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AI Businesses China

Chinese Facial Recognition Firm Says It Can Now Identify People Wearing Masks (thenextweb.com) 36

Posted by BeauHD from the it-was-only-a-matter-of-time dept.
Hanwang Technology, a Chinese firm specializing in facial recognition software, says it can now identify people that are wearing masks to protect against the coronavirus. The company says it used a sample database of around 6 million unmasked faces and a smaller database of masked faces to create the system. The Next Web reports: The Beijing-based firm, which also goes by the English name Hanvon, began to develop the tech in January, as people in China began donning face masks in their droves. The system was rolled out just one month later. Hanwang Vice President Huang Lei says the system's recognition rate reached about 95% when people wore a mask -- still some way below its regular success rate of 99.5%.

China's SenseTime, the world's most valuable AI startup, announced in February that it had also adapted its product to identify people wearing masks. Such developments have led critics to claim that the coronavirus is being used as an excuse to ramp up surveillance. In the case of Hanwang, there is still one way to hide from its system: wearing the fashionable combination of both a face mask and sunglasses.
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Chinese Facial Recognition Firm Says It Can Now Identify People Wearing Masks More

Chinese Facial Recognition Firm Says It Can Now Identify People Wearing Masks

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  • If they mean that their AI can tell apart the people who are wearing masks from those who are not, that is not an achievement.

    • Except that you don't realize that they are using cameras outside of visible frequencies to feed into their AI. Welcome to the Brave New World everyone. Big Brother will keep his eye out for you.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by tflf ( 4410717 )

        And there are many characteristics facial recognition software can still pick up that are not always covered by a mask. Size, shape, colour and relationship between parts like eyes, ears,neck, as well as total head size, and shape,etc. is a lot of filtering data still available. AI, especially given the huge database already accumulated, is able to pick up, measure and filter very subtle differences in physical characteristics not readily noticeable by the human eye, and is getting better at it as time pass

  • Even mask wearing patterns could mean something (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @04:48PM (#59819548)

    One way an AI could possibly get extra data from someone wearing a mask, is how they position the straps across the hair or head, or how a mask fits around the nose and chin.

    Possibly even the mask type could add something but I imagine people use different masks so that wouldn't help much.

    How much longer before China mandates visible QR codes on masks somewhere, like a sticker you put on the side...

    • what about a RFID tag. Can get rid a massive amount of processing etc that way.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
        Are you that desperate to identify absolutely everyone you see that you want to force companies to put RFID onto face masks? Also RFID is overrated. It was supposed to be the miracle and revolution of the future in warehouses and sorting centers, and it turned out to be so shitty that they just scan the written labels/tags on boxes with a laser/optical system. Number crunching be damned, sometimes you need to be sure that package to Melbourne isn't headed to Murmansk.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      3d and side on, gait. All adds up wth the more advanced math.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      What the system detects really well, is what kind of glasses they are wearing, so generic sun glasses should be your choice.

  • Automatic signup for the 'gratitude education' (Score:5, Interesting)

    by drnb ( 2434720 ) on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @04:56PM (#59819572)

    Chinese Facial Recognition Firm Says It Can Now Identify People Wearing Masks

    Great, now they can have automatic registrations for the 'gratitude education' classes.

    "A top Chinese official called for 'gratitude education' in order to teach citizens to properly thank the government for fighting the coronavirus"
    https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]

  • Glad we tackled the really important parts. Imagine people live and cannot be put under total surveiallance!

    • Re:Oh good (Score:5, Insightful)

      by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @05:16PM (#59819626)
      Or it doesn't work at all, but because the government claims it does anyone that they arrest through the use of this technology must have been up to no good and deserving of it. In the past I'm sure they would have claimed that the high priest could see into the souls of the citizens in order to find the guilty persons. It's the same authoritarian scheme only dressed up in more modern pageantry.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
        Except "seeing souls" is impossible but facial recognition is a real thing and it's improving all the time.

  • Wear a mask that looks like someone else -- checkmate surveillance state.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by drnb ( 2434720 )

      Wear a mask that looks like someone else -- checkmate surveillance state.

      Guess again. IR and UV sensors in addition to visible light.

      • IR and UV sensors in addition to visible light.

        IR and UV can't see through plastic.
        Radar maybe.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by drnb ( 2434720 )

          IR and UV sensors in addition to visible light.

          IR and UV can't see through plastic. Radar maybe.

          Its not about seeing through the mask, its about using new features/metrics. How a unique individual imprints unique patterns onto the mask. Differently shaped faces having different contact points. These are just new features/metrics to consider.

  • When you don't care about false positives (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rossz ( 67331 ) <ogre@NosPAm.geekbiker.net> on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @05:09PM (#59819600) Journal

    The Chinese government are tyrants who don't actually care if they punish the innocent, so a high rate of false positives isn't an issue for them. They don't need to "get the bad guy". They just need to get someone.

    • It wouldn't even matter if the system was just a bunch of dummy cameras. What matters is that the public feel that they are under surveillance and control at all times.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Its a Communist system.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nagora ( 177841 )

        Its a Communist system.

        No, it's a fascist one that calls itself communist. Or do you think East Germany was a democratic republic because that's what they called themselves?

  • Facial Recognition with Mask On (Score:3)

    by Swave An deBwoner ( 907414 ) on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @05:11PM (#59819608)
    That explains everything.

    So COVID-19 was China's way to get a large training sample for their "facial recognition with masks" software platform.

    • That explains everything. So COVID-19 was China's way to get a large training sample for their "facial recognition with masks" software platform.

      Well Hong Kong protesters are making it a problem for them.

  • taiwan flag FTW (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheGratefulNet ( 143330 ) on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @05:28PM (#59819652)

    https://i.redd.it/cos1bpvk5xd4... [i.redd.it]

    caution, though: it could be dangerous.

  • I'm wearing an eye mask?

  • ...it works only when they are wearing name-tags.

  • The trick is to do it without tons of false positives, which I doubt they've honestly done.

  • Bring back the balaclava! (Score:3)

    by AxisOfPleasure ( 5902864 ) on Thursday March 12, 2020 @12:04AM (#59820556)

    So the next step is get your gran to knit you a balaclava! As kid born in the 70s I must have had 3 knitted for me for the winter months, when I got to about 10 years old and terrorists and bank robbers were associated with balaclavas we all stopped wearing them. Last one I got was from my wife but it was rather odd though, it was made of leather and had zips over the eyes and mouth, she assured me the zips were there for keeping the wind out on cold days, she's so thoughtful.

    So bring back the balaclava if you want to protect you face from spying!

  • Sure, it can identify them. But can it identify them correctly? In China, it doesn't matter. Off to the gulag with you!

  • Yep (Score:2)

    by nagora ( 177841 )

    That guy is wearing a mask.

    Easy.

  • Rorschach!

  • No secret identity is safe anymore!

  • I wonder what the powers that be will do when they realize that their privacy is gone too. When we all know or can find out where our "leaders" have been and who they have been doing it with, or what they did 20 years ago that they desperately want not to come to light. After good encryption is no more and we can get at their secrets. When everything is connected so they can get at us through our deliberately compromised firewalls, we will be able to get at them through theirs.

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