Surveillance over Chinese citizens is extreme, and the government definitely doesn't deny it, but it seems to be overwhelming all parties involved. Last October we shared a demo of the Sense recognition platform, and the next step is a new series of smart glasses that allow authorities at train stations and vehicle checkpoints to obtain information about a person in real time, with a single glance.
“1984 is a warning, not an operations manual”. The phrase has been repeated and modified multiple times, but the original message remains intact. The governments in power are becoming what they once promised to fight, and with the help of technology, their reach is increasingly broad. That leads us to China, probably the world's largest laboratory when it comes to mass surveillance. With a population of 1.4 billion and a significant number of internal conflicts, the government's response was nothing more than to multiply its efforts, installing cameras and security posts everywhere. What comes next? Smart glasses.
The “People's Daily” reported last Monday that the police at Zhengzhou train station began using smart glasses to scan passengers' faces, in anticipation of the spectacular movement generated by the Chinese New Year celebrations. The glasses look similar to Google Glass, with a camera on the frame, a mini screen pointing at the right eye through the glass, and a cable connected at the back as the main data and power link. Available information indicates that in two months of activity, the glasses helped capture seven fugitives and detect more than 25 carriers of fake IDs.
Unfortunately, there is no image showing us the content displayed by the glasses, so we don't know if they are really working, or if they are another variant of the classic “security theater” concept, but personally I lean towards the former. The use of facial recognition and augmented reality continues to grow among authorities, and with the intervention of a platform like the glasses, the police basically save themselves the process of stopping someone and asking for proof of their identity.
