More Facial Recognition Tech in China’s Airports

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Facial recognition has become a preferred security measure in China. An increasing number of Chinese airports are now using facial recognition systems to help quicken their security checks for the convenience of air travelers, and police authorities are increasing the use of the technology.

A total of 557 security channels at 62 airports, including international ones, have been equipped with the auxiliary system, according to the Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, developer of the system.

The system has proved its efficiency and accuracy after being used by about 80 percent of the country’s airports whose annual passenger throughput exceeds 30 million people.

“It takes less than one second for the system to match a passenger’s face with their ID photo, while checking the validity of the credentials,” said Shi Yu, head of the institute’s smart security center.

Shi said the institute is developing the facial recognition technology for automatic airport check-in. With the system, passengers can avoid check-in formalities and go directly to the security channels, where cameras capture images of their faces and scan their ID cards or passports to verify their identity, reports xinhuanet.com.

China’s police have been testing sunglasses with built-in facial recognition since at least last month to catch suspects and those traveling under false identities. Now China is expanding the facial recognition sunglasses program as police are beginning to use them in the outskirts of Beijing, according to theverge.com.