Facial recognition avoided by Spanish smart city project, planned in Dominican, Indonesia, Brazil

Police in Marbella, Spain are using computer vision analysis of gait, clothes gender, and hair color, but not biometric facial recognition, to identify criminal suspects, El Pais reports.

The city has 85 cameras, but plans to add 105 by the summer of next year, followed by two more phases, one of which includes license plate recognition.

The city in Spain with the most cameras is La Nucía, Alicante, which boasts 220, but Canada-based Avigilon Corporation says Marbella has the most ultra-high definition cameras.

The city is not violating regional regulation which bans the use of biometric data without consent, even though the system does analyze all faces it captures, according to El Pais, but it comes close. Instead, the city conducts searches based on traits which are not considered biometric. When the system was deployed, with its powerful cameras capable of rendering writing on a blackboard outside of a restaurant legible from dozens of meters away, the Andalusian High Court reviewed the deployment, and asked for several cameras to be removed, as well as virtual barriers be used to prevent inadvertent filming of people’s properties.

Avigilon Regional Sales Manager Cristóbal Martín says his company has just finished deploying facial recognition software to private camera systems in the area. “It’s for those installations alone and cases that comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which are mostly private too,” he told El Pais. “It will only be used in cities and public buildings when these are covered by the law or authorized by the national security forces.”

Dominican Republic reconsiders Chinese cameras

The government of the Dominican Republic plans to implement facial recognition and expand its security camera system with technology from non-Chinese companies, Dominican ambassador to China Briunny Garabito Segura has stated, according to Dominican Today.

The country was recently reported to be planning a deployment with cameras donated by China, with financial assistance from the governments of the U.S. and Taiwan.

The claim was made at a reception for Dominican journalists at the embassy. “Not only were cameras intended for the UASD (State university), they were cameras that are to improve our security system in the Dominican Republic,” he reportedly said.

Indonesian smart city project announced

A smart city technology deal has been struck between Indonesian property developer Lippo Karawaci and Softbank Corp., to implement technologies including facial recognition and develop artificial intelligence and IoT solutions for the township near Jakarta, Smart Cities World reports.

“We are excited to move forward and collaborate with SoftBank to develop AI- and IoT-based innovative solutions for our customers across the largest integrated real estate and healthcare company in Indonesia,” comments John Riady, CEO, Lippo Karawaci. “Within our township, we intend to implement IoT technology through smart cluster management and smart traffic management in Lippo Village.”

According to the report, smart cluster management involves facial recognition of vehicle occupants, and license plate recognition.

Softbank says its technology will be deployed at shopping malls and other commercial locations, hospitals, and all around Lippo Village, making it a model smart city for South East Asia. The collaboration will also include a new analytics platform which will offer deals based on shoppers’ behavior.

Facial recognition enabled in Londrina

The Brazilian city of Londrina has reached a deal with Sercomtel to provide infrastructure to support the use of facial recognition by the city’s network of 102 public cameras, according to a Google translation of a Tem Londrina report.

The fiber optic installation will enable upload speeds of 20 Mbps and image download speeds of 2 Gbps, ensuring better resolution of images for facial recognition and license plate recognition software use by the Londrina Municipal Guard.

Sercomtel Commercial Director Luciano Kühl suggests that there is a market for similar services to enable the same kinds of projects both for other municipalities and private companies.

Article Topics

Avigilon  |  biometrics  |  Brazil  |  Caribbean  |  criminal ID  |  facial recognition  |  gait recognition  |  Indonesia  |  privacy  |  smart cities  |  Spain  |  video surveillance