Face-spotting surveillance system developed in US
Government makes 'significant progress' with technique featured in Mission Impossible film that allows identification of people in a crowd
A Mission Impossible-style surveillance system that pairs computers with video cameras to scan crowds and automatically identify people by their faces is being developed in the US.
Documents show the US government is making "significant progress" with the system, which has already alarmed privacy activists. They say that now is the time for the government to establish oversight rules and limits on how it will be eventually used.
This technology is always billed as anti-terrorism, but then it drifts into other applications. We need a real conversation about whether and how we want this technology to be used, and now is the time for that debate
The Department of Homeland Security recently tested a crowd-scanning project called the Biometric Optical Surveillance System - or BOSS - after two years of governmentfinanced development. The automated matching of close-up photos has improved greatly and companies including Facebook have experimented with it.
The technology is also fodder for Hollywood movies. Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol featured the use of contact lenses that transmit data to a phone for facial recognition.
But even with advances in computer processing power, the technical hurdles involving crowd scans from a distance have proved far more challenging.
Despite occasional much-hyped tests, including as far back as the 2001 Super Bowl, technical specialists say crowd scanning is still too slow and unreliable.
The release of the documents comes amid a surge of interest in surveillance matters inspired by the leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Interest in video surveillance has also been fuelled by the Boston marathon attack, where the bombers were identified by officials looking through camera footage.