Facial recognition technology coming to police body cameras

Motorola Solutions will soon add machine learning capabilities to its police body cams, which will help officers find objects and missing people, according to a report by Engadget.

The body cam developer is currently working on a prototype device with deep learning startup Neurala, which recently integrated its software with drones to identify poachers in Africa.

According to a report in Defense One, Neurala founder Massimiliano Versace has created patent-pending image recognition and machine learning technology similar to other machine learning methods but far more scalable, so a device carried by a police offer on their shoulder can learn to recognize shapes and — potentially faces — as quickly and reliably as a much larger and more powerful computer.

Versace’s research was funded, in part, by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Chicago’s Waukegan police department is already using the standard Si500 body cams, however, the AI capabilities would allow the device to recognize images and communicate that data with other Si500s.

For example, a police officer who is trying to track down a missing child could use the body cam, which would learn the child’s likeness based on a photograph.

The data could then be automatically sent to other police officers outfitted with body cams, allowing them to contribute to the search.

Neurala said that its AI capabilities will be able to detect a person of interest in crowded public spaces.

In related news, Researchers at Washington State University’s Complex Social Interaction (CSI) laboratory are using body-worn cameras, data analytics, biometrics and machine learning to examine the various factors that influence interactions between police and community members.

Article Topics

artificial intelligence  |  biometrics  |  body cam  |  cameras  |  facial recognition  |  machine learning  |  police