Chinese police using SMART SUNGLASSES with facial recognition to spot criminals in crowds
CHINESE police are using smart sunglasses that can recognise your face in a crowd.
It means that authorities will be able to automatically spy criminals walking around a city, without having to actually memorise an offender's face.
An accompanying report says that police have rolled the tech out now because of the upcoming Chinese New Year travel rush.
The Lunar New Year is one of the busiest travel periods of China. Recent estimates suggest that more than 389 million train trips will be taken around China between the start of February and March 12 – which is when people head back home.
The police headsets look vaguely similar to the Google Glass spectacles that were launched back in 2013 – and killed off in 2015.
Google's headset used a small projector to overlay images onto the glasses lens, but the Chinese spectacles seem to work slightly differently.
The glasses appear to feature a camera module that connects to a smartphone-style device running a police app.
The app will process photos of a suspect's face, and return information like name, ethnicity, gender, and even their address.
But it doesn't stop there: authorities will also be able to check on someone's criminal record, and even information on their internet usage.
People's Daily reckons China has nabbed seven suspects who were accused of crimes like human trafficking or hit and runs.
A further 26 offenders were supposedly caught using fake IDs thanks to the Orwellian surveillance specs.