A city in the Asian country equips its agents with facial recognition glasses to identify people in real time.
Criminal Aldama
Shangai
07/02/2018
A police officer equipped with special glasses in the city
de Zhengzhou (Afp)
Security and population control are two of the great obsessions of the Chinese Government, that does not hesitate for a moment when it comes to investing in technology to turn the most populated country in the world into a gigantic version of Big Brother. But not even the installation of 170 millions of security cameras throughout its territory is enough to satisfy the leaders of the Communist Party, that encourage research in sectors that go beyond.
Artificial intelligence is the one that takes the cake. Above all, facial recognition systems. They are already in operation in different parts of the country, where complex algorithms analyze the faces of those who appear in the camera images and identify them with astonishing accuracy.
And in the city of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, They have gone one step further by equipping the police officers who patrol the train station with special glasses.. Similares a las 'Google Glass', They are equipped with a camera capable of giving the first and last name to whoever passes in front of them..
According to the official Chinese press, These glasses only take three seconds to determine a person's identity. Y, How are they connected to the Police base?, They are capable of warning the agents in the event that someone has pending accounts with the justice. It seems science fiction, but it's real. and it works. Seven escapees were arrested in the first days of operations and the system also detected 26 people trying to board the train with a fake ID card.
At the moment, The glasses are only worn by four police officers stationed at the entrance doors to the station, but the success of the initiative suggests that they will spread little by little. Not surprisingly, These types of facial recognition systems are already used to board a plane without a card.
Different human rights groups fear that these artificial intelligence systems will end up violating people's privacy and reinforce the authoritarianism of the Government.. Human Rights Watch has denounced that the northwestern province of Xinjiang has already become a police state in which technology is one of the main pillars of repression., although the Police insist that it is only used with suspects and fugitives.
But the truth is that it works with anyone. a few weeks ago, A BBC reporter decided to test one of these facial recognition systems, and it only took the authorities seven minutes to find him and arrest him - figuratively- using artificial intelligence algorithms and street video surveillance cameras. Definitely, with or without glasses, No one escapes China's Robocops.
