Brazilian Police To Use Facial Recognition Glasses To Spot Criminals... But Does It Even Work?
from the ah,-details dept
Apparently Brazilian police are investing in a system of Robocop-style glasses that will allow the police to scan crowds of people with the glasses, and have a small camera spot known criminals. That's the theory. What's surprising to me is that no one in the article seems to question whether or not this technology actually works. We've been hearing a lot about facial recognition technology over the years, especially for situations like this. Yet, every time we hear about tests of public camera systems with facial recognition, it later turns out that they're close to useless. Multiple places that have installed such cameras later took them down after they failed to (legitimately) spot any criminals. Now, many of those stories are a few years old, and the technology has improved... but until there's actual evidence that a system like this can actually work (especially in a miniaturized glasses setup), it seems that skepticism should rule the day.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: brazil, facial recognition, glasses, police
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Anecdotal evidence
...and it identified the side of a building as one of my friends.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lock them all up
Why don't they just learn from the United States and treat everyone as criminals without the use of expensive glasses?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yep got two of them!
They're called EYES, use them knuckle head.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Yep got two of them!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Yep got two of them!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Yep got two of them!
Then again you could just send the cop a picture ....
Seriously - all this demonstrstes is that those in authority tend to be suckers for a technology (snake oil) salesman.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Yep got two of them!
We can't quickly adjust to quick changes in light and our vision's resolution is pretty poor. Also, we can only track one target at the time.
But, worst of all, we can fall prey to simple optical illusions (http://web.mit.edu/persci/gaz/gaz-teaching/index.html).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Yep got two of them!
Also known as Marketing
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Yep got two of them!
No the problem with tech solutions is that they throw up errors that are incomprehensible to those who operate the equipment - therefore they tend to carry on regardless ("computer says no"). We need to stick to good old fashion systems until the low level operatives are sufficiently educated to understand the equipment they operate.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Yep got two of them!
So do the machines.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Maybe the criminals will get ahold of a few pairs
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H3uQvpZPI9A/ShsGeruDT5I/AAAAAAAACcE/5PcRZ7NjJFM/s400/terminator+bender .jpg
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not long now....
If you go to your local grocer, their security cameras will report to the govt your location.
Actually, this doesnt bother me too much, as I am not, nor do I plan to be a criminal.
But knowing where EVERYONE of interest is could be useful.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Not long now....
You may not be a criminal in your everyday activities yet .....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
All you need is a super high definition 3D laser scan of the person before you start looking... Wait our criminal doesn't have a high definition 3D laser scan of his face... Damn! (Throws expensive glasses on the ground and steps on them)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
That's what the TSA does all the time. Sure, they haven't caught a terrorist yet (nor could they) but they've found illegal stuff (mostly drugs) so they claim they are completely successful.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
People from different cultures are trained to recognize faces in different ways. Europeans identify and describe people using colors: blond hair, blue eyes. They also use some facial shapes: square chin, full lips.
Completely worthless in Asia. An Asian would describe a person using length of eyes, jawbone structure, etc. Africans use other indicators.
Color differentiations are meaningless, and therefore not culturaly learned.
Facial recognition relies on matching points on a face with a known face, including shape. A facial recognition in one country may be completely worthless in another.
Human misidentification is one of the main causes of innocent people being convicted.
To catch and convict criminals, there is only one universal rule to count on:
No amount of money, training nor technology will ever take the place of the stupidity of the criminal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dwayne nailed it
----------
Dwayne, your comment is the one that makes the most sense here. Unfortunately, we can't tolerate that kind of uncontrolled intelligence. You are under arrest.
The charge? Being recognized by my special glasses, of course.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/head-of-bomb-detector-company-arrested-in-fraud- investigation-1876388.html
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
very nice
[ link to this | view in chronology ]