Andhra Pradesh police to use facial recognition technology to track criminals

Vijayawada: The AP police initiated a new software technology to track the movements of criminals: facial recognition technology, popular in Western countries, is going to help the AP police, who will use it with some more innovative additions.

Software leaders, like Facebook, use it to help users tag photos. One can configure their Android smartphone to unlock by just looking at it.

Big businesses, like Walmart, use it to catch shoplifters. Some high-tech places of worship even use it to track attendance.

The same technology was discussed at a high level in the AP police department, and now, they have started utilising the software to track the movements of criminals at Krishna Pushkaralu.

Depending on the software being used, facial recognition programmes can be as accurate at recognising faces as human beings, a police officer said.

Wherever we show a face, computers can recognise and track it.

The idea of a computer, shadowing one's every move, is a little unnerving, a senior techie police officer conceded, and this would be a real problem when it came to protecting privacy.

“In the past, people used different means to protect themselves from facial recognition. More low-tech facial recognition can be thwarted by something as simple as poor lighting or a change in expression, according to Professor Allam Appa Rao, former vice-chancellor of JNTU, Kakinada.

“Even more sophisticated facial recognition can’t understand masks and gets confused if you’re wearing a shirt with someone’s face on it,” he added. One security agency in the west has even created proof of the concept but devising ‘invisibility glasses’ that use infrared lights in the frames to confuse facial recognition systems, Professor Appa Rao said. “Facial recognition technology is certainly good, but up to now there have been ways to get around it if you don’t want to be tracked,” a senior techie police officer observed and added that this initiative of the Andra Pradesh police would certainly yield positive result in the days to come.