Startup integrating real-time facial recognition from Corsight with police body cameras

Real-time facial recognition from Corsight is coming to body cameras that will be offered to law enforcement agencies around the world by an Israeli company, according to a report from France24.

The body cameras with facial recognition are in development by Yozmot Ltd., which is run by a former colonel in Israel’s military and says the cameras should be ready within a year.

Corsight’s technology will give the body cameras the ability to perform biometric matches of people within a crowd, wearing masks or make-up, Yozmot Founder and CEO Dany Tirza says. Corsight declined to confirm the partnership, though CEO Rob Watts said the company works with 230 integrators worldwide, and that its biometrics are being trialed by police in the U.S. and Australia, and used by Israeli government agencies.

Watts tells AFP that Corsight is expected to grow from a $55 million valuation in its recent funding round, presumably referring to fundraising announced in April, 2020, to $250 million by the end of 2022.

The report quotes a Palestinian rights activist who says the use of facial recognition by Israeli agencies entrenched their control, while Tirza says the primary intention is to reduce friction between soldiers and people at checkpoints.

The use of facial recognition by Israeli law enforcement has previously proven controversial enough for Microsoft to divest its stake in Oosto, then AnyVision, over an alleged West Bank mass surveillance deployment that it did not find evidence for.

Corsight for its part brought former UK Surveillance Camera Commissioner Tony Porter on board as its chief privacy officer to ensure the company supplies facial recognition as “a force for good,” as he explained to Biometric Update.

Article Topics

biometric matching  |  biometrics  |  body cam  |  cameras  |  Corsight  |  criminal ID  |  facial recognition  |  police  |  real-time biometrics  |  research and development  |  wearables