Facial recognition helps identify 144 children rescued from Turkey earthquake rubble

Facial recognition technology has so far helped identify 144 children rescued from the rubble of the earthquakes in south-eastern Turkey, reports the Hürriyet Daily News. More children are undergoing the matching process.

When rescued children are unable to give details about their identity or family, authorities take a photo and use the software to conduct biometric matching across the database of children reported as missing.

The software, DerinGÖRÜ, was developed by the Informatics and Information Security Advanced Technologies Research Center (BİLGEM) at the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK). DerinGÖRÜ has previously been used by the police.

The Hürriyet Daily News reports that of around 1,400 unaccompanied children rescued from the rubble, more than 350 have been reunited with family. Nearly 800 required hospital treatment. A thousand have had their identities determined and 200 have gone into care facilities. More than 190,000 people have applied to register as foster parents.

There is still hope of finding survivors. 17-year-old Aleyna Olmez was rescued from the rubble Thursday, 248 hours after the earthquake reports BBC News. There is growing concern for unaccompanied children across the border in opposition-held northwest Syria following the quake, reports Aljazeera, which states more than two million children live in the region and many are suffering from shock and panic.

Biometrics are being used in other crisis situations. In Ukraine, Clearview AI made its facial recognition technology available to the defense ministry for uses such as identifying people at checkpoints or the deceased. France donated a mobile DNA biometrics lab by Deveryware to help identity the war dead.

Pakistan‘s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) signed an MoU last November with the Chhipa Welfare Association to biometrically identify dead bodies via face and fingerprint biometrics. Hospitals had complained of increasing numbers of unclaimed bodies.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  DerinGÖRÜ  |  facial recognition  |  forensics  |  Turkiye