Researchers have solved "holy grail" of facial recognition

Is it the most significant policing technology since DNA testing or the next privacy disaster waiting to happen, setting us on the path towards, as The Guardian's editor puts it, "total surveillance"?
The battle lines have been drawn over face recognition technology, development of which Australia is at the forefront.

While NSW Police is keeping mum, the Australian Federal Police called face recognition a "potent tool" for linking criminals to crime while Customs said it could allow airport security clearances to be carried out in a more seamless fashion.

"Our 'face search' is like a Google search in that we can search through very large databases very fast." "We do recognition in real-time so you walk up to a system and you're recognised; it can search a database of 10,000 or 50,000 instantaneously and do the matching."

You won't know you're being watched!

But further to that, the technology doesn't even need to have people looking into the camera for it to work, which is a current limitation of the SmartGate technology at airports.
"What we specialise in is non-cooperative surveillance, that means the person doesn't have to be aware that they are being photographed to be recognised."

 

SOURCE: SYDNEY MORNING HERALD