Wednesday, February 15, 2012


(chinadaily)
A new biometric camera and database network could make it hard for bad guys to hide.

Li Ziqing felt he needed to do his part when authorities started a nationwide campaign to nab fugitives and kidnappers. The Center for Biometrics and Security Research (CBSR) professor and his team spent the following months creating a database enabling netizens to collect and share photographs, information and tips online.

"People can secretly snap and upload photos of people who appear suspicious or who may have kidnapped children," Li explains.

"The information will be cross-referenced with the database until the best match is found."

Every face is not only as unique as a snowflake but also measurably so.

"Most humans meet hundreds of thousands of people in their lifetime but can only recognize between 1,000 and 2,000," the 53-year-old says.

Human faces have hundreds of features. These are densest around the "golden" triangle of the eyes, nose and mouth.

Computers can analyze features and the angles between them, and store this information in a database with millions of faces. A photo of a person then can be matched with the most similar database entry.

This technology was used at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Shanghai World Expo...
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