India’s military monitors disputed borders with facial recognition

India is expanding plans to revolutionize the way its troops carry out operations along its borders with China and Pakistan by deploying more artificial intelligence-based technologies and other smart solutions, writes The Times of India (TOI), citing unnamed sources. Facial recognition is being used to identify foreign military officers on the other side of the border.

In this regard, the country recently deployed more than 140 of such AI-based systems which are said to be crucial for transparency in battlefield operations as well as expedient decision-making processes. They systems are meant to also help give real-time feedback to central command authorities about the situation on the ground, says TOI.

Another report by Tribune India (TI) on the development notes that the systems deployed include high-resolution cameras, sensors, UAV and radar feeds. They are also plans to deploy 5G network to the border areas to ensure high bandwidth internet connectivity, the report adds.

The borders concerned are the 749km-long Line of Control with Pakistan and 3,448km-long Line of Actual Control with China, writes TI. The outlet mentions that such technology is vital for the monitoring of borders as the technology will reduce the need for manual monitoring which is often costlier in terms of human and financial resources.

TOI mentions that India, for instance, has a huge number of troops and heavy weaponry deployed in Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, an area which China lays claims to, and it has also installed AI-based surveillance and communication systems there such as facial recognition there to identify officers of the People’s Liberation Army.

Explaining the importance of such technologies, one of TOI sources says: “AI is a critical operational necessity. It’s capable of providing considerable asymmetry during military operations and will transform war-fighting paradigms. AI applications can be utilized for surveillance and detection, real-time social media monitoring, pattern recognition, and prediction of adversary courses of action.”

Also, as part of efforts by the government to boost surveillance capacity at the borders, the Indian army has established an AI center at the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, Mhow.

Article Topics

AI  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  border security  |  China  |  facial recognition  |  India  |  military  |  Pakistan  |  video surveillance