This group represents the first wave of police officers in China equipped with such smart glasses, allowing them to screen passengers as part of the tightened security amid the upcoming Lunar New Year travel rush, the busiest travel period of the year in the country.<\/p>\n
They are also the latest example of how China is moving ahead of the rest of the world in making facial recognition technology a part of people\u2019s everyday life.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn1.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/methode\/2018\/02\/08\/6afb6556-0c5b-11e8-a09e-8861893b1b1a_1320x770_073210.JPG\" "\\"A")
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Facial recognition systems, which are biometric computer applications that identify a person based on a database of digital images, have been extensively used by Chinese authorities for security purposes to spot suspected criminals and even jaywalkers.<\/p>\n
Using sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms, Chinese technology companies and other major businesses have adopted facial recognition systems in the retail, travel and banking environments.<\/p>\n
Those include Ant Financial Services Group\u2019s\u00a0\u201csmile to pay\u201d application used at fast-food chain KFC<\/a>; the \u201cface as boarding pass\u201d capability that online search provider\u00a0Baidu<\/a>\u00a0plans to roll out at Beijing main airport; and China Merchants Bank\u2019s facial recognition-based automated teller machines.<\/p>\n \u201cThe adoption of the glasses represents a breakthrough in security as the police force shifts from being manpower intensive to technology-powered,\u201d Xie Yukun, a railway police officer in Zhengzhou, said in an interview.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t need to make contact, ask for people\u2019s ID cards or invite them to their office to gather more information,\u201d said Xie. \u201cAs soon as they are suspicious about someone, they use the glasses to take a clear picture that shows the frontal view of at least 70 per cent of the person\u2019s face, then the system will run it through the database and give a result in two to three minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the deployment of police with smart glasses started at the Zhengzhou station earlier this month, as many as seven people suspected of crimes, ranging from human trafficking to hit-and-run incidents, had been apprehended.<\/p>\n Although Chinese citizens have raised concerns about privacy protection, China\u2019s broader initiative to become a global leader in artificial intelligence has prompted local governments and police departments across the country to embrace facial recognition technology as an important tool for public safety efforts.<\/p>\n In 2013, Google responded to privacy concerns in the United States by barring any facial recognition feature to be used in Google Glass.<\/p>\n Such concerns overseas have not slowed down the advanced implementation of facial recognition in China.<\/p>\n The goal is for the database to match someone\u2019s face to their ID photo with about 90 per cent accuracy.<\/p>\n While it remains unclear whether use of that database could be extended to commercial activities, recent developments show that such a demand is likely to increase over time.<\/p>\n Shanghai, for example, has sought to make life easier for the millions of commuters on one of the longest and busiest mass-transit railway networks on the planet by bringing in voice and facial recognition systems developed by\u00a0Alibaba Group Holding<\/a>, which owns the\u00a0South China Morning Post.<\/em><\/p>\n Passengers would be able to tell their destination to ticket machines, and the machines would then recommend the best route. It is a system that would need a vast database to match the identities of commuters.<\/p>\n Home-sharing start-up Xiaozhu, China\u2019s answer to Airbnb, will use the peak travel season of Lunar New Year to test smart locks that can be opened by scanning tenants\u2019 faces, which would satisfy laws requiring identify verification.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/methode\/2018\/02\/08\/95abbb5e-0c04-11e8-a09e-8861893b1b1a_1320x770_073210.jpg\" "\\"A")
The smart glasses\u2019 ability to operate over a distance is expected to significantly improve the efficiency of police in the railway station during the Lunar New Year holiday, when the biggest annual human migration sees about three billion trips of all kind made within a six-week period through mid-March.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/methode\/2018\/02\/08\/b823ecf4-0c5b-11e8-a09e-8861893b1b1a_1320x770_073210.JPG\" "\\"A")
In 2015, the Ministry of Public Security launched\u00a0a project to build the world\u2019s most powerful facial recognition database<\/a>\u00a0to identify any one of China\u2019s more than 1.3 billion citizens within three seconds. The agency is developing that system with a security company based in Shanghai.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn1.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/methode\/2018\/02\/08\/d4ca2e22-0c5b-11e8-a09e-8861893b1b1a_1320x770_073210.JPG\" "\\"China")
Alibaba, its affiliate Ant Financial and the Shanghai Shentong Metro Group, the operator of the Shanghai Metro, plan to install the Alibaba-developed \u201cfar-field\u201d voice recognition technology in ticket machines in all stations, as well as a facial recognition system at the entrance of stations to verify the identities of commuters.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn4.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/methode\/2018\/02\/08\/e2ae1ae6-0c5e-11e8-a09e-8861893b1b1a_1320x770_073210.JPG\" "\\"A")
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