Facial recognition in video surveillance hits bumps in the road, but market growing

Investigation by IPVM suggests that Dahua USA is no longer selling facial-recognition surveillance hardware in the U.S. Anker’s Eufy cameras turn out not to be end-to-end encrypted, the Verge finally gleans from the firm. And this all follows the previous news that Verkada to block facial recognition in its surveillance equipment in parts of the U.S.

Facial recognition slides out of view at Dahua USA

Pennsylvania-based surveillance testing and reporting outlet IPVM asked Dahua USA to put forward its best new facial recognition system for testing. Face detection systems were recommended instead.

IPVM found that the Dahua USA site and catalogue contain no products offering facial recognition, while sites in the UK, Europe and South Africa still do. Previous testing by IPVM also found that a camera equipped with facial recognition via European firmware had the feature removed when it was updated with U.S. firmware.

Encryption a euphemism at Eufy?

In a flashback to video-surveillance-as entertainment in China, it emerged that feeds from Anker’s supposedly natively end-to-end encrypted Eufy video surveillance cameras were readily accessible, according to November reports.

Anker has now told the Verge that this problem is largely resolved. Video stream requests at Eufy’s web portal will be encrypted as with the app and all cameras will be upgraded. The Verge believes the cameras could still produce unencrypted footage upon request.

Anker has committed to producing better communications around its security.

The November reports also found that Eufy cameras were sending biometric data to the cloud despite claiming it is stored locally.

Video management system market set to more than double by 2030

All this video needs managing. Analysis by Emergen Research estimates the video management system market to have been worth $8.82 billion in 2021. A combined annual growth rate of 20.4 percent will see that rise to $47.24 billion by 2030.

The study attributes the growth to increasing demand retail, transportation and government. ML and AI capabilities are making the systems more useful and more desirable.

Finally, the Washington Post tells the story of the inventor of home security, Marie Van Brittan Brown, a Black woman experience growing crime where she lived in the New York borough of Queens in the 1960s.

With help from her electronics technician husband, Brown patented a system in 1966 that very much set the ground for the systems installed in millions of houses. Her patent was cited 36 times in other applications, as recently as 2013.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Dahua Technology  |  Eufy  |  face detection  |  facial recognition  |  IPVM  |  video surveillance