CyberExtruder recently posted about the use of a facial recognition based biometric security system for the UEFA Champion’s League Finals in Cardiff, Wales. The system is being used with cameras mounted on the top of police vans in highly trafficked areas of Cardiff. While not all details surrounding the event are available to the public, Welsh Police revealed that on May 31st they had made an arrest based on information from the face recognition system. This arrest marks the first instance of automatic facial recognition resulting in an arrest within the UK. Congratulations to our partner NEC for working with and supplying both hardware and software to police forces throughout the UK. We are proud to have had NEC as a long time licensor of CyberExtruder’s technology for both their NeoFace Reveal and NeoFace Watch products.
The arrest was “unconnected to the Champions League,” and thankfully the entire Champions League finals event went off without incident on June 3rd. The lack of reported arrests or incidents could point towards the preventative benefits of publicizing the use of a facial recognition security technology. The mere presence of a security system is sometimes enough to discourage potential criminals from either committing crimes or even attending an event for fear of detection.
For years, the UK has been researching various options to utilize the high density of existing CCTV cameras in most urban areas of the country. This arrest represents a success for automatic facial recognition based security solutions.
A spokesperson for the Wales Police Force stated “South Wales Police has made significant progress in the development of its technology in the past 18 months.” and went on to say that “The technology will be tested in a variety of circumstances and location in the months to come, assisting in our assessment of the viability of the project moving forward”.
The Safe City is a concept for returning security, safety, and quality of life to today’s complex cities through the use of technology, infrastructure, personnel and processes. In most cases, Safe Cities will include face recognition technology, including CyberExtruder’s Aureus 3D line, as a means to facilitate a police force to passively monitor security camera feeds for known criminals. In addition, a face recognition system can be more accurate than a human user at identifying potential criminals in a crowd, especially when using 3D technology to increase accuracy. These are just a few potential benefits that would help cities around the world address security concerns
To learn more about applications for facial recognition, read our use cases and see if facial recognition software can integrate or add capabilities your system.
