearly…
Hitachi has announced a new video surveillance system designed to be able to track individuals based not only on their faces, but what they’re wearing, their age, their sex, and various other factors. The company says the system is able to identify more than a hundred such characteristics, and once it has targeted a particular…
Neurotechnology has announced an upgraded version of its SentiVeillance SDK. Version 6.0 allows for the use of facial recognition on up to 10 surveillance feeds simultaneously using just one computer, and adds a GPU to help increase the speed of its scanning. It also allows users to dynamically adjust the system to focus more on…