The Home Office and police chiefs are working on a national system, that might be used at airports, stations or public events to 'spot' known offenders, before they cause any trouble. The head of research and development at British Telecom, Peter Cochrane, is another who is convinced that "within five years there will be a system that will allow police the ability to put a name to any face picked up on any closed circuit TV in the country". This development will raise concerns among civil liberty campaigners, who will worry about the use of any national photographic database, and who has access to the information that is stored.
|
|
|
Britain's police look set to be the first in the world to be equipped with a new "spy on the street" security camera system, which can recognise the faces of crime suspects and alert officers within seconds.
The system, which is going on a six-month trial in east London from next week, is capable of checking 1,000 faces every second, and its developers say it can see through disguises like hats, glasses and facial hair. But civil rights campaigners today warned that the computer-based "facial mapping" system - known as Mandrake - may lead to an increase in wrongful arrests, as innocent people are mistaken for villains.
|
|
Mandrake works by checking key features on the faces of people filmed by closed-circuit television cameras and comparing them with those of suspects whose photographs are held in a database within the computer.
A signal alerts the operator whenever a match is made, but all matches must be double-checked by the operator before any further action is taken, to avoid wrong identifications.
The system has been tried by Hertfordshire officers policing football matches at Watford, but the trial being carried out by the Metropolitan Police in partnership with Newham Borough Council is the first time it has been used on the streets.
A total of 140 CCTV cameras and 11 mobile camera units in shopping streets in Forest Gate, East Ham and Stratford will be linked up to the Mandrake computer.
Council spokesman James Flynn said that the system would be monitored by Newham employees, who will pass details of "hits" on to police. He said: "It has the potential to speed up the job of our operators considerably. At present, operators have to scan ten or so screens at a time, looking out for known faces. The idea behind Mandrake is that it can constantly check all of the cameras.
"Our operators will not have any personal details on the people on the database, just a picture and a reference number provided by the police. They will pass on sightings to police, and it will be up to the police officers what they do with the information."
The £65,000 trial will be a key test for the Mandrake system, developed by Slough-based Software and Systems International, and may lead to it being adopted by police forces across the country.
Patricia Oldcorn of SSI said: "It is important to remember that the system is only as good as the cameras used to pick out the suspects.
|
"In that sense, the system works like the human eye and the human brain. If a person can't quite see who he is looking at, he will not make a positive identification." The first people to be targeted by Mandrake will be suspected muggers, burglars and shoplifters whose photographs are in police files, but it is believed that the system may also be able to work with e-fit pictures. The civil rights watchdog Liberty is worried about possible breaches of human rights and data protection legislation. Liberty questioned claims that the system had an 80% success rate. Its campaigns manager Liz Parratt warned: "The accuracy of facial mapping is very limited. You only need to look at a handful of photos of celebrities to see how very different the same people can look in different photos. |
|
"The claim that those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear is rubbish. What the police call an 80% success rate is what we would call a one in five chance of a mistake. "Even if it worked, it would need to be very carefully regulated to protect people's privacy."
A gallery can be displayed of the 'top ten' by confidence factor.
Mandrake has many applications for Law and Order, Access Control, CCTV Monitoring and other security systems.
The companies 'Press Releases' make bold claims, but i do feel that liberty has just taken a step backways, on the advance of control .......
Mandrake Face Recognition system has recently been filmed for a Documentary on Security being created by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - this will go out in March.
Mandrake was also featured by European Business News and shown via CNN around the world!
VISIONICS PARTNERS with Software & Systems International SSI will use Visionics Acclaimed FaceIt Face Recognition Technology for Specialised Law & Order Solutions in the European Community Visionics Corporation, the leading developer of face recognition technology worldwide, announced today a new partnership with Software & Systems International, a professional software development company based in the United Kingdom.
A revolutionary system that helps combat hooliganism at soccer grounds is being piloted by Watford Football Club and Hertfordshire Police. Introduced by Software & Systems International Ltd, the Face Recognition System uses the latest biometrics technology to rapidly identify known troublemakers in the crowd. Its built-in camera is designed to allow police in the control room to focus on, and capture, a 'live' image of a suspect. The system then scans a database of stored images of known troublemakers to find a match - at a rate of upwards of 250 images per second.
Even if offenders try to disguise their appearance, say S&SI, the system will still identify them, as it is based on recognising facial structure, such as the spacing between the eyes, nose and mouth. It takes into account, and disregards, variations of head orientation, lighting conditions, skin colour, make-up, facial expression, facial hair, spectacles and ageing.
The Face Recognition System is also intended for use in football ground access control. In this mode it is designed to authenticate a claimed identity either by entering a PIN or passing a magnetic stripe card through a reader. This causes a specific record to be selected. The image associated with this record can then be compared with the 'live' image to confirm the identity.
24 June 1997
|
|
International access control TDSI have signed an agreement to integrate the ID software package developed by Software & Systems International into their well-known Ultragard suite of access control products.
The package is an advanced instant ID card management system that allows users to take and store an individual's photograph quickly, enter relevant personal data and produce a tamper-evident ID card in under three minutes. TDSi's joint managing director, Robin Mitchell, says: 'The addition of the EnVision package has allowed us to add a card personalisation element that was missing from the range. We undertook an extensive market investigation and our tests showed that the S&SI product was the best available for our purposes.'
Pat Oldcorn, S&SI's marketing director, is equally pleased with the deal. 'The in-depth market penetration of TDSI will help introduce the benefits of our system very rapidly to an international audience,' she says. 'We're very pleased to be associated with the group and their product range.'
|
Press Coverage: |
|
They attempt to show you the principle of operation......
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
FaceIt is a facial recognition software engine.
They say "FaceIt will Enhance & Compliment CCTV Surveillance Systems. Automating and improving the routine and arduous surveillance tasks performed by a human operator. It allows computers to rapidly and accuratly detect and recognise faces. Itis already enabling a wide array of real-world applications in both commercial and government segments. it is the only face recognition technology that has been shown to be fully scalable with multiple capabilities."
73Kb
- .PDF
SURVEILLANCE: SMART CCTV
72Kb
- .PDF
SOFTWARE DEVELOPER KITS
78Kb
- .PDF
An Appraisal of Technologies
of Political Control
European Parliament
Alan Lodge / Tash: ... tash@gn.apc.org